Aroor Arjun Rao-Satish Rajagopal triumphant at fickle Rally of Arunachal

Itanagar, 16 June 2023: Mangaluru’s Aroor Arjun Rao, who had no time to celebrate his birthday on June 9, presented himself and his co-driver a wonderful birthday gift exactly after a week. The Mangaluru-Bengaluru duo bounced back to clinch the Overall honours in the Rally of Arunachal Pradesh, the second round of the Blueband fmsci Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) supported by the Directorate of Youth Affairs, Government of Arunachal Pradesh, here on Friday. Organised by the Motorsports Club of Arunachal, the 4-wheeler rally has MRF as associate sponsors with the Directorate of Youth Affairs, the main body for youth and sports in the state, taking it up with full vigour to make motorsports as a tourist destination to Arunachal.

Arjun Rao Aroor and co-driver Satish Rajagopal from Bengaluru, who won the first round South India Rally in Chennai, were trailing overnight but bounced back after navigating, the slush and bad weather, to get on to the top of the podium while overnight leaders Amittrajit Ghosh (Ashwin Naik) and hot favourite Arjuna Awardee Gaurav Gill (Aniruddha Rangnekar) fell victim to the conditions and slush. While Ghosh logged a DNF on Day 2, Gill spent some anxious moments after finishing first in the special stages. But he had to cough up a huge ‘road penalty’ that pushed him down from first position to 7th.

“It was a spectacular event both for the drivers and the spectators but we had to be extra cautious about the safety as rains and hilly roads made the rally challenging,” said Premnath Kasinath, the man behind Promoters Blueband Sports who brought the event to the North East for second year running.

“Tarmac is my favourite but the rally turned out to be tricky with fortunes fluctuating after every stage. Frequently changing from full-dry to full-wet Tyres made the rally challenging. MRF Tyres withstood these extreme conditions and my tyre choice worked perfectly well. Big thanks to MRF, Mandovi Racing and Falkon Motorsports for giving me an amazing car. Without my navigator Satish (Rajagopal), this win would not have been possible,” said a visibly pleased Arjun Rao, who is leading the INRC Overall table after two rounds.

The surprise result was a stunning display by Sheshank Jamwal and co-driver Aseem Sharma from Arka Motorsports. Sheshank, an IT professional from Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh, paired with Sharma from Chandigarh in an INRC3-spec Volkswagen Polo 1.6 and punched above their weight to finish second overall. They were followed by Dr Speed, Bikku Babu, who overcame not only rain and extreme weather, but jet-lag, too. After landing from US, only for this rally, the Kerala Speed Maestro who finished third Overall, came first in his class INRC2. With virtually no seat time, the doctor did it again. He said: “One of the toughest tarmac rallies I have ever driven, for sure.”

Defending champion Karna Kadur, with experienced Kumar Ramaswamy as navigator, salvaged an overall fourth place after coughing up a road penalty. Delhi daredevil Philippos Matthai of Speed Sport fame, along with PVS Murthy rounded off the top-5 for MRF Tyres, who swept all top-five places, and also took a second in his class INRC2. Sheshank and Aseem won the INRC3 class.

Abhin Rai and Uday Kumar of Ammyfied Rallying won the INRC4 class while Arnav Pratap Singh (co-driver Arjun SSB) also from Ammyfied bagged the Junior INRC class.

Anushriya Gulati topped the ladies class but it was Phoebe Nongrum, a lady driver from Shillong, who created ripples taking her maiden podium in the INRC4 class with Dr Dinesh from Shivamogga as her navigator.

Of the 51 cars that took the start, only 40 cars finished the rally. The third round of the Blueband INRC will be held in Coimbatore.

Provisional Unaudited Results after Day2:

 Overall: 1. Aroor Arjun Rao/ Satish Rajagopal (Mandovi Racing) (01:03:17.8); 2. Sheshank Jamwal/ Aseem Sharma (Arka Motorsports) (01:04:35.9); 3.Dr Bikku Babu/ Milen George (Chettinad Sporting) (01:04:44.0); 4. Karna Kadur/ Kumar Ramaswamy (Arka Motorsports) (01:04:46.7); 5. Philippos Matthai/ PV Srinivasa Murthy (Arka Motorsports) (01:04:49.9).

INRC2: 1.Dr Bikku Babu/ Milen George (Chettinad Sporting) (01:04:44.0); 2. Philippos Matthai/ PV Srinivasa Murthy (Arka Motorsports) (01:04:49.9); 3. Chetan Shivram/ E Shivaprakash (Snap Racing) (01:05:05.0).

INRC3: 1.Sheshank Jamwal/ Aseem Sharma (Arka Motorsports) (01:04:35.9); 2. Arnav Pratap Singh/ Arjun SSB (Ammyfied Rallying) (01:05:06.1); 3. Jahaan Singh Gill/ Suraj Keshav Prasad (SNAP Racing) (01:05:35.1).

INRC4: 1. Abhin Rai/ Uday Kumar (Ammyfied Rallying) (01:11:47.2); 2. Vivek Ruthuparna/ Sanjay Agarwal (SNAP Racing) (01:13:32.6); 3. Phoebe Nongrum / Dr. Dinesh S (Ammyfied Rallying, Shillong/Shivamogga) (01:18:37.6).

Gypsy Challenge: 1. Samrat Yadav/ Arvind Dheerendra (Ammyfied Rallying) (01:08:53.7); 2. Amanpreet Ahluwalia/ Amber Udasi (Pvt. Delhi/Chanigarh) (01:11:13.6); 3. Baljinder Singh Dhillon/ Goutham CP (Pvt. Delhi/Chikmagalur) (01:15:25.9).

Junior INRC: 1. Arnav Pratap Singh/ Arjun SSB (Ammyfied Rallying) (01:05:06.1); 2. Jahaan Singh Gill/ Suraj Keshav Prasad (SNAP Racing) (01:05:35.1); 3. Mohommed Sahil/ Eldo Chacko (Ammyfied Rallying) (01:10:12.6).

Women’s class: 1. Anushriya Gulati/ Arjun Dheerendra (Dark Don Racing) (01:13:20.0); 2. Shivani Parmar/ Dr Vani Parmar (Chettinad Sporting) (01:13:56.9); 3. Nikeetaa Takkale/ Venu Ramesh Kumar (Ammyfied Rallying) (01:16:34.1).