By David Bodapati

Bengaluru, 16 November 2020: Karnataka is rich in its motorsport history. The state is not only home to many champions of the past but is a cradle of talent and contributed to the Indian motorsport history with many activities. K-1000 rally, the flagship event of the State is a popular and vibrant stage rally that is being organised from 1975. In 1988, it officially joined the calendar of the Indian National Rally Drivers and Co-drivers' Championship and later, the Nationals were rechristened as Indian National Rally Championship under its current format. K-1000 for the first time shifted to the European Special Stage format in 1996 before which, the rallies were hardcore long-distance endurance events covering many states and usually more than 1000-mile long, and hence the name Karnataka-1000. It is one of the few events that were organised and run successfully by hardcore and passionate motorsports lovers and ran regularly. Some of the other rallies that had multiple editions are the Popular Rally in Kerala, the South India Rally in Chennai, the Charminar Challenge or the Deccan rally and the Coffee Day rally.

INDIAinF1.com has put together all the winners of the K-1000 from 1975, a compilation first undertaken in 2009 by the late Bharat Raj and Annabelle Manwaring, the promoters of INRC from 2009 to 2011. The last 11 years were added and some gaps were filled. The IMG-PSP duo also sourced historic images of Indian rallying and specially of K-1000 from many sources, with the major contribution coming from the Father of Indian Motorsport Photography, the late George Francis. A poster was released to commemorate the 35th K-1000 celebrations as KMSC completed 35 long years of dedicated service to motorsports, then. Now the club is getting ready to host both the 2w and 4w K-1000 rally once again for the 45th year.

Here is a list of the all the winners of K-1000, a jewel in the pride of Indian Rallying. Each round's report will be added shortly. Or you can check the reports at INRC: Winners' Hall of Fame here. Currently the list contains only the 4-wheel winners and the 2-w biker champions' list is work in progress and will be updated soon.

Multiple Asia Pacific Rally champion Gaurav Gill tops the table with six K-1000 wins followed by 7-time INRC champion N Leelakrishnan who bagged the K-1000 five times followed by Naren Kumar, who won it for three times, along with Ravi Gupta, who also had three wins, but it appears he may have navigated for the inaugural edition winner DR Sivaram in 1980, for his second K1000 trophy. Kiran Mody, too had won the K1000 three times.

  K-1000 Winners from 1975   No.YearDatesThe man...MachineSurface 11975 DR Sivaram, D Vinod Sivappa, Feroze Asgar Ali & Shivprasad, BangaloreAmbassador 1850 km of mixed roads... gravel, kutcha, tarmac 21976 Ravi Gupta, Devendra Gupta, BangaloreFIAT  31977 Undecided   41978 Dayanand Mandre, Jagadish Reddy, HyderabadFIAT  51979 Kiran Mody, Dr Rajesh Kakkadia, HyderabadFIAT  61980 DR Sivaram, Kiran Mody, Bangalore/HyderabadFIAT  71981 Arindam Ghosh, Saswati Ghosh, Sk Yeasin Ali, Nani Chanda, KolkotaFIAT  81982 BM Ravi, Noel Gojar, BangaloreFIAT  91983 Uday Eswaran, Dr Ravi Prakash, BangaloreFIAT  101984 Kiran Mody, Damaraju Kumar Rao (DK Rao), HyderabadDolphin  111985 Mohammed Harris, Deepak, UAESUBARU*  121986 Subash Goel, Rajan Siyal, ChennaiFIAT  131987AugKamlesh Patel, KD Madan, Chennai118 NE  141988 Kamlesh Patel, KD Madan, Chennai118 NE  151989 Harish Samtani, Rajiv Chaudhary, ChennaiMaruti Gypsy  161990 Leelakrishnan, Mahendran, CoimbatoreMaruti Gypsy  171991 Aug 12-13Leelakrishnan, Mahendran, CoimbatoreMaruti Gypsy Gravel 181992 Leelakrishnan, Mahendran, CoimbatoreMaruti Gypsy  191993 Aug 14-15VInyl Varghese, Anil Devaraj, Team Paarel, KeralaMaruti Gypsy  201994 Leelakrishnan, Farooq Ahmed, Coimbatore/ChikmagalurMaruti Gypsy  211995Aug 12-14Naren Kumar, MK Chander, CoimbatoreEsteem, Group N  221996K1000 AshphaltSamir Thaper, Koka Rao, Chandigarh /HyderabadEsteemIndia Mines 231997The Club K1000Hari Singh, GS Mann, DelhiEsteem  24199824th Castrol K1000Leelakrishnan, Farooq Ahmed, Coimbatore/ChikmagalurEsteem  25199925th K1000Hari Singh, GS Mann, DelhiEsteem  262000MAI 26th K1000TSD Rally - Not part of the National Championship round.   272001 Aug 10-12Karandeep Singh, Jaidas MenonBaleno  282002 Oct 11-13Naren Kumar, Doraikumar Ramkumar, CoimbatoreHonda City Asphalt 292003 Nov 14-16Karandip Singh, Jaidas Menon, Chandigarh/Bng Honda city Gravel 302004 Aug 6-8Naren Kumar, Doraikumar Ramkumar, CoimbatoreBaleno Asphalt 312005 Aug 12-14Naren Kumar, D Ramkumar, CoimbatoreBaleno Asphalt 322006 Aug 11-13Gaurav Gill, Farooq Ahmed, Delhi/ChikmagalurCedia Gravel 332007 Aug 17-19Gaurav Gill, Musa Sherif, Delhi/ Mangalore (Kasargod)Cedia Asphalt 342008 Aug 8-10Vikram Mathias, Srinivasa Murthy, Masinagudi (Karnataka)Cedia Asphalt 352009Aug 21-23Arjun Balu, Sujith Kumar BS, Coimbatore/ BengaluruCediaGravel 362010Dec 3 -5Arjun Rao Aroor, Satish Rajagopal, KarnatakaCediaGravel 372011Aug 19-21Gaurav Gill, Musa Sherif, Delhi/KasargodCediaGravel 382012Sept 21-23Lohitt V Urs, Sujith Kumar BS, Mysore/ Bengaluru, PrivateersCediaGravel 392013Nov 9-10Gaurav Gill, Musa Sherif, Delhi/KasargodMahindra XUV 500Gravel 402014Nov 21-23Gaurav Gill, Musa Sherif, Delhi/KasargodMahindra XUV 500Gravel 412015Nov 20-22Pallath Ganesh Abhilash, Anoop Kumar, Kerala/BangaloreLancer Evo 8Gravel 422016Dec 17 -18Amittrajit Ghosh, Ashwin Naik, Kolkata/ MangaloreMahindra XUV 500Gravel 432017Jan 19-21, 2018Gaurav Gill, Musa Sherif, Delhi/KasargodMahindra XUV 500Gravel  2018NOT HELDPromoters RRPM did not include the event in the Natioinal INRC calendar   442019Nov 22-24Chetan Shivaram, Dilip Sharan, BengaluruVW Polo, Team AksharaGravel 452020 -held 2021 JanFeb 13-14, 2021Cancelled Gravel *Corrected from BMW to Subaru, thanks to Zuhin, the 2012 IRC winner