Chetan Shivaram-Dilip Sharan thwart pressure from Dr Bikku Babu-Milen to win K1000 Rally

Bengaluru, 24 Nov 2019: Gaurav Gill, Dean Mascarenhas, Karna Kadur, Fabid Ahmer… the top drivers, stalwarts, experienced veterans, talented seniors and upcoming youngsters…  many of them bit the dust. The unforgiving terrain of Khoday’s Special Stages saw that only 23 of the 50 cars finished the 44^th edition of the K1000 rally, which was run entirely on a private property after many years, with special focus on spectator safety.

In the SUV Challenge, Gagan Karumbaiah (co-driver Thimmu Uddapanda) of Team Champions took the first place to virtually seal the 2019 title.

Coimbatore round winners, Chetan Shivaram and Dilip Sharan of Team Akshara won the fourth round of the Indian National Rally Championship after thwarting sustained pressure from Dr Bikku Babu and Milen George of Team Champions, and took the overall win by 12.7 seconds and also topped their class INRC3. The Doctor from Kerala had to be content with the overall second place but topped INRC2 and Team Mahindra Adventure’s second entry Amittrajit Ghosh and Ashwin Naik were overall third, a good three minutes and 27 seconds behind, but were rewarded for finishing the rally with the top prize in the top class, the INRC. Chetan Shivaram took the overall lead in the Championship replacing Fabid Ahmer, with one round remaining, the Popular Rally in Kerala.

Motoring stalwart and speed demon Gaurav Gill and co-driver Musa Sherif, too, had a disappointing outing as he failed to take the start on Sunday and other pre-event favourites Dean Mascarenhas and Shruptha Padival (SS6), and Karna Kadur and Nikhil Pai (SS5) failed to finish the day along with championship leaders Fabid Ahmer and Sanath Gopalan (SS7).

After the shock exit of Gaurav Gill, order seemed to have been restored, with another JK favourite Dean Mascarenhas winning SS5. But he promptly fell in the next stage, leaving the field for Championship leader Fabid Ahmer. But the MRF driver, who was nursing his car carefully, suffered a mechanical failure in SS7 and tumbled out. “What looked like a promising result ended up with broken tie-rod end! Had to stop in SS7 when running 3rd Overall and 2nd in INRC3. We will bounce back at our home rally in Kerala,” quipped Fabid Ahmer.

“The top guns may not have fired today but we couldn’t have hoped for a more thrilling finish. It was good to see so many of the INRC 2 and 3 teams making a mark here, ahead of the known champions,” Hema Malini Nidamanuri, co-promoter of the INRC, said.

Final Provisional Unaudited Results: 

Overall: 1. Chetan Shivaram/ Dilip Sharan (Akshara Racing) (1hour, 47minutes, 37.200seconds); 2. Dr Bikku Babu/ Milen George (Team Champions) (1:47:49.900); 3. Amittrajit Ghosh/ Ashwin Naik (Team Mahindra Adventure) (1:51.04.300).

INRC: 1. Amittrajit Ghosh/ Ashwin Naik (Team Mahindra Adventure) (1:51.04.300); 2. Phalguna Urs/ Chandramouli M (Sanp Racing) (1:53:00.500). (only two cars finished out of six)

INRC2: 1. Dr Bikku Babu/ Milen George (Team Champions) (1:47:49.900); 2. Sahil Khanna/ Rajit Kadian (Snap Racing) (1:52:00.200); 3. Younus Ilyas/Harish Gowda (Race Concepts) (4:50:24.200).

INRC3: 1. Chetan Shivaram/ Dilip Sharan (Akshara Racing) (1:47:37.200); 2. Jacob KJ/ Murthy PVS (Arka Motorsports) (1:53.35.600); 2. Pradeep Kumar/Ahammad Ansary (Pipe & Pipe) (2:19:58.000).

INRC4: 1. Mujeeb Rahaman/ Gautham CP (Privateers) (1:55:17.900); 2. Shirole Prakhyat H/ Bharath SM (Pvt) (1:57:16.300); 3.Satish Peddineni/ Vinay Kumar PM (Team Champions) (2:33:19.500).

FMSCI SUV Challenge: 1. Gagan Karumbaiah/ Thimmu Uddapanda (Team Champions) (2:47:46.800); 2. Thomas Kuncheria M/ Dwarakanath Sudarshan (Pvt.) (2:13:41.200); 3. Sanjay Agarwal/ Smitha N (Team Champions) (5:03:17.100).

(Note: Results were revised after confirmation from official version at 6.15pm.)