Facile victory for Gill; Mujeeb redeems last-minute loss; Dean, Aditya win: INRC Ro2

By Samikshan Dutta

Itanagar, 20 Dec 2020: Celebrated Indian rallyist Gaurav Gill continued his winning streak, claiming Rally of Arunachal, Round 2 of the Champions Yacht Club -FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship 2020 here on Sunday.

The JK Tyre driver with Musa Sherif started off from where he left and after recording a stellar victory in Round 1 at the same time place two days back posted a total time of 42:15.00 minutes to win the rally and finish the Arunachal leg with a grand double.

Driving in a XUV300, the three-times APRC champion looked in top form and dominated the rally right from the word go. He opened up a considerable gap of around 1:51 minutes in the first two night stages on Saturday evening, held onto his lead throughout and mixed aggression with caution perfectly to win all the six special stages including four night stages to consolidate his position at the top of the leaderboard.

His teammate Amitrajit Ghosh along with co-driver Ashwin Naik clinched the second place after posting a total time of 43.48.1 minutes. Amitrajit driving in XUV300, who has been battling car issues for more than a year now, was impeccable behind the wheels and drove with great precision for his first podium finish of the season. 

“First of all, it feels good to be rallying again more than anything.

Defending champion Chetan Shivram (&Rupesh Kholay) of Yokohama Tyres who had a DNF in the last round, started the round with a stock engine car and despite driving a vehicle with different specs did well to finish the overall 13th to take valuable leg points and hope for a turnaround in fortunes in the remaining rounds.

Karna Kadur of MRF Tyre also continued his good run and after finishing runner-up in the opening round claimed the third place. Along with Nikhil V Pai, Karna was constantly pushing Amitrajit but eventually had to contend with third place with a total time of 44:57.3 minutes. His place on the podium also secured his second position on the points table. 

In the INRC 2 category, it was Dean Mascarenhas (& Shruptha Padival who took the top honours by completing the six special stages with a total time of 45:38.6 minutes followed by Snap Racing’s Sahil Khanna (&Vidit Jain) who took 47.42.0 minutes,

 to finish the rally. Rahul Kanthraj (along with co-driver Vivek Y Bhat) ended up in third place with an overall time of  47:48.8 minutes.

Aditya Thakur (&Virendra Kashyap) of Team Nutulapati won the top place in INRC 3, after clocking a total time 47.24.5 minutes followed by Fabid Ajmer (&Eldo Chacko) who took 47:30.8 minutes to finish the rally. Last round’s INRC 3 winner, Maninder Singh Prince and his navigator Vinay Padmasali made it to the third place on the podium with a total time of 48:06.4 minutes.

Mujeeb Rahman (& Goutham CP) won the top prize in the INRC 4 category with 50.42.300 minutes, while last year’s winner Vaibhav Marathe & his co-driver Suhan.M.K, driving for Yokohama Tyres won the second place with a total time of 51:28.500 minutes. Rohith Iyer (&M.Manjunath) took the third podium after registering a time of 54:21.600 minutes.
In the Junior INRC category, Harikrishna Wadia (& Chirag Thakur) claimed the top position for their performance of 48:28.21 minutes, followed by Team Yokohama’s Arjun (& Shanmuga S N) who took 48:58.9 minutes to complete their campaign. Pragathi Gowda and her co-driver Deeksha Balakrishna of Team Vasundhara impressed yet again as they finished in third place with a total time of 49:37.7 minutes.

Provisional Unaudited final classification:

Overall: 1. Gaurav Gill /Musa Sherif (42 minutes, 15.000 seconds); 2. Amittrajjit Ghosh/Ashwin Naik (43:48.100); 3. Karna Kadur/Nikhil Pai (44: 57.300);

INRC2: 1. Dean Mascarenhas/ Shruptha Padival (45:38.600); 2. Sahil Khanna /Vidit Jain (47:42.000); 3. Rahul Kantharaj/ Vivek Bhat (47:45.800);

INRC3: 1. Aditya Thakur/ Virender Kashyap (47:21.500); 2. Fabid Ahmer/ Eldo Chacko (47:30.800); 3. Maninder Singh Prince/ Vinay Padmashali (48:06.400);

INRC4: 1. Mujeeb Rehman/ Goutham CP (50:42.300); 2. Vaibhav Marathe/ Suhan MK (51:28.800); 3. Rohith Iyer/ GM Manjunath (54:21.600).