First international win for Arjun Balu & Kumar
By David Bodapati Changchun (China), 29 August 2001: Indian rally star from Coimbatore, Arjun Balu along with navigator Kumar Ramaswamy, displayed his class and skill to claim a facile win in the fourth round of the Asian Zone Rally Championship (AZRC) on the final day of the Changchun Rally here on Wednesday.
Teammate and lead driver of Team MRF, VR Naren Kumar’s dream of a another successive win came to an end with a gear-box issue but the compatriot of Balu already clinched the title, along with navigator Ramkurm. The duo to an unbeatable lead of 46 points in the Asian Zone Championship. Thus Arjun Balu came out triumphant as he notched up his maiden win on the international circuit.
Balu, took an overnight lead after the first six special stages on Tuesday, and continued to attack with the same consistency despite having to deal with the left-hand drive, which the Indians are not used to. Still he took a comfortable lead of 3 minutes 10 seconds to win with a time of 2 hours 02.58 minutes to beat the Russian team of Diamantidi Aristotel and Skliar Vladimir. The Russian did an admirable job taking the podium after trailing in fifth place overnight.
Balu, the 26-year Speed Maestro, has played a second fiddle to Naren Kumar and his navigator and also saw his car suffer mechanical failures in the first two rounds. Thus Balu and Kumar could not finish the first two rallies in Coimbatore and Indonesia in that order as gear-box issues cropped up. However, the win here catapulted him to second position in the five-leg rally as they garnered 16 points, taking their total to 27.
“I am thrilled to get this win finally and it is a fantastic feeling. I have been waiting for long to get a victory and I am so glad we won today. It was very close in the last leg in Thailand,” Arjun Balu told this reporter.
(Disclosure: This report by David Bodapati was first published in the Indian Express. This reporter’s trip to China was sponsored by MRF Tyres.)
