Gaurav Gill leads after Day 1; Dean, Aditya top their classes
Bengaluru, 12 March 2022: Speed maestro Gaurav Gill and co-driver Musa Sherif of Kasargod overcame mechanical problems to take a sizeable lead in the K1000 Rally, the second round of the FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship 2021 organised by Karnataka Motor Sports Club (KMSC) with MRF as associate sponsors, at Gubbi in Tumkur District, about 100 km from here. The Rally concludes on Sunday with a repeat of the four Special Stages that were run today. The fourth stage uphill section was rendered unsafe today for the second run and with many cars failing to pass the treacherous stretch the Rally was stopped twice and finally many cars were given scratch times.
Despite suffering a turbo problem which led to a noticeable drop in pace, Delhi-based Gill enjoys a comfortable position with a 29-second lead followed by Karna Kadur along co-driver Nikhil Pai, who displayed consistent pace through the day until his Volkswagen Polo suffered a gearbox issue that could impact his performance tomorrow. Third Overall is Kollam’s Younus Ilyas with co-driver Anirudha Ranganekar of Pune who is making a comeback after 8 years. The Race Concepts team are about10 seconds behind Kadur.
Leading the INRC-2 category is Mangaluru’s Dean Mascarenhas (Gagan Karumbaiah, Virajpet) who paced himself well for a 13-second advantage over Palakkad’s Fabid Ahmer (Sanath G) with Virajpet’s Suhem Kabeer (Jeeva Rathinam, Bengaluru) in third.
Winner of the first round in Coimbatore, Aditya Thakur (Virender Kashyap) from Himachal is placed seventh Overall, but first in INRC-3 category where he has established a healthy lead over another Himachal pairing of Kuber Sharma and Karan Aukta. In third place is Chandigarh’s Sanampreet Sekhon (Suhan Kabeer, Kodagu).
Early in the day, seven times National champion Gill set a hot pace and at the end of the first loop of the two Stages, had opened a comfortable lead. But in the second run, his Mahindra XUV 300 developed a turbo problem that cost him some precious time as the focus shifted to nursing the vehicle to the finish.
“The day began well. I got into a rhythm and the pace was good as we opened up a good lead. But unfortunately, there was a small issue with the turbo gasket that led to a leak in the turbo boost. So basically, it meant we were running on two cylinders, but I decided to push anyway. In SS-3, we lost a lot of time, but in SS-4, which was very technical, I didn’t lose too much time to Younus. Anyway, we are still safe and have a lead. Tomorrow, it will be safe and fast,” said Gill.
The SS-4 was twice interrupted after a few cars blocked the route due to crashes and mechanical failures.
Leg-1 Classification (Provisional):
Overall / INRC: 1. Gaurav Gill (Delhi) / Musa Sherif (Kasargod) (48mins, 58.200secs); 2. Karna Kadur / Nikhil Pai (both Bengaluru, Arka Motorsports) (49:27.700); 3. Younus Ilyas (Kollam) / Anirudha Ranganekar (Pune) (Race Concepts) (49:37.000).
INRC-2: 1. Dean Mascarenhas (Mangaluru) / Gagan Karumbaiah (Virajpet) (51:23.000); 2. Fabid Ahmer / Sanath G (both Palakkad) (51:36.300); 3. Suhem Kabeer (Virajpet) / Jeeva Rathinam (Bengaluru) (52:27.800).
INRC-3: 1. Aditya Thakur / Virender Kashyap (both Himachal) (Chettinad Sporting) (52:26.300); 2. Kuber Sharma / Karan Aukta (both Himachal) (54:04.800); 3. Sanampreet Sekhon (Chandigarh) / Suhan Kabeer (Kodagu) (54:49.600).
INRC-4: 1. Mujeeb Rahman (Kasargod) / Ravinder Kumar (Bengaluru) (56:48.960); 2. Vaibhav Marathe (Goa) / Harsha Vardhana SN (Bengaluru) (58:05.400); 3. Shivani Parmar / Vani Parmar (both Mumbai) (1hr:01:19.200).
FMSCI Gypsy Challenge: 1. Samrat Yadav (Chandigarh) / M Chandrashekar (Bengaluru) (54:06.800); 2. Rupender Sheoran (Gurugram) / Mohit Malik (Faridabad) (58:28.600); 3. Abhishek Gowda (Chikkamgalauru) / Dheeraj Manae (Bengaluru) (58:45.700).
