Gaurav Gill-Musa Sherif win Misty Meadows Rally

By David Bodapati

Kuttikkanam, 19 Dec 2010: Reigning National champion and speed demon Gaurav Gill of Team MRF overcame the jinx of `Triple S’ on his favourite tarmac surface to comfortably win the Misty Meadows Rally of Kerala, but Naren Kumar of Red Rooster Racing despite finishing third kept his lead in the Speed Indian National Racing Championship standings as the Fifth round came to a close at the winding ghat roads of the mountains of Sahyadri near here on Sunday.

Naren Kumar with co-driver Ram Kumar, the six-time National winners, made sure that they are perched at the top though they lost the rally to Gaurav Gill (co-driver Mussa Sherif). Red Rooster Racing also saw that they bagged second, third and fourth places while MRF had to be content with the top slot. Gill made sure that he controlled his speed and finished the Super Special Special (SSS) which was his nemesis in two of the earlier rounds.

However, the heros of the day were Amittrajit Ghosh of Kolkota and his Red Rooster teammate Vikram Mathias, the only drivers to go under two minutes in the spectator friendly Super Special Stage. Ghosh along with co-driver (Ashwin Naik) was faster by one-hundredth of a second than Vikram (PV Srinivasa Murthy) but for a change the MRF speedster, Gill, managed to win the rally without any last minute hiccups in the Super Special.

With this win Gaurav Gill (Musa Sherif) earned 15 points to add to Nashik’s 16 and jumped to third place in the standings with 31 points, while Naren Kumar (Ram) added 8 points to his 30 to keep the lead in the points table with 38 points. Vikram Mathias (PVS Murthy) kept their second position overall with 33 points as he added 5 points (4^th place) here. Amittraji Ghosh (Ashwin Naik) and Arjun Rao Aroor (Srikanth Gowda) with 29 and 26 points stay at a striking distance behind the leaders.

The `Triple S’ held at Hill View (Special Stage 1 near Vegamon) provided a fitting finale to the enchanting Misty Meadows Rally of Kerala with a few hundreds of spectators thronging to the Super Special stage for some seat-edged thrill and excitement. Three of the spectators got a `ride of their life’ when the champion driers give them a joy ride after the Rally.

In the 2000N category, Ovion Racing’s Chikmagalur-Bangalore pair of Girijashankar Joshy and Chndramouli M showed controlled aggression in the Super Special Stage to climb to the top of the National Standings ahead of staunch rivals Sujay Suresh and co-driver Bharath SM, who took the second position. Sirish Chandran (Nikhil Pai) of team Overdrive was third.

In the 1600cc class, Bangalore pair of Rahul Kantharaj and co-driver Vivek Y Bhat won the Rally ahead of Shailendra Hegde / Shiraj Ahmed and Ranjit Gopinath and Suresh Babu finished third. Thus, Rahul and Vivek took a narrow lead in the Championship with 45 points while Shilendra and Shiraj could garner only 44 points for second in the table.

In the 1400 cc class, with local stars Dr Bikku Babu (Vinod Gowda) and Bonnie Thomas (Jeevarathinam) out of the rally, Byram Godraj (Anjay Kapadia) edged out Bangalore brothers Balram CG and Raghuram CG to take the top honours. Anirudha Ranganathan and Halley Prabhakar finished third.

However, the other local favourite Elias Thomas Paarel (Thomas Phillip) will be on the podium as he is placed third behind the formidable Army teams in the Gypsy class. Amrinder Brar (co-driver Nilesh) sealed the issue with a comfortable win and virtually won the championship in the Gypsy class taking an unbeatable lead with only one round to go. Shakti Bajaj and Dharmesh were second.

Venkatapathy MR with co-driver Santosh Kumar won the the Rally Star Cup over championship leaders Phalguna Urs and Anoop Kumar who finished second here. Harikesav N and Somayya are third.

The Rally of Kerala, is organized by Pas-Sear Adventures under the aegis of FMSCI with Bharat Petroleum as the principal sponsors and is promoted by IMG Sports and Pro-Sports Promotion (PSP).

Provisional Unaudited Results – Final:

Overall: 1. Gaurav Gill / Musa Sherif (Team MRF) 1 hour 14 minutes 37.8 secs; 2. Amittrajit Ghosh /Ashwin Naik (Red Rooster Racing) 1: 15: 03.0 secs; 3. Naren Kumar/ Ram Kumar D (Red Rooster Racing) 1: 15: 52.8 secs.

2000 N+ class: 1. Gaurav Gill / Musa Sherif (Team MRF) 1 hour 14 minutes 37.8 secs; 2. Amittrajit Ghosh /Ashwin Naik (Red Rooster Racing) 1: 15: 03.0 secs; 3. Naren Kumar/ Ram Kumar D (Red Rooster Racing) 1: 15: 52.8 secs.

2000N class: 1. Girijashankar Joshy/ Chandramouli M (Team Ovion) 1:21: 47.7; 2. Sujay Suresh/ Bharath SM 1: 21: 51.1; 3. Sirish Chandran/ Nikhil Pai (Team Overdrive) 1: 27: 01.7;

1600 cc class: 1. Rahul Kantharaj/ Vivek Y Bhat (Privateer) 1: 26: 56.1; 2. Shailendra Hegde /Shiraj Ahmed 1: 30: 24.0; 3. Ranjit Gopinath/ Suresh Babu 1: 30: 46.1;

1400 cc class: 1. Byram Godrej/ Anjay Kapadia 1: 28: 42.6; 2. Balram CG/ Raghuram CG 1: 29:16.1; 3. Aniruddha Ranganathan/ Halley Prabhakar 1: 34: 32.0;

Rally Star Cup: 1. Venkatapathy MR/ Santosh Kumar S 1: 29: 03.7; 2. Phalguna V Urs/ Anoop Kumar 1: 29: 39.0; 3. Harikeshav N/ Somayya AG 1: 31: 26.7;

Gypsy class: 1. Amrinder Brar/ Nilesh (Army Adventure Wing) 1: 30: 29.7; 2. Shakti Bajaj/ Dharmesh Sinha (AAW) 1: 33: 26.4; 3. Elias Thomas Paarel/ Thomas Phillip 1: 36: 15.9;

ends/ Note: Updated from the archives of old website