Gaurav Gill – Musa Sherif win Rally of Coimbatore: Blueband INRC Round 2
Coimbatore, 31 July 2022: King of Indian motorsports Gaurav Gill made a triumphant return to rallying winning the Rally of Coimbatore, the second round of the Blueband Sports fmsci Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) 2022 for four-wheelers, at the Kethanoor Windmill Farms here on Sunday.
With experienced Musa Sherif as navigator, Gill, the 40-year Delhi daredevil in JK colours, who had over 90 second overnight lead, snubbed his urge for speed and brought home the Mahindra XUV 300, ahead of a marauding Karna Kadur (co-driver Nikhil Pai) to clinch the Round 2 and bagged full points. However, the Bengaluru duo, Karna and co-driver Nikhil, the MRF Tyres lead pair, who were fastest in all the four stages, finished second but retained their lead in the championship table after two rounds. Aroor Arjun Rao and co-driver Sathish Rajagopal finished third.
Gaurav Gill, who left Arka Motorsports team after a long association, said on his Instagram handle: “It is a hot weekend here in Coimbatore with scorching temparature but the car was able to set the pace with the special JK Tyres and we finished where we belong, on top of the podium, and that too with a completely new team.”
After the stages, Gill, rushed to the airport, as he had to leave for Finland to take part in the World Rally Championship. The Arjuna Awardee made a comeback to WRC2 after two years in June at the Kenya rally, where he showed tremendous pace winning a couple of stages but his car stopped with huge amounts of sand in the engine. He will be driving a Skoda Fabia R5 again in WRC2 class in Finland with shakedown on Friday. “I am rushing to Finland and hoping for a good outing in the WRC,” said Gill from the airport.
In INRC 2, brothers Chetan Shivram and Dilip Sharan, the 2019 overall champions from Bengaluru, nurtured their overnight lead for a comfortable victory ahead of Suhem Kabir and Jeevarathinam. Another Bengaluru pair Ritesh Guttedar and co-driver Lokaranjan came third. Defending champions Chettinad Sporting’s Aditya Thakur and Virender Kashyap of Himachal Pradesh logged a DNF on Sunday with mechanical problems.
Promising talent Jahaan Singh Gill, the Delhi teenager, hoisted the JK flag high, to win the INRC 3 class. Mysore-Mangalore combo Syed Salman Ahmed and Rishab came second with two golden stars of yester years, Philippos Mathai and Kumar Ramaswamy taking a third place. Both are knowledgeable and popular motorsports aficionados.
Defending champion Deepak Chandra and co-driver Mahesh Nandi won the INRC4 class beating the only opponent Ninu Mohan (Goutham) to second place.
Jahaan and Suraj also won the Junior INRC class with Arnav Prathap Singh (co-driver Arjun SSB) taking second ahead of the top ladies pair Pragathi Gowda and Trisha Alonkar.
Editor’s note dated 1 Aug 2022: The results have changed following the disqualification of Aroor Arjun Rao, Chetan Shivram and Jahaan Gill due to technicial infringements during post-event Scrutiny.
Provisional final Classification after Sunday (Corrected after Scrutiny):
Overall
1. Gaurav Gill, Delhi /Musa Sherif, Kasargod, INRC (Privateer/Mahindra XUV 300) 1hour, 47 minutes, 37.300 seconds;
2. Karna Kadur/ Nikhil Pai, both Bengaluru, INRC (Arka Motorsports/VW Polo 1.0) 1:48:06.200;
3. Aroor Arjun Rao, Mangaluru / Sathish Rajagopal, Bengaluru, INRC
(Mandovi Racing/ Maruti Baleno RS) 1: 49:52.800;
4. Chetan Shivram/ Dilip Sharan, both Bengaluru, INRC2 (Pvt/ VW Polo 1.6)
1: 50:17.200;
3. Younus Ilyas/ Milen George (Race Concepts/ Mitsubishi Cedia) 1:52:06.900;
Jahaan Singh Gill, Chandigarh/ Suraj Keshava Prasad, Bengaluru (Pvt./ VW Polo 1.6) 1: 52:22.400;
4. Syed Salman Ahmed, Mysore / BK Rishabh, Mangaluru (Pvt/ VW Polo 1.6) 1:53:17.100;
(34 of the 46 cars finished Day 2; 9 DNF, 1 MPL, 2 did not start)
INRC
1. Gaurav Gill, Delhi /Musa Sherif, Kasargod, INRC (Privateer/Mahindra XUV 300) 1hour, 47 minutes, 37.300 seconds;
2. Karna Kadur/ Nikhil Pai, both Bengaluru, INRC (Arka Motorsports/VW Polo 1.0) 1:48:06.200;
3. Aroor Arjun Rao, Mangaluru / Sathish Rajagopal, Bengaluru, INRC
(Mandovi Racing/ Maruti Baleno RS) 1: 49:52.800;
3. Younus Ilyas/ Milen George (Race Concepts/ Mitsubishi Cedia) 1:52:06.900;
INRC2
Chetan Shivram/ Dilip Sharan, both Bengaluru, INRC2 (Pvt/ VW Polo 1.6)
1: 50:17.200;
1. Suhem Kabir, Virajpet / Jeevarathinam, Bengaluru (Pvt/ VW Polo 1.6) 1:53:23.600;
2. Ritesh Guttedar M / Lokaranjan HJ, Both Bengaluru (Pvt/ VW Polo 1.6) 1:56:33.700;
3. Aroor Vikram Rao/ Somayya, (Snap Racing/VW Polo), 1:56:37.400.
(Only six of the 10 cars finished in INRC2)
INRC3
1.Jahaan Singh Gill, Chandigarh/ Suraj Keshava Prasad, Bengaluru (Pvt./ VW Polo 1.6) 1: 52:22.400;
1. Syed Salman Ahmed, Mysore / BK Rishabh, Mangaluru (Pvt/ VW Polo 1.6) 1:53:17.100;
2. Philippos Mathai, Delhi/ Kumar Ramaswamy, Coimbatore (Arka Motorsports)/VW Polo 1.6) 1:53:20.800;
3. Chandan KM/Venu Ramesh Kumar (Arka Motorsports/VW Polo) 1:53:51.800.
(20 out of 24 cars finished in INRC3)
INRC4
1. Deepak Chandra, /Mahesh Nandi, Both Bengaluru, (Pvt/Honda City) 02: 03:16.700;
2. Ninu Mohan, Trivandrum / Goutham CP, (Pvt/Honda City) Chikmagalur, 02: 32:41.000;
(Only two cars in this class, both finished)
Non-Championship – fmsci Gypsy Challenge
1. Samrat Yadav, Chandigarh/ Chandrashekar, Bengaluru, (Pvt) 1: 58:23.200;
2. Sanjay Razdan, Gurugram/ Kiran Aukta, Shimla (Pvt) 2: 07:05.700;
3. Dheeraj KV/ Pramod Raman, Both Bengaluru (Pvt). 02:08:10.100;
(six cars out of 9 finished; one DNF, two MPL)
Junior INRC
1.Jahaan Singh Gill, Chandigarh/ Suraj Keshava Prasad, Bengaluru (Pvt./ VW Polo 1.6) 1: 52:22.400;
1. Arnav Singh Pratap / Arjun SSB, Both Bengaluru, (Pvt/ VW Polo 1.6) 1:54:34.500;
2. Pragathi Gowda/ Trisha Alonkar Both Bengaluru (Arka Motorsports/ VW Polo 1.6) 1:55:14.600.
3. Dr. Shivani Pruthvi/ Dr. Deepthi Pruthvi, both Davangere (Pvt/ Honda City VTec) 2:00:31.500
