Gill-Musa bag Rally of Coimbatore to begin the season with a win

Coimbatore, 31 July 2017: Team Mahindra Adventure’s Gaurav Gill and Musa Sherif began with a bang, winning the MRF Rally of Coimbatore, the first round of the MRF-FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) at the windmill farms of Kethanur, near here, on Sunday. Gill clocked 1hour 36.0 seconds to finish the 70-km Special Stage distance of five stages.

The King of Indian motorsports, along with co-driver Musa Sherif, took a comfortable lead from the very first special Stage and slowly improved it to chalk out a convincing win. The double Asia Pacific Rally Champion made amends to his run at the Southern Indian city last year which was troubled by mechanical problems, but today he made up for the loss with a good win to take a lead in the Championship race.

Reigning champions Karna Kadur and co-driver Nikhil V Pai followed Gill and Musa in second place with a difference of 1min 45sec and last year’s winner Amittrajit Ghosh and navigator Ashwin Naik could only finish third. The Kolkota driver looked rusted and the seven-month gap from driving showed on his performance. “The long gap took its toll and it is difficult coming back from such a break,” he said. On the contrary, his Mahindra Adventure teammate Gill was happy with the show. `I have not got into the SUV for almost a year but I am happy with the result,” he quipped.

Dean Mascarenhas and co-driver Shruptha Padival won the INRC 3 category with Dr Bikku Babu and Milen George in second and KM Bopaiah, along with co-driver Karumbaiah G finishing third.

Vikram Rao Aroor and Somayya AG had a bad crash while Arjun Rao Aroor along with Satish Rajagopal had a DNF making it five teams who failed to finish.

“Perhaps for the firs time, the official rally release did not have the timings,” said a veteran motorsports journalist.

Results: INRC 2017 Round 1 – Coimbatore

INRC: 1. Gaurav Gill & Musa Sherif (Team Mahindra Adventure); 2. Karna Kadur & Nikhil Pai (Arka Motorsports); 3. Amittrajit Ghosh & Ashwin Naik (Team Mahindra Adventure).

INRC 2: 1. Karna Kadur & Nikhil Pai (Red Rooster Performance); 2. Rahul Kanthraj & Vivek Bhatt (Red Rooster Performance); 3. Younus Ilyas & Harish Kumar.

INRC 3: 1. Dean Mascarenhas & Shruptha Padival; 2. Dr Biku Babu & Milen George; 3. KM Bopaiah & Karumbaiah G.