Gill-Musa clinch Kerala rally

Kochi, 11 Mar 2007: Indian speed maestro Gaurav Gill of Delhi, stamped his class once again and conquered new region adding Kochi to his list of triumphs winning the Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) round here in the state of Kerala on Sunday.

The fluent driving and aggressive approach saw the talented champion dominate all the stages on Day 2 and capture a well-deserved win. Veteran champion Jagat Nanjappa was all praise for the youngster as he displayed a class of his own. He was a clear winner by 1 minute 22 seconds at the 22nd Heera Rally, the first round of the Indian National Rally Championship (INRC). With an overnight lead of 48 seconds, the speed master took it easy and it was just a matter of time to notch up another win.

With disciplined and meticulous Musa Sherif calling the pace notes, Gill, in only his second year on the rallying circuit, had a simple plan. To keep it cool and drive safe. And he did it, with confidence and class. Earlier, he had the strength of Farooq Ahmed as his navigator but Sherif too fitted in as well.

Gill’s teammates Lohitt Urs and co-driver Pradeep Kumar suffered an engine seizure on the day’s first stage and it became virtually a one-horse race. It was left to the pair of Arjun Rao Aroor and Satish Kumar to take the second place, way-beyond the winners.

Gill, looks forward to the Asia Pacific Rally Championship for Team MRF now after the Chandigarh-leg of the INRC in April. He decided to race against clock rather than take it easy. “There’s no point in being content just winning, it’s how you push yourself that matters and that’s exactly what I did,” said Gill. Gill was doing speeds of 177-km per hour, which distinctly reflected on the stage times as compared to Day 1.

“Today, I adopted a different approach to my driving, concentrating more on the technical aspects rather then sheer power. Results showed, didn’t they,” he asked in jest.

Gill clocked 1 hour, 16 minutes, 44 seconds compared to Aroor’s 1:18.06.

Day 1: Earlier on Saturday March 10, the 25-year-old proved his superiority by shrugging off the handicap of suffering two flat tyres and managed a reduce the gap to 51 seonds behind the leaders. But by the end of the day he not only covered the distance but took a lead of 48 seconds ahead of Lohit Urs and co-driver Pradeep Kumar and also overtook Arjunrao Aroor and co-driver Satish Kumar.

With six stages completed, Gill, co-driven by Musa Sherif, was his usual self; going flat-out on the 15.06-kilometre opening stage at Illythodu, situated 75 kilometers from Kochi. Clocking 10.10 seconds, he had flats in his front tyre, which he managed to replace, and rear right tyres which he drove on to concede a 51-second lead to Arjun Balu. “I was driving fast and safe and I was aware of what I was doing,” explained Gill, who, over the next two stages, regained a 10-second lead after Balu was forced to pull out and Lohit Urs and Pradeep Kumar had problems aplenty due to a torn exhaust.

That was the beginning of Gill’s dominance, as in the next two stages he increased the lead to 48 seconds over Lohit, with Arjun Rao Aroor 1 minute, 27 seconds adrift of Lohit in third place.

While Gill was having his moments on the route, veterans Karandip Singh (Jaidas Menon), Arjun Balu (Kumar Ramaswamy), Prithveen Rajan (PVS Murthy) had their share of ‘luckless’ moments. Karandeep dropped out with a gearbox leak on the transport stage while Arjun, who pushed his car back to the starters’ ramp a day earlier during the ceremonial flag-off also pulled out along with Prithveen who suffered due to car problems at different stages.

Additional Notes added By David on 29 Sept. 2021 from Archives courtesy Mint, who first published it.

Team MRF’s Aroor Arjun Rao and his co-driver Satish Kumar Rajagopal came second in the overall standing while third place went to Girijashankar Joshy-Srikanth G M.

In the 1600 cc segment, Aroor Arjun Rao emerged winner, while the 1400 cc segment was won by Girija Shankar Joshi.

The Rally Star cup went to Abhijeet N Pai and Prajal Pai while the Gypsy Cup went to Surendra Babu and Sheraz Ahmed.

18 cars out of the 30 were flagged off on the opening day of the rally with each of them vying for the prize money that amounted to ₹ 4.5 lakhs.

This was the first round of the Indian National Rally championship, a six-round event organized by the MotorSports Association of India. The next round will be held in April at Chandigarh.