Gill regains Speed INRC title

By David Bodapati

Chikmagalur, 21 Nov 2009: Speed demon Gaurav Gill and co-driver Musa Sherif of Team MRF clinched the Speed Indian National Rally Championship for the year 2009 winning the Coffee Day Rally of Chikmagalur, the fifth and final round of the Speed INRC which saw a Red sweep as Team MRF won the top three places here on Sunday.

Excitement was at its feverish pitch as fancied Gaurav Gill kept his poise to pocket his second National championship title as the curtains came down on the Coffee Day Rally. With a comfortable lead in the first leg, Gill left his characteristic speed dashes and did not go all out. He displayed controlled aggression and was content to be second fastest today with the title in mind.  Though the official declaration is expected on Nov 28 on the pending protests, Gill is unlikely to be affected as he has an insurmountable 46 points.

Twentyeight-year-old Gill, who won the National Title under the colours of MRF two years ago, did an encore and promptly thanked the support. “I am happy to have done the job but the prime reason has been the perfect tyres. Today my gearbox stuck in the final stage but I wriggled out without shifting the gears thanks to my lead.”

It turned out to be MRF’s day with Lohith Urs (co-driver Sikanth Gowda) and Arjun Rao Aroor (Satish Rajagopal) doing just about enough to take the second and third placings respectively. Lohith gave Gill a close run and in fact was fastest in all the stages but lost 3 minutes due to a penalty for early arrival. “I am happy that it turned out to be Gaurav’s day as he had been the most consistent here. In my view, the good show has been due to the experimentation in the vehicles and the solidity of the tyres even in slushy conditions,” said Lohith. Their job was made easy as Red Rooster Racing drivers Vikram Mathias and Amittrajit Ghosh did not finish.

Girijashankar Joshy (Chandramouli M) won the 1600cc category with a time of 1 hr 42 min 26 seconds pushing Rahul Kanthraj (Vivek Bhat) and Joseph C Jos (Royce Kizhakoodan) to second and third places respectively but it was Sujay S who earned a leg point today and won the National title in this class with 50 points. Joseph Jos and Rahul Kanthraj finished second and third in the National championship.

In the 1400 cc class, Vikram Devadasan (Nikhil Pai) won with a time of 1 hour 44 min, 57 seconds while Ahijeet N Pai (Satvik GA) finished second and Deepak Chinnappa (Chandrashekar) third. Vikram Devadasan won the National title with 54 points and Nikhil Pai, his Navigator won the Co-Drivers’ Championship. Francis K Jose (Manoj M) who finished fourth today bagged five points to take second place in the National championship. Dr Bikku Babu, who had 14 points before this rally, just managed to push Deepak Chinnappa (13) by one point. Deepak came third here to garner 7 points but the third place in the National Championship.

Karna Kadur had the taste of a National title in the Rally Star Cup. The greenhorn said it has been a learning ground complementing the good work of his navigator Somonita Ghosh, sister of the young racing talent Amittrajit Ghosh. Kadur finished sixth in this rally to earn three valuable points and being the fastest today he added three more leg points which helped him to win the National title with 52 points ahead of Balram CG (Raghuram CG) who won the rally here but fell short by two points for the national title. Phalguna Urs finished third in this rally to ensure his third place in the INRC with 45 points. Karan AM (Somaiah AG) were second today.

In the Maruti Gypsy class, the well endowed Kushwant Randhawa blamed it on the gears not holding its own losing the title eventually to Sandeep Sharma by just one point. Kushwant (49) enjoyed a narrow three point lead over Sandeep (46) before the start of this rally. Sandeep garnered all the 16 points here to take his tally to 62 while Kushwant could only get 12 and missed out with a total of 61 points.

The Results (Provisional unaudited classification):

Overall 2000cc N+: 1. Gaurav Gill/Musa Sherif (Team MRF) (1 hr, 36 min 16 secs); 2. Lohith V Urs/Srikanth Gowda (Team MRF) (1:37.21); 3. Arjun Rao Aroor/ Sathish Rajagopal (Team MRF) (1:37:55);

1600 cc: 1. Girijashankar Joshy/Chandramouli M (1 hr, 42min 26 secs); 2. Rahul Kanthraj/Vivek Bhatt (1:43:41); 3. Joseph C Jos/Royce Kizhakoodan (Team DDL) (1:44:17);

1400cc: 1. Vikram Devadasan/Nihkil Pai (1 hr, 44 min, 57 secs); 2. Abhijeet N Pai/Satvik G.A (1:45:10); 3. Deepak Chinnappa/ Chandrasekar M (1:47:37);

Rally Star Cup: 1. Balram CG/Raghuram CG (1 hr, 48 min, 03 secs) 2. Karan AM/ Somaiah AG (1:48:59); 3. Phalguna Urs/ Anoop Kumar (1:49:20);

Gypsy: 1. Sandeep Sharma/ Anmol Rampal (1 hr 47 min, 02 secs); 2. Kushwant Randhawa/ Ravindra MS (1:49:05); 3. Shafeeq Ur Rahman/ Ajith KP (1:52:27);

ends