Gill-Sherif win SUV class; Ghosh-Naik top INRC

Coimbatore, 21 July 2013: Ace Indian rallyist Gaurav Gill and co-driver Musa Sherif in the Mahindra XUV 500 were the fastest and won the Indian National SUV Rally Championship while Malaysian Karamjit Singh along with navigator Jagdev Singh, also from Malaysia in the Volkswagen Polo won the Indian Rally Championship for foreign cars (IRC) here on Sunday.

According to a press release from Adrenna Communications, Amittrajit Ghosh and co-driver Ashwin Naik, in a Mitsubishi Cedia, took the overall honours in the Rally of Coimbatore, the third Round of the Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) which started and finished at the Kari Motor Speedway (KMS). In the 1600 class, it was Byram Godrej / Prajwal Pai driving a Volkswagen Polo who won while Asad Khan / Zayne Asrar took victory in the Junior INRC class, in a Maruti Esteem.

Out of the 31 cars that started the Rally, 22 cars finished Leg 1.  However, as per Super Rally format 5 out of 9 competitors opted to run Leg 2, thus making it a total of 27 cars fighting for Leg 2. Starting from the KMS, they then proceeded to the Textool stage of 24.81 kms for speed and action.  At the end of Textool stage, there were 25 cars running with two competitors dropping out due to mechanical failure.

There were 19 cars that reported for the Super Special Stage at the Kari Motor Speedway.  It was a festive atmosphere at the KMS where the rally drivers had the opportunity to watch some racing action from the JK Tyre Racing Championship and the racing drivers some rally driving at the KMS.  It was ‘Master Drifter’ Gaurav Gill who enthralled the crowd by showing them the real rally drifting. 

Indian National Rally Championship (INRC)

Amittrajit Ghosh / Ashwin Naik won the INRC overall of Rally of Coimbatore with a total time of 01:42:42.9.  Vikram Devadasen / Srikanth GM finished second with 01:44:48.6 followed by Phalguna V Urs / Anoop Kumar with a total time of 01:45:54.2.

INRC 1600 class

In the INRC 1600 class, it was Byram Godrej / Prajwal Pai who finished first with a total time of 01:47:44.9 closely followed by Arjun Rao / Sathish Rajagopal and Mohammed Kasim / Sanath G with a time of 01:47:57.6 and 02:14:06.2 respetively.

Junior Indian National Rally Championship (JINRC)

In the closely fought JINRC, it was Asad Khan / Zayne Asrar who won with a time of 01:51:06.2.  Suhem MK / Jeevarathinam J finished 2^nd with 01:53:00.0 and Rohan Pawar / Arjun Mehta finished third with 01:56:29.2.

Indian National SUV Rally Championship (INSUVRC)

Gaurav Gill / Musa Sherif won the Indian National SUV Rally Championship with a total time of 01:40:00.3 followed by Lohitt V Urs / Bonnie Thomas (01:46:29.1) and Sunny Sidhu / Srinivas Murthy PV (01:52:43.1).

Indian Rally Championship (IRC)

In the IRC Championship it was Karamjit Singh / Jagdev Singh from Malaysia who won with a time of 01:42:12.1 followed by Sumit Panjabi / Chetan Shivram (02:00:35.6).

ends