Gill thrills the crowd as Orissa enters Rally map of India

David Bodapati December 9, 2011

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Bhubaneswar, 9 Dec 2011: Speed king Gaurav Gill (co-driver Musa Sherif) of Team MRF thrilled the 1,000-strong audience with `sliding turns’ at high speeds and received a thunderous applause at every turn as the motor sports fans of Orissa got their first taste of a National event at the spectator friendly Super Special Stage held in the City here on Friday. The Stage kick started the Rally of Odish, the sixth round of the Speed Indian National Rally Championship.

Gill drove his Mitsubishi Lancer Cedia with aplomb to clock 2 minutes 30.72 seconds to emerge fastest after finishing the 1.5 km 2-lap section while his challenger and former teammate Lohit Urs (co-driver PV Srinivasa Moorthy), who is a private entry here, was more cautious as he timed 2 min 34.18 secs. The other car in the 2000 N + category, Amittrajit Ghosh of Kolkota (with Ashwin Naik as navigator) was a second slower than Urs at 2: 35.24 in the third place.

Jointly organised by Kalinga Motor Sports Club and Bengal Motor Sports Club, Rally of Odisha, the sixth of the seven-round Speed Indian National Rally Championship is being held under the aegis of the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI) and is promoted by IMG Sports and Pro-Sports Promotion (PSP).

“There is a long straight where the cars are expected to touch top speeds of 180 kmph but the route is also technical and challenging as there is a lot of `pea gravel’ and cars can slip and slide off the road,’’ said Gill, who is leading the table in the top class.

In the 2000 cc N+ category, Lohit Urs and co-driver PVS Murthy will be the only competition to Team MRF, who fielded only two teams instead of the regular four. It may be recalled that veteran Arjun Balu announced his retirement after 17 years of rallying at Chikmagalur last month to leave Gaurav Gill and co-driver Musa Sherif as the leading contenders while youngster Amittrajit Ghosh of Kolkota will be the other entry for Team MRF with Ashwin Naik as his navigator.

Gaurav Gill who is leading the overall championship needs to stay ahead of second-placed Lohit Urs to clinch the issue here, with only the last leg at Kolkota remaining. To stay in contention for the National title, Urs should win here with at least a three point margin ahead of Gill. In the 2000 cc class, a fierce fight is expected between Rahul Kantharaj (Vivek Bhatt) the table topper lost three seconds to Karna Kadur/ Somonnita Ghosh, to gain advantage in the mind games ahead of the special stages on Saturday and Sunday.

Newcomers Pritul Dey/ Sumit Mukherjee were a second ahead of leaders Aniruddha Rangnekar/ Anoop Kumar in the 1600 cc class while Karan AM /Shanmuga topped the time charts. Sanjay Agarwal/ Ramesh Kumar Venu were ahead by a fraction of a second in the Gypsy class.

Results (Unaudited provision classification) after SSS:

Overall – 2000 cc N+: 1. Gaurav Gill/Musa Gill, Team MRF, 2 minutes, 30.7; 2. Lohit Urs/ PV Srinivas Moorthy (Privateer) 2: 34.1; 3. Amittrajit Ghosh/ Ashwin Naik (Team MRF) 2: 35.2.

2000cc N: 1. Karna Kadur/ Somonnita Ghosh ; 2:35.8; 2. Rahul Kantharaj/ Vivek Y Bhatt 2: 38.0; 3. Dr Dhirendra Kumar/ Honey Narulla 2: 46.9;

1600 cc: 1. Pritul Dey/ Sumit Mukherjee 2: 50.8; 2. Aniruddha Rangnekar/ Anoop Kumar 2:51.4; 3. Azgar Ali/ Debasish Ghosh 2:54.3;

1400cc: 1. Karan AM/ Shanmugha SM 2: 43.8; 2. Dean Mascerenhas/ Shruptha Padival 2: 37.2; 3. Aroor Vikram Rao/ AG Somaya 2: 49.0;

Gypsy: 1. Sanjay Agarwal/ Ramesh KumarV 2: 42.0; 2. Shafeeq Ur Rehman/ Ajith KP 2:42.9; 3. Sachin Singh/ Sri Latha 2:42.9.

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