K-1000 winners from 1975: KMSC Hall of fame

By David Bodapati

Bengaluru, 16 November 2020: Karnataka is rich in its motorsport history. The state is not only home to many champions of the past but is a cradle of talent and contributed to the Indian motorsport history with many activities. K-1000 rally, the flagship event of the State is a popular and vibrant stage rally that is being organised from 1975. In 1988, it officially joined the calendar of the Indian National Rally Drivers and Co-drivers’ Championship and later, the Nationals were rechristened as Indian National Rally Championship under its current format. K-1000 for the first time shifted to the European Special Stage format in 1996 before which, the rallies were hardcore long-distance endurance events covering many states and usually more than 1000-mile long, and hence the name Karnataka-1000. It is one of the few events that were organised and run successfully by hardcore and passionate motorsports lovers and ran regularly. Some of the other rallies that had multiple editions are the Popular Rally in Kerala, the South India Rally in Chennai, the Charminar Challenge or the Deccan rally and the Coffee Day rally.

INDIAinF1.com has put together all the winners of the K-1000 from 1975, a compilation first undertaken in 2009 by the late Bharat Raj and Annabelle Manwaring, the promoters of INRC from 2009 to 2011. The last 11 years were added and some gaps were filled. The IMG-PSP duo also sourced historic images of Indian rallying and specially of K-1000 from many sources, with the major contribution coming from the Father of Indian Motorsport Photography, the late George Francis. A poster was released to commemorate the 35th K-1000 celebrations as KMSC completed 35 long years of dedicated service to motorsports, then. Now the club is getting ready to host both the 2w and 4w K-1000 rally once again for the 45th year.

Here is a list of the all the winners of K-1000, a jewel in the pride of Indian Rallying. Each round’s report will be added shortly. Or you can check the reports at INRC: Winners’ Hall of Fame here. Currently the list contains only the 4-wheel winners and the 2-w biker champions’ list is work in progress and will be updated soon.

Multiple Asia Pacific Rally champion Gaurav Gill tops the table with six K-1000 wins followed by 7-time INRC champion N Leelakrishnan who bagged the K-1000 five times followed by Naren Kumar, who won it for three times, along with Ravi Gupta, who also had three wins, but it appears he may have navigated for the inaugural edition winner DR Sivaram in 1980, for his second K1000 trophy. Kiran Mody, too had won the K1000 three times.