Karandip Singh-Jaidas Menon win K-1000 Rally

Bangalore, 12 August 2001: Karandip Singh and co-driver Jaidas Menon clinched the 27th K-1000 Rally, the fourth round of the MAI Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) here on Sunday.

The Delhi-Bangalore duo may not be the fastest drivers on the track but their consistence performance saw them receive rich dividends as they clocked the best time recording 1hour, 49minutes and 5seconds to clear the eight Special Stages ahead of others. Though the pair did not record any fastest stage time in any of the Special Stages, they emerged faster than the next best pair, the multiple former National champions Leelakrishnan and Farooq Ahmed by 24 seconds and are more than a minute ahead of the third-placed husband and wife biking legends Jagat Nanjappa and Anita Nanjappa, who clocked 1:50:16 to take the third place in the Overall honours.

Youngsters Vikram Mathias and BS Sujith Kumar began on a blistering pace setting the fastest time in the first stage clocking 10min 33 seconds but the duo with great potential slowed down in the next two stages finishing third and fourth and had to pull out in SS 4. That ended their campaign.

Then another formidable pair Sagar Muthappa and co-driver Sandeep S Rao, who overcame initial hiccups and appeared to be going on top of everyone clocking the fastest stage times in three stages, topping SS2, SS3 and SS4 but thereafte could not sustain the tempo finishing fifth, fourth, fourth an fifth respectively in the last four Special Stages. However, they finished Overall runners-up to Singh and Menon.

Former Multiple National Champion Leelakrishnan and co-driver Farooq Ahmed, who set the fastest timing in Special Stage 7 came third in the Overall placings followed by biking legends, the husband-and-wife pair of  Jagat Nanjappa and Anita Nanjappa, who topped Special Stage 5. Talented Arjun Balu and co-driver KR Kumar, who managed to clocke fastest times SS6 and SS8, were in the reckoning for top spots but lost too much time in SS4 that put paid to their hopes and they ended in Overall fifth place.

The next Rally at Goa, the Old Anchor Rally de Goa, the fifth of the 8-round MAI National calendar will be held from September 7 to 9.

Provisional Results:

Overall: 1. Karandip Singh/ Jaidas Menon (1 hour, 49minutes, 05seconds); 2.  B Sagar Muthappa/ Sandeep S Rao (1:49:09); 3. N Leelakrishnan/Farooq Ahmed (1:49:33); 4. Jagat Nanjappa/Anita Nanjappa (1:50:16); 5. Arjun Balu/ KR Kumar (1:54:39).

Stage winners

SS-1: 1. Vikram Mathias/BS Sujith Kumar 10:33; 2. Leelakrishnan/Farooq Ahemd 10:35; 3. Arjun Balu/KR Kumar 10:42;

SS-2: 1. Sagar Muthappa/Sandeep S Rao 15: 37; 2. Arjun Balu KR Kumar 15:39; 3. Karandip Singh/Jaidas Menon 15:40;

SS-3: 1. Sagar Muthappa/Sandeep S Rao  10:03; 2. Karandip Singh/Jaidas Menon 10:09; 3. Vikram Mathias/BS Sujith Kumar 10:19;

SS-4: 1. Sagar Muthappa/Sandeep S Rao  14:47; 2. Karandip Singh/Jaidas Menon 14:56; 3. Jagat Nanjappa/Anita Nanjappa 15:36;

SS-5: 1. Jagat Nanjappa/Anita Nanjappa 10:45; 2. Arjun Balu KR Kumar 10:48; 3. Leelakrishnan/Farooq Ahemd 11:02;

SS-6: 1. . Arjun Balu KR Kumar 16:03; 2. Leelakrishnan/Farooq Ahemd 16:23; 3. Karandip Singh/Jaidas Menon 16:44;

SS-7: 1. Leelakrishnan/Farooq Ahemd 10:42; 2. Jagat Nanjappa/Anita Nanjappa 10:43; 3. Arjun Balu KR Kumar 10:47;

SS-8: 1. . Arjun Balu KR Kumar 16:25; 2. Jiby Maliakkal/ Rohan Rego 17:15; 3. Philioppos Matthai/Sundarshan Gowda 17:49;

ends