Karna-Nikhil duo are INRC 2016 champions

By David Bodapati

Bengaluru, 18 Dec 2016: Karna Kadur and co-driver Nikhil Pai of Team Yokohama R2 became the National champions in the Indian National Rally Championship for the year 2016 despite finishing sixth overall in the MRF 42^nd K1000 Rally 2016 which concluded near Hosadurga, about 220 kms from here.

Amittrajit Ghosh and Ashwin Naik drove in a steady and cautious manner to bag the coveted K1000 rally with a time of 51 minutes, 40.2 seconds. This is the second time that the Team Mahindra Adventure driver has won India’s oldest rally in the country, the last one being in 2013. The Ghosh duo became the only son and father pair to win the popular K1000. Amittrajit’s father and chief of current INRC promoter RRPM, Arindam Ghosh won the K1000 in 1981. He was one of the aggressive bunch of speed masters in early 80s who clinched the Karnataka 1000 in a Fiat over 1000 miles of rough and tumble.

Phalguna V Urs and Chandramouli finished second a time of 53:38.1 while Rahul Kanthraj and Vivek Bhatt came third clocking 54:30.5.

Favourite Gaurav Gill of Team Mahindra Adventure dropped out in the very first stage with a driveshaft failure. Arjun Rao was another prominent casualty who had a gearbox failure while running third.

Talking to India in F1, Arindam Ghosh, Director, Ramakrishna Race Performance Management (RRPM), the promoters of the Indian Natinal Rally Championship said: “It has been a lovely year of rallying and it can only get better from here. We promise to bring back an even better championship next year”. Earlier, he hinted that the INRC may use the Saturday for some night rallying, running a loop of special stages on Saturday nights instead of extending the event by another day which has financial and logistical implications. For the first time INRC, became a one-day event with rallying only on Sunday. Till 2015, the National Championship used to run for three or two days with a Super Special Stage either on Friday or Sunday.

Abhilash PG and Srikant Gowda took overall honors in Indian Rally Championship (IRC), run concurrently with the INRC, in 54:31.4, some 5 sconds ahead of Mohammed Kasim AA and Sanath G Ritesh.  M Guttedar and Sheraz Ahmed were third timing 1 minute and 0.9 seconds.

Amittrajit and Ashwin took home Rs. 50,000/- in prize money.

Provisional Results: Overall winners: 1. Abhilash PG / Srikant Gowda GM (54:31.4); 2. Mohammead Asim AA / Sanath G (59:28.4); 3. Ritesh M Guttedar / Sheraz Ahmed (1:00:00.9).

IRC: 1. Abhilash PG / Srikant Gowda GM (54:31.4); 2. Mohammead Kasim AA / Sanath G (59:28.4); 3. Ritesh M Guttedar / Sheraz Ahmed (1:00:00.9).

INRC:  1. Amittrajit Ghosh / Ashwin M Naik (51:40.2); 2. Phalguna V Urs / Chandramouli CM (53:38.1): 3. Rahul Kantharaj / Vivek Y Bhatt (54:30.5).

INRC 2000: 1. Rahul Kantharaj / Vivek Y Bhatt (54:30.5): 2. Bopaiah KM/ Gagan Karumbaiah (54:35.8): 3. Aroor Vikram Rao / Jeevarathinam J (54:56.0).

FMSCI Cup: 1. Sridhar N Urs / Roopesh BC (1:01:59.3); 2. Krishna Kant Yadav / Sagar M (1:06:32.3); 3. Ganapathy SC/ Venu Ramesh Kumar (1:12:21.7).

Support event: Gypsy Cup: 1. Sanjay Agarwal / Smitha N (1:03:37.4); 2. Shiv Kumar Reddy/ Vinay Prasad BK (1:07:45.8); 3. Nayan J Sharma /Shuchindra SP (1:11:09.6)

ends/david