Lohith Urs-Jaidas Menon win Rally of Maharashtra; Gill-Musa clinch INRC title

Pune, 1 Dec 2007: With an overnight lead of 1 minute, 52 seconds, nothing short of a complete breakdown could have prevented Lohit Urs and co-driver Jaidas Menon from driving to their first overall win the MAI’s Indian National Rally Championship 2007. It ultimately proved to be smooth sailing for the jovial driver from Mysore as he increased his overnight lead to 2 minutes, 15 seconds over the second-placed Amitrajit Ghosh to take overall honours in the WISA Rally of Maharashtra, sponsored by MRF and the Pandit Group, which concluded in Pune on Sunday.

Urs’ victory helped him leapfrog into third position in the points tally for the overall National championship, which had already been decided in Team MRF’s Gaurav Gill’s favour before this last round. Another Team MRF driver, Arjun Rao Aroor, who finished third overall in this round, is second in the points tally for the National Championship. Gill tallied 48 points, followed by Aroor (26), with Urs tied with Amitrajit Ghosh on 24.

Aroor, who held a comfortable lead in the 1600cc category, and Amitrajit Ghosh, leader in the 1400cc category, secured the National championships in their respective categories with their leading performances here. Aroor has tallied 50 points, followed by Rahul Kanthraj (21) and Philipos Mathai (14). Kanthraj and co-driver Vivek Bhatt finished third in the 1600cc category here, behind the son-father duo of Sanket Shanbhag and Ramesh Shanbhag. Ghosh, a comfortable winner in the 1400c category, also emerged the National champion with 56 points, a huge lead over the second-placed Prithvi Dominic (25).

The close battles for the National Championship in the Rally Star Cup and the Gypsy Cup were decided in the favour of Mazdayar Vatcha and Suresh Rana after their victories here over Abhijeet Pai and Surendra Babu respectively. Vatcha and Pai were tied on 27 points before the final round, but Vatcha who held an overnight lead of 48 seconds over Pai, managed to keep his nose ahead till the end. Pai finished third in the rally Star Cup behind Byram Godrej, his show earning him the second spot in the RSC points table for the National Championship.

The need for extra speed proved disastrous for Chetan Shivram and co-driver Roopesh Kholay, who crashed out on the second day, one of the two cars to not finish the day’s proceedings, the other being driven by Ashutosh Shetty and co-driver Anup.

The podium finish was held at the service park at Kurund, near Shirur and was accompanied by a Maharashtrian cultural show, which also had special guests in the form of State Finance Minister, Shri Jayant Patil and State Forest Minister, Shri. Babanrao Pachpute.

Provisional Unofficial results:

Overall: 1. Lohit Urs/Jaidas Menon (Fiesta, Team MRF) (1 hour, 11 mins, 39 secs); 2. Amitrajit Ghosh/ Sourabh Choudhary (Esteem) (1: 13.54); 3. Arjun Rao Aroor/Satish Kumar (Baleno, Team MRF) (1:15.53); 4. Prithvi Dominic/Jeevarathinam (Esteem) (1:17.02); 5. Sanket Shanbhag/Ramesh Shanbhag (Baleno) 1:17.13.

1600 cc: 1. Arjun Rao Aroor/Satish Kumar (Baleno, Team MRF) (1:15.53); 2. Sanket Shanbhag/Ramesh Shanbhag (Baleno) (1: 17.13); 3. Rahul Kanthraj/Vivek Bhatt (Baleno) (1:23.09).

1400cc: 1. Amitrajit Ghosh/ Sourabh Choudhary (Esteem) (1:13.54); 2. Prithvi Dominic/ Jeevarathinam (Esteem) (1:17.02); 3. S Sujay/ Chandrasekhar M (Esteem) (1: 19.43).

Rally Star Cup: 1. Mazdayar Vatcha/Madhu K. C (Esteem) (1:20.25); 2. Byram Godrej/ Anjay Kapadia (Esteem) (1:20.49); 3. Abhijeet Pai/ Prajal Pai (Esteem) (1: 20.52).

Gypsy Cup: 1. Suresh Rana/ HS Bawa (1:23.37); 2. Surendra Babu/ Vinay Shaker (1:23.30); 3. Kamaljit Virdi/ Manoj Kumar (1:31.47).