Lohith Urs leads Team MRF 1-2 at Popular Rally

By George Francis

Kochi, 14 Sept 2008: Team MRF Limited finished the Popular Rally of Kerala 2008, taking the top two spots comfortably. After capitalising on the overnight lead, ‘Team Reds’ were placed on the top two steps of the podium, with hardly any competition with Lohith Urs and co-driver Chandramouli winning the Popular Rally, the third round of the Indian National Rally Championship 2008 here on Sunday. Teammates Arjun Rao Aroor and navigator Satish Rajagopal came second while most of the rest of the top runners had pulled out on Saturday due to various mechanical reasons. Lohith Urs made his debut in a Cedia.

“We have been running by and far in the top three positions in the last five rallies, and we are confident that we would do well. We are happy with the win,” said Lohith Urs, who won the rally on debut in a Cedia 2000 N+ car. Lohith and co-driver Chandramouli, clocked a penalty of I hour 15 minutes and 18 seconds in the two-day rally. Team MRF’s Arjun Rao Aroor and co-driver Satish Rajagopal who were almost 2 minutes behind Lohith, finished second overall and first in the 1600 N+ class, driving a Ford Fiesta.

The Popular Rally of Kerala 2008 that was flagged off on Saturday morning had to cancel one of the Special Stages due to technical issues and ran only 2 of the scheduled 3 stages.

Biju Antony and co-driver Uday Kumar, of Kochi, won the 1600cc class, followed by Roopesh Kholay and navigator Prajval Pai and Sanket Shanbhag and Ramesh Shanbhag of Team Winspeed in third. In fact, the Shanbhags were running third overall on Saturday and were holding the same position until the final stage of the rally, where they went off the road and lost time to concede the second place.

The 1400cc class saw a new winner in Bonnie Thomas from Thodupuzha co-driven by Adhiraj Bhardhan. Sujay and Bharath pair finished second while Francis and Royce came 3^rd.

In the Rally Star Cup, Den Thimmaiah and Dinesh finished on top followed by Vikram Devadasan and Anoop Kumar in second. Kaushik Shinde and Sulaiman Shaikh came third.

The Gypsy Class was won by Sandeep Sharma and Rashid Raza beating Surenda Babu and Nayeen to second place. Experienced pair of Sanjay Agarwal and Elias Paarel came third.

The Kerala Auto Sports Club (KASC) organised Popular Rally of Kerala 2008, which ran 400-odd kilometers, of which about 100-kms were competitive stage distance and the rest traversing transport distance. The next round of the MAI INRC would run in Coimbatore in October.

Provisional unaudited Results:

OVERALL: 1.Lohith Urs & Chandramouli (Team MRF Limited) 1hour, 15min, 18sec; 2. Arjun Rao & Satish Rajagopal (Team MRF Limited) (1: 17: 10); 3. Bonnie Thomas & Adhiraj  Bharadhan (1:21:41); 4. Biju Antony & Uday Kumar (1:21:52); 5. Den Thimmiah & Dinesh (1:22:06);

2000cc: 1.Lohith Urs & Chandramouli (Team MRF Limited) 1hour, 15min, 18sec;

1600 cc: 1. Biju Antony & Uday Kumar (1:21:52); 2. Roopesh Kholay & Prajual Pai (1:24:36); 3. Sanket Shanbhag & Ramesh Shanbhag (Team Winspeed) (1:32:50).

1400cc: 1. Bonnie Thomas & Adhiraj Bhardhan (1:21:41); 2. Sujay & Bharath (1:24:00); 3. Francis KJ & Royce (1:24:46).

Rally Star Cup: 1. Den Thimmiah & Dinesh (1:22:06); 2. Vikram Devadasan & Anoop Kumar (1:23:42); 3. Kaushik Shinde & Sulaiman Shaikh (1: 25:21).

Gypsy Class: 1. Sandeep Sharma & Rashid Raza (1: 25:00); 2. Surendra Babu &  Nayeen (1: 27:15); 3. Sanjay Agarwal & Elias Paarel (1:30: 46).

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