Maiden Overall title for Sagar Muthappa-Sandeep Rao
By George Francis/ Scorp News
Madikeri, 30 Sept 2001: Team MRF’s Sagar Muthappa and co-driver Sandeep S Rao won their maiden Overall Title in the Coorg Xpresso Rally, the sixth round of the MAI Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) here on Sunday.
The Motorsports Association of India charted an eight round calendar and the last two rounds will be in Cochin on October and Mangalore in November. The sixth round here attracted a total number of 18 cars.
The Sagar-Sandeep duo was the National Rally Champion in 1998 in a lower class and it took nearly three years for the two to win a major title after they had shifted to a higher-class car. “We have done it,” said Sagar, leaning on his Team MRF red and white Honda City. “We were always finishing behind Naren and his partner and we needed that extra bit to prove our worth and we did that today.”
It was a similar case in the Rally Star Cup category too as JM Manju and co-driver Srinivas Murthy, in a blue-hued Esteem, won their maiden title. Both Manju and Murthy have been rallying on two wheelers from 1988 to 1996 and, in fact, Manju is also a motocross rider.
They shifted to cars this season with the advent of the RSC which offers a rally-prepared car with service back-up and a room for two for four days, at a low cost of Rs.45,000 per event.
“We feel great winning the rally here and we will try our best in the other two rallies of the season,” said Manju, and added “but anyday bikes are more fun than cars.”
The first leg of the Coorg rally was between Yemmagoondi and Polibetta estates, run twice each in the forward and reverse direction to make up eight Special Stages. The second leg is between Margolly and Cottabetta estates, run twice in the forward and once in the reverse direction to make up six Special Stages. So there were 14 Special Stages to test the skills of the National rallyists on the slippery dirt roads of the Coorg coffee estates.
National champion VR Naren Kumar and his co-driver D Ramkumar got off to a flying start and took the early lead on the opening day but luck eluded them as they crashed out during the second stage. Explaining the crash Naren Kumar said: “It was a fast left-hander. There was a bush extending a little onto the road and blinding the exit of the turn. I moved a little to the right to avoid it but hit the embankment that was on the road and the car went out of control and crashed. With the windshield smashed, we had no other option than to opt out of the rally.”
That gave Sagar and SAndeep, who were 15 seonds behind Naren and Ram in the initial stages of the rally, the upper hand. At the end of the day they had increased the lead considerably and enjoyed a two-minute advantage over their nearest rivals N Leelakrishnan and Farooq Ahmed.
Team MRF’s Vikram Mathias and co-driver Sujith Kumar took the day’s honours in the 1400cc class, while Lohith Urs and MK Bopanna were sitting pretty in the RSC event.
The second leg, flagged off the next day, had a lot in store in the six Special Stages that were planned out. There was a heavy downpour which made the dirt roads slushier. As a result the fifth Special Stage on the Cottabetta Estate was cancelled due to safety reasons. All the competitors played it safe and were content to finish the leg and pick up points for the Overall Championship. Arjun Balu and KR Kumar, who finished third overall, summed it up by saying, “In the given conditions our only aim was to gain as many points as possible.”
While the overnight leaders in two of the events continued their good run and went on to win the titles, Lohith and Bopanna were rather unfortunate in that they had gear ox problems andhad to pull out from the RSC Category. Manju and Murthy won the event comfortably in the end.
The Overall title has put Sagar and Sandeep in contention for the National Championship and they are now in the third position with 32 points. N Leelakrishnan and Farooq are still on the top with 51 points followed by Vikram Mathias and BS Sujith Kumar with 35 points.
AS Muthanna of TATA Coffee, who was the Chief Guest, gave away the prizes to the winners.
Provisional Results:
Overall: 1. Sagar Muthappa/ Sandeep S Rao (Team MRF) (1hour, 44minutes, 01second); 2. N Leelakrishnan/ Farooq Ahmed (Team MRF) (1:46:16); 3. Arjun Balu/ KR Kumar (Team MRF) (1:46:28).
1401-1600cc Class: 1. Sagar Muthappa/ Sandeep S Rao (Team MRF) (1hour, 44minutes, 01second); 2. N Leelakrishnan/ Farooq Ahmed (Team MRF) (1:46:16); 3. Arjun Balu/ KR Kumar (Team MRF) (1:46:28).
801 to 1400cc Class: 1. Vikram Mathias/ BS Sujith Kumar (Team MRF) (1:49:31); 2. Jagat Nanjappa/ Anita Nanjappa (Team MRF) (1:49:51); 3. R Gopinath/ C Rajaram (2:10:41).
Rally Star Cup: 1. JM Manju/ U Srinivas Murthy (2:03:43); 2. Zubin P Nariman/ Mazdayar Vatcha (2:09:54); 3. Abdul Haq Saleem/ Sayed Mastaq (2:17:14).
Editor’s Note: The story is manually migrated in 2020 to support `INRC: Hall of Fame’ article
