Naren Kumar-Musa Sherif win MRF Taj Challenge

Nashik, 8 June 2003: Defending champion VR Naren Kumar and co-driver Musa Sherif of Team MRF gave an awesome display of speed and controlled driving to win the MRF Taj Challenge Rally, the second round of the Motorsports Association of India’s (MAI) Indian National Rally Championship (INRC), here on Sunday.

It was Naren Kumar sixth straight INRC victory and he appeared well on course to equaling 10 straight wins by teammate N Leelakrishnan in 1992-93. But in this rally,  Naren was without his regular co-driver D Ramkumar, who is getting married later in the week.

At the finish of the two-day event that saw the cars complete six Special Stages, Naren Kumar was a comfortable 55 seconds ahead of teammates Arjun Balu and co-driver Kumar Ramaswamy who finished a distant second. Naren clocked 1::13:40 to Balu’s 1::14:35.

Naren Kumar, the 28-year-old from Coimbatore, clocked one hour, 13 minutes, 40 seconds to Balu’s 1:14:35.

Meanwhile, the third Team MRF driver in the running, Karandip Singh and co-driver Jaidas Menon suffered his third puncture of the event and lost considerable time to finish sixth, behind Jiby Maliakkal (co-driver Nikhil Pai).

There were some pleasing performances lower down the field, especially in the 1400cc class won by Rahul Kantha Raj and co-driver Vivek Bhatt of Team Nova. The duo also finished third in the overall standings.

Arjunrao Aroor, a teenager from Manipal, won the Rally Star Cup in the company of co-driver C K Chinnappa, the oldest competitor at 51 years of age.

Aroor’s victory was more or less confirmed late last night when one of his main competitor, Sanjay Agarwal (co-driver Ashwin Naik) was excluded from the Rally by the Stewards. Agarwal was penalised for attending to his gear-box in the control area just at the start of the day’s last special stage.

Provisional Unaudited Results:

Overall: 1. VR Naren Kumar/Musa Sherif (Team MRF) (1 hour, 13 mins, 40 secs); 2. Arjun Balu/Kumar Ramaswamy (Team MRF) (1:14:35); 3. Rahul Kantharaj/ Vivek Bhatt (Team Nova) (1:19:10); 4. Lohit V Urs/ MK Bopanna (1:19:13); 5. Jiby Maliakkal/ Nikhil Pai (1:22:59); 6. Karandip Singh/ Jaidas Menon(Team MRF) (1:23:11); 7. V Shamsunder/PVS Murthy (Blue Lines) (1:25:13).

 1400cc: 1. Kantharaj/Bhatt; 2. Urs/Bopanna; 3. Shamsunder/Murthy.

Rally Star Cup: 1. Arjun Rao Aroor/ CK Chinnappa ; 2. Ranjith Ballal/ Shanmuga Nataraj; 3. Anita Kholay/ Rashmi Bopanna.