Naren Kumar-Ram win Rally de Goa for 2nd win

Panajim (Goa), 12 Sept 2004: Defending champions VR Naren Kumar and D Ramkumar of Team MRF edged out strong contenders and teammates Vikram Mathias and Sujith Kumar to win the WIAA Rally de Goa, the fourth round of the MAI Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) here on Sunday.

Naren Kumar put the tragedy in the second round behind him and drove a steady rally driving his Baleno with control to win by 13 seconds. Naren, thus gained valuable points, with this second win in the INRC, having won K1000, the second round at Bangalore. The first round at Nashik was won by Philippos Mathai and Ashwin Naik while Vikram Mathias and Sujith Kumar clinched the third round at Cochin.

Prithveen Rajan and co-driver PVS Murthy won the 1400cc class beating Ranjit Ballal and co-driver Ramesh while Sanjay Agarwal and co-driver Chandramouli won the Rally Star Cup. Gaurav Chirpal along with navigator GM Srikanth won the Gypsy Class beating Anil Wadia and co-driver Pradeep Kumar.

Provisional (Unaudited) Results: 1600cc INRC: 1. VR Naren Kumar/ D Ramkumar (Team MRF) (1hour, 13min, 32sec); 2. Vikram Mathaias/ Sujith Kumar (Team MRF) (1:13.45).

1400cc: 1. Prithveen Rajan/ PVS Murthy (1:18.44); 2. Ranjit Ballal/
Ramesh (1:18.57); 3. Purujit Singh/ Musa Sherif (1:22.43); 4. Philippos Mathai/
Ashwin Naik (1:22.59); 5. Nitin Batra/ Gaurav Srivastav (1:23.14).

Rally Star Cup: 1. Sanjay Agarwal/ Chandramouli (1:00.11); 2. Jasbir Singh
Randhwa/ Jeetendra Nath (1:02.11); 3. Rajesh Gadakh/ Paritosh Kohok (1:04.02).

Gypsy category: 1. Gaurav Chiripal/ GM Srikanth (1:24.16); 2. Anil Wadia/
Pradeep Kumar (1:24.16).