Philippos Matthai wins INRC2, claims stunning overall 2nd; Third win for Aroor Arjun Rao

Coimbatore, 30 July 2023: Philippos Matthai, the Delhi Daredevil from Team Speedsport, claimed a stunning victory in the INRC2 class and finished ahead of many higher-spec cars with an Overall second, even as Aroor Arjun Rao continued his winning spree in the top Overall class annexing the Rally of Coimbatore, the third round of the Blueband fmsci Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) 2023 for four-wheelers which concluded here at the Kethanur Windmill farms on Sunday.

Team Mandovi Racing’s Aroor Arjun Rao with co-driver Satish Rajagopal put in a consistent performance to notch up his third Overall victory in as many rounds and retained his Championship lead while Philippos Matthai and co-driver PV Srinivasa Murthy in a Volkswagen Polo prepared by Leelakrishnan of Arka Motorsports powered to the top of the podium winning INRC2 and beat all the other top-spec INRC cars except that of Arjun Rao in the Overall standings. In the last round in Arunachal Pradesh, Philippos finished second in INRC2 and came Overall 5th after a forgettable first round in the South India Rally where he was forced to pullout within 2-km of the finish due to mechanical problems while leading second Overall.

Pre-event favourites Arjun Awardee Gaurav Gill (Aniruddha Rangnekar) and defending champion Karna Kadur (Nikhil Pai) failed to finish the rally.

“With a calculated strategy we garnered as many points as possible in the previous two rallies and our consistent and steady performance helped as we are back on the top in our class. I am very happy and with three more rallies to go, our target is to win the championship,” said the 39-year four-time National champion in different motorsports disciplines. The lawyer by education and car-builder and rally driver by passion, Philippos is remembered for driving the medical chase car at the F1 Grands Prix races held at Buddh International Circuit in 2012 and 2013.

Talented Chandigarh driver Jahaan Singh Gill along with Suraj Keshav Prasad won the INRC3 class ahead of Jason Saldanha of Mangaluru with co-driver Thimmu Uddapanda, who last week got on to the podium of RAAT the Rally of Thailand in their class.

Ruthuparna Vivek and co-driver Athreya Kousgi claimed INRC4 category beating Shirole Prakhyat and Bharath SM by a huge distance. Behind them the Chikkamagaluru paid of Prajwal HM and Vinay SM finished in third place.

Dehradun’s Anushriya Gulati with a new co-driver in Sherwin Dalmeida of Managaluru won the Ladies class. Representing Dark Don Rallying, the duo had a huge lead over second-placed Nikeetaa Takkale (Venu Ramesh Kumar). Mumbai’s Shivani Parmar and Bengaluru”s Arjun Dheerendra of Chettinad Sporting finished third.

Provisional Results:  Final Unaudited Classification:

Overall: 1. Aroor Arjun Rao, Mangaluru / Satish Rajagopal, Bengaluru (Mandovi Racing) 1:53:48.4;

2. Philippos Matthai, Delhi/ PVS Murthy, Bengaluru (Arka Motorsports) 1: 54:20.0;

3. Amittrajit Ghosh, Kolkata/ Ashwin Naik, Mangaluru (Arka Motorsports) 1: 54: 31.1;

INRC:

1. Aroor Arjun Rao, Mangaluru / Satish Rajagopal, Bengaluru (Mandovi Racing) 1:53:48.4;

2. Amittrajit Ghosh, Kolkata/ Ashwin Naik, Mangaluru (Arka Motorsports) 1: 54: 31.1.

3. Rahul Kanthraj Vivek Y Bhatt (Both Bengaluru) (Arka Motorsports) 1: 55: 39.1;

INRC2:

1. Philippos Matthai, Delhi/ PVS Murthy, Bengaluru (Arka Motorsports) 1: 54:20.0;

2. Fabid Ahmer/ Sanath G, both Palakkad (Chettinad Sporting)  1:54:37.7;

3. Dr Bikku Babu / Milen George, Both Ernakulam, (Chettinad Sporting) 1:55.00.3;

INRC3:

1. Jahan Singh Gill, Chandigarh/ Suraj Keshav Prasad, Bengaluru (Snap Racing) 1:55:37.6;

2. Jason Saldanha, Bengaluru/ Thimmu Uddapanda, Coorg(Dark Don Rallying) 1: 55:45.3;

3. Daraious Shroff, Mumbai/ Shahid Salman, Bengaluru(Chettinad Sporting) 1:57:04.5.

INRC4:

1. Ruthuparna Vivek/ Athreya Kousgi, Privateers, both Chikkamagaluru 2: 03:10.5;

2. Shirole H Prakhyat/ Bharath SM, Both Bengaluru, 2:06:32.6;

3. Prajwal HM/ Vinay SM, pvt, both Chikkamagaluru, 2:12:40.6;

Gypsy: 

1. Darshan Nachappa/ Abhinav Ganapathy (Both Coorg) Ammyfied Rallying, 2:06:10.7;

2. Abhishek Gowda, Chikkamagaluru/ Dheeraj Manae, Pvt, Bengaluru 2:07:29.6;

3.Jayanth Somanathan/ R Rajashekar, Pvt,  2:12:16.0.

Ladies class:

1. Anushriya Gulati, Dehradun/ Sherwin Dalmeida, Mangaluru, (Dark Don Rallying) (1:49:14.2);

2. Nikeetaa Takkale, Pune/ Venu Ramesh Kumar, Coimbatore (Ammyfied Rallying) (2:02:18.4);

3. Shivani Parmar, Mumbai/ Arjun Dheerendra, Bengaluru (Chettinad Sporting) (2:22:47.0).

Junior INRC:

1. Jahan Singh Gill, Chandigarh/ Suraj Keshav Prasad, Bengaluru (Snap Racing) (1:55:37.6);

2. Ajay Sankar, Kollam/ Nitharshan, Kollakurichi, pvt, (1:59:21.7);

3. Nikeetaa Takkale, Pune/ Venu Ramesh Kumar, Coimbatore (Ammyfied) 2:02:18.4);

(Note: Results corrected after release of Official results)