Satish-Savera duo win; Chidu-Sujith clinch their class

Bangalore, August 20 2012: The husband-wife duo of Satish Gopalkrishnan and Savera D’Souza from Bangalore took the overall and Pro-Expert class honours in the first round of the JK Tyre-FMSCI Indian National TSD Rally Championship 2012 – Rally of Bengaluru, promoted by Berunda Adventure Sports Club with JK Tyre as the title sponsor on Sunday.

With a penalty time of just 52 seconds, Gopalkrishnan and D’Souza who were in a Maruti Grand Vitara, pipped KP Karthick Maruthi and Sankar Anand from Erode (Maruti Esteem) by 10 seconds. The Chandigarh pair of Jagmeet Gill and Yogesh Gupta – driving a Volkswagen Vento – came third, a further 15 seconds behind.

Topping the Pro-Stock class was the Bangalore duo of Chidananda Murthy and BS Sujith Kumar in a brand new Tata Indica Vista with a penalty time of 3 minutes 15 seconds, followed by Ramprashath and C Sakthivel, also from Bangalore in a Honda City (3:32) with S Senthil Kumar and P Velusamy (Erode, Peugeot) finishing third in 4:45.

The Novice class honours went to another Erode pair of B Manikandan and A Parthipan in a Mahindra Scorpio who were docked 6 minutes 29 seconds, as they finished ahead of their city-mates Baskaran G and P Ganesan (Maruti Esteem) while T Sujith and Shahid Salman from Bangalore in a Fiat Punto came in third.

Kolkata’s Deepali Poddar and her navigator Ipsita Das seated in a Maruti Alto took the honours in the All-Ladies class with a penalty of 4 minutes 58 seconds.

Gopalkrishnan, who along with Savera chalked up the fourth podium finish in five major TSD events this year, said, “Obviously, the two of us are very happy and our victory is due to a team effort as it involves understanding and co-ordination between driver and navigator. In addition, the competition was so close that anybody could win.”

“It was quite challenging since promoters Berunda Adventure Sports Club had introduced some new concepts. It was a well-run event overall and we would like to thank the promoters and the FMSCI for organizing the championship,” the couple added.

For the Murthy-Sujith combine, it was a victory to savour as they were armed with just a calculator and a note pad while dispensing with the popular trip meter. “It is good to win after a string of second place finishes. We trusted ourselves with a calculator and nothing else. That is why this win is so special,” said Sujith who is one of untry’s leading navigators with vast experience in two and four-wheeler rallying.

The day-long event that began at the Golden Gate Properties in the morning covered 265km as the 54 vehicles traversed through picturesque areas in Magadi, Ramanagar, Bidadi, Kanakapura and Sarjapur regions before finishing at Love Shack, Inner Ring Road, Indiranagar, in the evening.

Final classification

Overall / Pro-Expert: Satish Gopalkrishnan / Savera D’Souza (Bangalore, Maruti Grand Vitara) 1 (0:00:52secs); KP Karthick Maruthi / Sankar Anand (Erode, Maruti Esteem) 2 (0:01min, 02secs); Jagmeet Gill / Yogesh Gupta (Chandigarh, VW Vento) 3 (0:01:17)

Pro-Stock: Chidananda Murthy / BS Sujith Kumar 1 (Bangalore, TATA Indica Vista) 1 (0:03:15); Ramprashath / C Sakthivel (Bangalore, Honda City) 2 (0:03:32); S Senthil Kumar / P Velusamy (Erode, Peugeot) 2 (0:04:45) 3

Novice: B Manikandan / A Parthipan (Erode, Mahindra Scorpio) 1 (0:06:29); Baskaran G / P Ganesan (Erode, Maruti Esteem) 2 (0:07:07); T Sujith / Shahid Salman (Bangalore, Fiat Punto) 3 (0:07:53)

All Ladies: Deepali Poddar / Ipsita Das (Kolkata, Maruti Alto) 1 (0:04.58)

ends