Vikram Mathias, PVS Murthy crowned INRC Champions

Coorg, 30 Nov 2008: Karnataka duo Vikram Mathias and co-driver PV Srinivasa Murthy of Red Rooster Racing team won the overall title and were crowned the champions of the Indian National Racing Championship (INRC) for 2008 with a round to spare here on Sunday. Thus, Vikram Mathias bagged his second National title. He won the crown for the first time in 2004 with Sujith Kumar BS as his co-driver. It was the maiden title for Murthy.

Rally de Coorg, the fifth and penultimate round of the INRC took off for the second leg on Sunday with the 20 competitors starting from Gandhi Maidan at 7 am to show case their talent and driving skills in the three stages which were run in reverse direction today.

Vikram Mathias and PVS Murthy took the overall honours with steady performance and were trailed by another Karnataka pair Girijashankar Joshy and co-driver Prajval Pai, of Team Winspeed, who notched up an impressive overall second beside winning their class, the 1600cc.

Sujay and co-driver SM Bharath won the 1400cc class beating Hyderabad’s Mazdayar Vatcha and co-driver Vinayak Nanada to take the second place in the 1400cc class.

Local star Den Thimmaiah, the brother of international hockey star Len Aiyappa, had Ravindra as his co-driver and the duo performed admirably to claim Overall fourth place and in the process also won the Rally Star Cup (RSC). 

Shafeeque and co-driver George Varghese also overtook the overnight second-placed teams of Raghuram CG and co-driver Balram CG and third-placed team of Byram Godrej and navigator Anjay Kapadia to clinch the second position in the RSC Class.

Experienced pair of Sanjay Agarwal and co-driver Elias Paarel notched up a facile win in their class to win the Gypsy Cup while J Aravind and co-driver Varun came second.

Provisional Results after Day 2:

Overall: 1. Vikram Mathias/ PVS Murthy (Red Rooster Racing) (1hour, 41min, 41sec); 2. Girijashanker Joshy/ Prajval Pai (Team Winspeed) (1:48:10); 3. S Sujay/ SM Bharth (1:51:03); 4. Den Thimmaiah/ Ravindra (1:51:39); 5. Mazdayar Vatcha/ Vinayak Nanda (1:52:06).

1600cc class: 1. Girijashanker Joshy /Prajval Pai (1:48:10).

1400cc class: 1. S Sujay/ SM Bharath (1:51:03); 2. Mazdayar Vatcha/ Vinayak Nandalike  (1:52:06); 3. JM Manju/ Jeevarathinam (1:59:30).

Rally Star Cup: 1. Den Thimmaiah/ Ravindra (1:51:39); 2. Shafeeq-ur-Rehman/ Geroge Varghese (1:53:09); 3. Raghuram CG/ Balram CG (1:53:40).

Gypsy Class: 1. Sanjay Agarwal/ Elias Paarel (1:59:11); 2. J Aravin/ Varun (2:00:38); 3.
Venkatesh/ Lakshmikant (2:5:17).

ends