Vikram Mathias-Sujith Kumar top in Delhi Rally

New Delhi, 21 Nov 2004: Team MRF’s Vikram Mathias overtook team-mate and overnight leader Karandip Singh to win the overall title in the MRF-Maruti Suzuki Rally of the North, the sixth round of the Motorsports Association of India’s Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) that concluded at the National Stadium, here, on Sunday.

With defending National champion VR Naren Kumar out of the fray, the coast is clear for Mathias and co-driver Sujith Kumar with one more round in hand. While Naren still leads the points tally with 44, Mathias’ victory here, which fetched him 14 points, has taken his tally to 43.

Mathias’ closest rival is Lohit Urs, who finished fastest on the second day and third overall to take his tally to 29.

The 1400cc was won comfortably by championship leader Prithveen Rajan and co-driver PVS Murthy, while Sanjay Agarwal and Anil Wadia maintained their momentum in the Rally Star Cup and Gypsy Cup, respectively, by winning with ease.

Mathias, who trailed Karandip by nine seconds overnight, pulled back two seconds on the first stage itself before conceding one in the second. However, it was in the third stage that he streaked ahead, making a princely 16 seconds on his rival from Chandigarh. The last stage saw both drivers easing up a bit, but here too Mathias was a second faster.

“I wanted to garner as many points as possible in this round, so I can plan my drive in the concluding round (Pune, Dec 4-5),” said Mathias.

Mysore’s Lohit Urs, winner of the Chandigarh round, was the fastest on Sunday. Urs had finished the first day in sixth position, thanks to car problems in the initial stages, but he was literally flying on the second day and finished 13 seconds ahead of Mathias. “A lot of things went wrong on the first day, or else I would have had a good chance to finish overall first,” said Urs, who was simply brilliant in the last stage, completing 8.62 km stage in 6.16 minutes.

All the drivers praised the dirt tracks that were prepared by the organizers Northern Motorsports, which provided for smooth and fast drives. Of the 34 cars that had entered, only four did not finish.

Provisional final results:

Overall: 1. Vikram Mathias/Sujith Kumar (Maruti Baleno, Team MRF) (76 mins 32 seconds); 2. Karandip Singh/Jaidas Mrenon (Maruti Baleno, Team MRF) (76.41); 3. Lohit Urs/Bonnie Thomas (Maruti Baleno) (76.48); 3. Prithveen Rajan/V S Murthy (Maruti Esteem) (77.52); 4. Arjun Rao Aroor/Shanmuga N (Maruti Esteem, Team Methods) (78.11).

1400cc: 1. Rajan/Murthy; 2. Aroor/Shanmuga; 3. Ranjith Ballal/Ramesh Kumar (Esteem) (79.33); 4. Sandeep Sharma/Kulbir Singh Dhaliwal (Maruti Esteem) (80.46).

Rally Star Cup: 1. Sanjay Agarwal/Chandramouli (Maruti Esteem) (79.32); 2. Rajesh Gadakh/Paritosh Kohok (Maruti Esteem) (83.25).

Gypsy Cup: 1. Anil Wadia/Satinder Singh (81.38); 2. Gaurav Chirpal/Sri Kantha GM (81.56).

Ends