Gill wins in Chennai
Rallying returns to Chennai as the 2018 INRC season kicks off
THE RALLYING SEASON has kicked off and contrary to earlier seasons, the 2018 season began in April with the South India Rally in Chennai. Although slated for the 2017 calendar, the rally never took place due to several reasons, inclement weather being the main cause that the round was cancelled.
The current championship will be contested over six rallies of which five have been confirmed. The usual Coimbatore, Chikmagalur and Bangalore rounds have stayed on the calendar while we see the Bengal rally making an appearance after four years. Previous year’s Jaipur and Arunachal rounds have been scrapped with even Nashik set to be dropped for the second year in a row.
There was hardly anyone to challenge the reigning INRC champion crew of Gaurav Gill and co-driver Musa Sherif who began the season in winning fashion. Gill’s recent announcement of his participation in the WRC2 class had buoyed his spirits which he put to good use to rack up yet another INRC win. It was double delight for his team – Mahindra Adventure – as they secured a 1-2 finish at the rally. Gill’s teammate Amittrajit Ghosh and co-driver Ashwin Naik did have to keep an eye out for the competition as they finished just 19.8s ahead Karna Kadur and co-driver Nikhil V Pai in their Volkswagen Polo. Karna also won the INRC 2 category ahead of Arka Motorsport teammates Rahul Kanthraj (Vivek Bhatt) and Snap Racing’s Sumit Punjabi (Shahid Salman).
Rookies Falkon Motorsport took the first and second position in the INRC 3 class with Vikram Rao (Somayya AG) winning ahead of Dean Mascarenhas (Shruptha Padival) with Fabid Ahmer (Fayaz Arakkal) rounding off the podium. Adith KC (Suraj K) won the FMSCI Cup ahead of Suraj Thomas (Sob George) and Ravi MS (Priyamvada Saradhi).
The comeback story of the rally was former FMSCI president Vicky Chandhok returning to rallying after nearly a decade and taking third spot in the INRC 1 category in the VW Motorsport-prepared Polo R2. He even set the fastest time on the opening stage. The next round of the championship takes place in the windmill farms around Coimbatore from August 3-5. ⌧