Hard gains!

Gaurav Gill comes out on top for a surprising, borderline controversial rally season

GAURAV GILL, WITH COdriver Musa Sherif, has added another feather to his cap, taking a seventh national rally title and equalling the record held by V R Naren Kumar. The title has been confirmed after the final two rounds of the initially planned five-round championship were cancelled due to an alleged disagreement between the INRC promoters and the Karnataka Motor Sports Club (KMSC), which organises the K-1000 in Bengaluru and was also to conduct the Hampi round.

The truncated 2020 INRC started in Arunachal with a double-header and Gill was immediately on the pace with the R2-spec Mahindra XUV300, winning the rally by 4:25.700 minutes over MRF Tyres’ Karna Kadur (co-driver Nikhil V Pai) driving the VW Polo with Gill’s JK Tyre teammate Dean Mascarenhas (co-driver Shrupta Padival) rounding off the podium and also winning in the INRC 2 class. Gill reigned supreme in the next round as well, finishing 1:33:00 minutes ahead of his JK Tyre teammate Amittrajit Ghosh (co-driver Ashwin Naik) and, relegating MRF’s Karna Kadur to the third spot.

The third (and unwittingly final) round of the 2020 INRC was where Gill stamped a hat-trick of victories, winning all six stages of the round with a 1:24:00-minute lead over Bikku Babu (co-driver Bonnie Thomas) who was driving an INRC 2-spec VW Polo. The third spot went to yet another JK Tyre-backed racer in the form of Fabid Ahmer (co-driver Eldo Chacko).

Gaurav Gill (with Musa Sherif) won the championship with 116 points, 62 points ahead of Karna Kadur/Nikhil Pai, while Fabid Ahmer/Eldo Chacko came in third with 44 points, although the duo did bag the INRC 3 crown. In the INRC 2, Sahil Khanna/Vidit Jain secured 78 points, clinching the championship by one point over Dean Marcarenhas/Shrupta Padival, while Rahul Kanthraj (co-driver Bonnie Thomas/ Vivek Bhatt) came third.

In the INRC 3 class, with the winner already accounted for, Aditya Thakur/ Virender Kashyap took the runners-up spot, while Maninder Singh Prince/Vinay Kumar took third place. The INRC 4 class saw Vaibhav Marathe/Suhan Kabeer come out on top, followed by Mujeeb Rahman/ Goutham C P and Khyati Mody/G M Manjunath.

The 2021 season kicks off with the Chennai Rally that will also be a round of the APRC.