Gill starts INRC campaign with win
Defending champion Gaurav Gill won the MRF 40th South India Rally, the opening round of the Indian National Rally Championship at the MMRT track in Sriperumbudur, near Chennai, on Sunday.
Veteran rallyist Vicky Chandhok, making a comeback after 18 years, finished third in INRC 1 along with M. Chandramouli.
Gill, of Team Mahindra Adventure, along with Musa Sherif as navigator, bettered his own previous day’s performance by 27 seconds for an aggregate timing of 1 hour and 28: 43.1 minutes for the total distance.
Gill’s teammate Amittrajit Ghosh made up time in a dramatic fashion to finish second.
With Ashwin Naik as navigator, he went all out in the final three stages to jump from third to second for a spectacular finish.
Ghosh, still recuperating from an accident last season, looked fearless as he kept pace with Gill in most stages for an impressive timing of 1 hour 30: 39.6 minutes.
INRC 2 driver Karna Kadur ( Arka Motorsports) had to settle for the final place on the podium despite being ahead of Amittrajit till virtually the end.
He and co- driver Nikhil V. Pai, however, had the satisfaction of topping the INRC 2 class, ahead of last year’s winner Rahul Kanthraj.
Gill was expectedly pleased with his victory and said it was nice to overcome a few issues.
“We had a great day and hats off to the team who have put the car together. It is a brand new car and there were a few issues at the start, but we overcame them and had a great weekend,” he said.
Aroor Vikram Rao and Somayya A. G. ( Falkon Motorsports) claimed the INRC 3 class, beating teammates Dean Mascarenhas and Shruptha Padival to the post.
As many as seven teams could not complete the rally, including Arjun Rao, but Younus Ilyas would consider himself the unluckiest.
He had looked good to finish second on day one and impressed in the second day’s first stage, the SSS 2, but his gearbox broke down in the next to pull him out of the reckoning.