Ace Indian rallyist Gaurav Gill clinches MRF Rally of Coimbatore

COIMBATORE: Ace Indian rallyist Gaurav Gill combined with codriver Musa Sherif to win the MRF Rally of Coimbatore as Team Mahindra enjoyed a 1-2 finish in round 2 of the MRF FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship, here on Sunday. Gill and Sherif romped home to victories in each of the stages over the weekend to outclass the field. He needed 1:14:30.1 to complete the five stages, winning the round with a handsome margin of 1 min 1.1 sec. His Mahindra teammate Amittrajit, with co-driver Ashwin Naik, was equally sharp all through the rally, not yielding the second position even once. He kept pace with Gill too, finishing just 10-15 seconds off him in almost all the stages. “I am happy that we made it 2 out of 2. It is a great show by the team that allowed us to be on the attack all through the weekend. I am very pleased with my performance. I was quick all through,” Gill said. FMSCI President Akbar Ebrahim claimed the third position in the INRC 1 category. The 2016 INRC champion, Karna Kadur (with Nikhil V Pai), had to settle for the overall third position as all his efforts to upstage the leaders proved to be futile. He managed to claim the INRC 2 category though, making it a 1-2 for Team Arka Motorsports. His teammate Rahul Kanthraj (with Vivek Y Bhatt) took the second place while Phalghuna Urs (with Srikanth Gowda; Snap Racing) claimed the third place. The INRC 3 category too didn’t see any change on the leaderboard, with Aroor Vikram Rao (with Anand Somayya; Falkon Motorsports) completing an easy win.