Gill thrills!
The JK Tyre virtuoso bags the win in the first two rounds of the INRC 2020
GAURAV GILL (WITH MUSA Sherif) dominated proceedings at Itanagar, winning both rounds of the Rally of Arunachal, the first two rounds of the 2020 Indian National Rally Championship. Piloting the JK-sponsored Mahindra XUV300, the duo set a total time of 56:55.200 minutes for the eight special stages in the first round, and an even faster 42:15.00 minutes for the second round, and currently head the leaderboard.
Coming a close second behind him was Team MRF Tyres’ Karna Kadur (with Nikhil V Pai). Driving an R2-spec Volkswagen Polo, they overcame initial hiccups (including a spin early on in round 1) to finish 4:25.700 minutes behind Gill, even pipping Gill for the timing in the last stage of the first round (albeit due to a flat on Gill’s car). Nevertheless Kadur had to contend with third place in the second round behind Gill’s JK tyre teammate Dean Mascarenhas (with Shruptha Padival) who finished third with a time of 1:02:30.500 hours in the first stage, though gained some steam to finish second in the second stage. That said, Mascarenhas is currently third in the overall standings.
For his part, Dean currently leads the INRC2 category, followed by Snap Racing’s Sahil Khanna (with Vidit Jain) in second place, setting a time of 01:03:25.900 hours and 47:42.000 minutes in stages 1 and 2 respectively. Rahul Kanthraj (and Vivek Y Bhatt) are currently in third place.
There has been quite a bit of upheaval in the INRC3 category. In the first round, the Snap Racing duo of Maninder Singh Prince and Vinay Padmashali were leading, followed by Fabid Ahmer (and Eldo Chacko), and Aditya Thakur (with Virender Kashyap). The tables turned in the second round, however, with Aditya Thakur in first, Fabid Ahmer in second and Maninder Singh Prince in third!
Bengaluru’s Team Vasundhara (INRC’s only all-women team) impressed everyone with their debut performance as Pragathi Gowda (with Deeksha Balakrishna) posted a time of 01:07:53.400 hours, not only winning the women’s category ahead of teammate Bani Yadav (with Shubh Kiran Pal Kaur Brar), but also the Junior INRC Category, and finishing fourth in the INRC 3 category. This momentum continued for the second round, as she finished third in the women’s category, with a total time of 49:37.7 minutes.
Lastly, engine issues in round 1 for the 2019 champs Chetan Shivram/Rupesh Kholay (Team Yokohama) led to a DNF in the first round. The duo started round 2 with a stock engine car, and despite driving a vehicle with different specs, did well to finish at the overall 13th spot to bag valuable leg points. ⌧
ENGINE ISSUES FOR THE 2019 CHAMP CHETAN SHIVRAM LED TO A DNF IN THE FIRST ROUND