Joshua rides to victory in Indian National Rally Championship

BANGALORE - Pramod Joshua of Team TVS Racing won the Mak K-1000 Rally comfortably for back-to-back victories in the Mak Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) for two-wheelers at Siddlaghatta, about 70 kms from here, Sunday.

The tough terrain and the treacherous second stage following overnight rains led to cancellation of the last two stages. Joshua, who won the first leg at Coimbatore, heads the leader board in the National Championship.

“Thanks to the Almighty, I was able to gain a comfortable lead after the first two stages despite the tricky second stage and then some trade secrets helped me protect my lead,” said Joshua.

“The route was completely different from what we saw during the reccee and with my being the route opener, it was really tough but after the first two Special Stages, I managed to stay afloat with controlled aggression,” he added.

Team-mate HK Pradeep was fastest in the first sector in all the three stages of SS 1, 3 and 5 but lost a lot of time in the second sector.

“The pot holes and the slush made life miserable and I had to even remove the spark plug and lost over two minutes,” said Pradeep while the travails of defending champion KP Aravind were equally ‘tragic’.

“The track was tougher than expected and the second stage was very bad. It was unpredictable and every time the line was different and difficult. In SS-2, I crashed about four times and lost all the time and never recovered after that,” said the rider from Team TVS Racing.

Provisional classification:

Overall: 1. Pramod Joshua (Team TVS Racing) 45 min 27 secs; 2. Asad Khan (privateer) 45:34; 3. Chethan Ganapathy (pvt) 47:24

Group D 4 stroke (131 to 165 cc): 1. Pramod Joshua (TVS) 45:27 secs; 2. HK Pradeep (TVS) 48:43; 3.KP Aravind (TVS) 50:03;

Group B 2 Stroke (131 to 165cc): 1. Asad Khan 45:34; 2. Vijay Kumar 47:49; 3. Pradeep 48:25;

Group D 4 Stroke (131 to 165cc): 1. Raja 53:13; 2. Ravi Kumar 54:51; 3. Sameen Kulkarni 54:57.

Group B 4 Stroke (166 to 210cc): 1. Rahul 57:37; 2. Chetan Kumar 1:05:31;

Group B 4 Stroke (211 to 260cc): 1. Chethan Ganapathy 47:24; 2. Venu Ramesh 50:35; 3.Vinay PM 52:10;

Group B 2 Stroke (Up to 130cc): 1: Roopesh BC 50:23; 2. Varun 55:52;

Group B (4 Stroke: Up to 130cc): 1. Kuttappa 53:06; 2. Renu Kumar 58:42

Group D 4 Stroke (Up to 130cc): 1. Pundarik 53:45; 2. Kamalakannan 56:26; 3.Praveen D 56:44.