Naren tops for Red Rooster in third round of national rally
By IANSSunday, September 19, 2010
JODHPUR - Veteran VR Naren Kumar (co-driver Ram Kumar) of Red Rooster Racing won the Rally of Rajasthan, the third round of the Speed Indian National Rally Championship, here Sunday and took the lead in the championship standings.
The victory took Naren Kumar’s tally to 27, just three ahead of team-mate Vikram Mathias (co-driver PVS Murthy) at the halfway mark of the championship.
Naren Kumar, returning to competitive rallying after a three-season break, was assured of his second consecutive win of the season at the end of Leg-2 Saturday when he led team-mate Amittrajit Ghosh (co-driver Ashwin Naik) by over a minute.
Under the circumstances, Sunday’s 1.5 Kms Spectator Special Stage was a mere formality as Naren, in a Group N+ (modified) Mitsubishi Lancer Cedia kept his overnight lead to emerge comfortable winner.
The retirements of two top contenders Saturday, Mathias and Team MRF’s national champion Gaurav Gill (co-driver Musa Sherif), winner of first round in Nashik, facilitated Naren’s victory.
Provisional final classifications:
Overall: 1. Naren Kumar/Ram Kumar, Red Rooster Racing, 35mins, 50.9secs; 2. Amittrajit Ghosh/Ashwin Naik, Red Rooster Racing, 36:36.8; 3. Lohit Urs/Srikanth Gowda, Team MRF, 37:12.9.
2000cc (Group N+): 1. Naren Kumar/Ram Kumar; 2. Ghosh/Naik; 3. Urs/Gowda.
2000cc (Group N): 1. Girijashankar Joshy/Chandramouli M, Ovion Racing, 40:10.9; 2. Sujay Suresh/Bharath SM 41:23.1; 3. Sirish Chandran/Nikhil Pai, Team Overdrive, 42:05.1.
1600cc: 1. Rahul Kantharaj/Vivek Bhatt, Pvt, 42:56.1; 2. Shailendar Hegde/Sheraz Ahmed, Pvt, 43:30.6; 3. Vishal GA/Robinson, Pvt, 48:04.6.
1400cc: 1. Dr Bikku Babu/Bonnie Thomas, Pvt, 41:49.0; 2. Byram Godrej/Anjay Kapadia, Pvt, 47:54.0; 3.Sanjay Sikand/Koka Rahul Rao, 49:33.4.
Rally Star Cup: 1. Venkatapathy MR/Santtosh Kumar S, 44:52.0; 2. Harikesav N/Ashvin Nadig, Pvt, 45:10.8; 3. Kaushik H Shinde Ninand A Mirajgaonkar, Pvt, 47: 01.0.
Gypsy: 1. Maj Amarinder S. Brar/Himanshu Pareek, Army Adventure Wing, 47:16.6; 2. Harpreet Singh Sidhu/Sanjay B Gokhale, AA Wing, 48:16.5, 3. Sameer Pandey/Honey Narula, Pvt, 48:32.5.
