Injured Gill faces tough task in K-1000 Rally

BANGALORE - Team MRF and Red Rooster Racing face off yet again in the Karnataka-1000 Rally, the fourth round of the Speed-Indian National Rally Championship to be held at Sidlaghatta, about 80 km from here Friday.

The event is also being run as a contender for the Asia Pacific Rally Championship and, as such, assumes considerable significance, though the haphazard planning and execution could well preclude entertaining hopes of securing an international status.

The presence of two Sri Lankan drivers, Reyaz Farook and Ashan Silva, both in Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution cars, lends the event an “international” flavour.

Only the two foreigners will do the APRC distance of 225.40 Kms while the others will cover the INRC distance of 151 Kms of Special Stages.

Red Rooster’s VR Naren Kumar (co-driver D Ram Kumar), a former six times National champion who is returning to the sport after a two-year break, currently heads the championship with two back-to-back wins in Coimbatore and Jodhpur after dropping out of the season-opener at Nashik where Team MRF’s Gaurav Gill (co-driver Musa Sherif) won.

Gill, however, retired in the next two rounds and thus, has plenty to do to catch up with Naren Kumar and a fractured wrist and thumb have made the 29-year old’s task doubly difficult.

“Last week, I went to Coimbatore to test the car, but could manage only 300 metres as the pain in my wrist was unbearable. However, I hope to do well here in Bangalore and I will taking pain-killers and using the magic spray to help me get through the event,” said Gill.

The Delhi-based tearaway suffered the injuries after a massive shunt in final round of the APRC in China last month when his Evo-10 flipped and was left hanging precariously on a bridge.

In contrast, Naren Kumar is fit and ready for another hard contest and aiding him are the new sets of Yokohama A035 tyres that were imported from Japan that offer greater grip and hence allow the cars to go faster.

Both Gill and Naren Kumar lead their respective teams in the premium 2000cc class (N+) in a Mitsubishi Lancer Cedia.

Lined up behind Naren are former National champion Vikram Mathias (co-driver PVS Murthy) and Amittrajit Ghosh (Ashwin Naik), while MRF, besides Gill, are fielding Lohitt Urs (Shrikant Gowda), Arjunrao Aroor (Satish Rajagopal) and Arjun Balu (Sujith Kumar BS).

In all, 41 vehicles will take the starter’s flag Friday.