Gill triumphs in Rally of Kerala

KOTTAYAM - Gaurav Gill (co-driver Musa Sherif) of Team MRF expectedly won the overall title, only his second this season, in the Speed-Indian National Rally Championship, as he took the honours in the Misty Meadows Rally of Kerala, the fifth round of the series, here Sunday.

Gill, the 29-year old from Delhi, spared 25.2 seconds to second placed Kolkatas Amittrajit Ghosh (Ashwin Naik) of Red Rooster Racing.

In third place was championship leader VR Naren Kumar (D.Ram Kumar), also of Red Rooster Racing who finished a further 49.8 seconds behind his team-mate.

In the other classes, the overnight leaders also held on to their positions through the Super Special Stage that was run Sunday.

Girijashankar Joshy (Chandramouli M) of Team Ovion (2000cc, Group N), Rahul Kantharaj (Vivek Bhat) in 1600cc, Byram Godrej (Anjay Kapadia) in 1400cc, Venkatapathy MR (Santosh Kumar) in Rally Star Cup and Army Adventure Wings Amrinder Brar (Nilesh) in the Gypsy emerged winners in their respective classes.

The win was worth 15 points for Gill who moved to the third spot in the championship with 31, behind Naren Kumar (38) and Vikram Mathias (PVS Murthy) of Red Rooster Racing on 33. Behind the front runners are Ghosh (29) and Arjun Rao Aroor of MRF (26), winner of the Karnataka-1000.

Gill had begun the season with a victory at Nashik, but suffered three consecutive non-finishes while Naren Kumar won in Coimbatore and Jodhpur and Aroor in Bangalore.

The final round of the Championships is to be held in Hyderabad next month.

Provisional classifications:

Overall / 2000cc (Group N+): 1. Gaurav Gill / Musa Sherif (Team MRF) 1hour, 14 minutes, 37.8 secs); 2. Amittrajit Ghosh / Ashwin Naik (Red Rooster Racing) 1:15:03.0; 3. VR Naren Kumar / D Ram Kumar (Red Rooster Racing) 1:15:52.8.

2000cc (Group N): 1. Girijashankar Joshy / Chandramouli M (Team Ovion) 1:21:47.7; 2. Sujay Suresh / Bharath SM (Team Ovion) 1:21:51.1; 3. Sirish Chandran / Nikhil Pai (Team Overdrive) 1:27:01.7.

1600cc: 1. Rahul Kantharaj / Vivek Bhat (Pvt) 1:26:56.1; 2. Shailendra Hegde / Sheraz Ahmed (Pvt) 1:30:24.0; 3. Ranjit Gopinath / Suresh Babu (Pvt) 1:30:46.1.

1400cc: 1. Byram Godrej / Anjay Kapadia (Pvt) 1:28:42.6; 2. Balram CG / Raghuram CG (Pvt) 1:29:16.1; 3. Aniruddha Ranganathan / Halley Prabhakar (Pvt) 1:34:32.0.

Rally Star Cup: 1. Venkatapathy MR / Santosh Kumar S (Pvt) 1:29:03.7; 2. Phalguna V Urs / Anoop Kumar (Pvt) 1:29:39.0; 3. Harikeshav N / Somayya AG (Pvt) 1:31:26.7.

Gypsy: 1. Amrinder Brar / Nilesh (Army Adventure Wing) 1:30:29.7; 2. Shakti Bajaj / Dharmesh Sinha (AAW) 1:33:26.4; 3. Elias Thomas Paarel / Thomas Phillip (Pvt) 1:36:15.9.