K-1000 Rally – Day 2

Bengaluru, March 13: A damaged windscreen, electrical and turbo issues besides brake failure did not stop Gaurav Gill and co-driver Musa Sherif from winning the 45^th Karnataka-1000 Rally, the second round of the FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship 2021 with MRF Tyres as the Associate Sponsor, on Sunday near the town of Gubbi, about 100 Kms from Bengaluru.

Delhi-based Gill, the seven-times National champion and thrice winner of the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally titles, exercised all his experience and driving skills to bring the Mahindra XUV 300 back to the Parc Ferme, something he couldn’t in the first round at Coimbatore last month. In the process, the Arjuna Award winner successfully countered a strong challenge from Younus Ilyas (Anirudha Ranganekar) of Race Concepts who finished Overall second, about 15 seconds behind, while Fabid Ahmer (Sanath G) was placed third.

It was Gill’s seventh K-1000 title while for Sherif, from Kasargod, it was a memorable victory that marked his 300^th Rally milestone.

Ahmer topped in the INRC-2 category while the Himachal combination of Aditya Thakur and co-driver Virender Kashyap, Overall winners in Coimbatore, last month, took the honours in the INRC-3 category, and Mumbai’s daughter-mother pairing of Shivani and Vani Parmar won in the INRC-4 class. The Junior INRC category had just two finishers with Coimbatore’s Raghuram Saminathan (Bharath SM, Bengaluru) winning ahead of Shivani Pruthvi from Davangere (Ruthvik Praveen, Tiptur).

“Undoubtedly, today’s win is very satisfying considering the difficult weekend we had and the non-finish in the Coimbatore round. We had electrical problems, a damaged windscreen when the bonnet flew open in the very first Stage. So, we lost a bit of time as we had to stop and lock the bonnet. Then, in the last Stage, I had to negotiate the last six-seven Kms without brakes which again cost us time. But in the end, I am happy we finished the Rally and won,” said Gill.

Chandigarh’s Samrat Yadav (M Chandrashekar, Bengaluru) emerged champion in the non-championship FMSCI Gypsy Challenge category.

Of the 53 entrants, 31 completed the two-day Rally. The final day’s proceedings were delayed due to interruptions of SS-8 following mishaps.

Classification (Provisional)

Overall / INRC

1. Gaurav Gill (Delhi) / Musa Sherif (Kasargod) (01hr, 38mins, 37.800secs);
2. Younus Ilyas (Kollam) / Anirudha Ranganekar (Pune) (Race Concepts) (01:038:53.200)
3. Fabid Ahmer / Sanath G (both Palakkad) (01:43:50:900)

INRC-2

1. Fabid Ahmer / Sanath G (both Palakkad) (01:43:50:900)
2. Sahil Khanna (Gurugram) / Harish KN (Bengaluru) (01:46:21.600)
3. Lakshay Veer Dabas (Delhi) / Arjun Dheerendra (Bengaluru) (01:51:33.100)

INRC-3

1. Aditya Thakur / Virender Kashyap (both Himachal) (Chettinad Sporting) (01:46:29.700)
2. Kuber Sharma / Karan Aukta (both Himachal) (01:47:21.200)
3. Sanampreet Sekhon (Chandigarh) / Suhan Kabeer (Kodagu) (01:48:05.300)

INRC-4

1. Shivani Parmar / Vani Parmar (both Mumbai) (02:14:56.700);
2. Deepak Chandra / CG Raghuram (both Bengaluru, SNAP Racing) (02:16:01.500);
3. Prakhyat Shirole /Arjun SSB (both Bengaluru, Ammyfield Rallying) (02:17:19.000).

Junior INRC (2 finishers)

1. Raghuram Saminathan (Coimbatore) / Bharath SM (Bengaluru) (02:02:07.300)
2. Shivani Pruthvi (Davangere) / Ruthvik Praveen (Tiptur) (02:14:23.800)

FMSCI Gypsy Challenge

1. Samrat Yadav (Chandigarh) / M Chandrashekar (Bengaluru) (01:49:49.000)
2. Rupender Sheoran (Gurugram) / Mohit Malik (Faridabad) (01:57:01.300)
3. Venkatapathy Mettuchetty / Santosh Kumar Selvaraj (both Coimbatore) (01:59:41.500)