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INRC Calendar - 2011

Nashik  Jun 02-05
Chennai  Jun 23-26
Coimbatore
 		 Jul 22-24
Bangalore
 Aug 19-21
Chikmaglur  Nov 18-20

Bhubaneswar

Kolkata

Dec 09-11

Dec 16-18

In the Spotlight

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Pete's
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Day2: CHIKMAGALUR RALLY: Super Gill shoots into lead E-mail

Source: Timesofindia.com

Chikmagalur (21, Nov 2009)

If championship leader Gaurav Gill (co-driver Musa Sherif) was unlucky on the opening day for going in last on a slushy Super Special Stage, he was equally unlucky on Day Two to act as a sweeper on the — slippery — first Special Stage of the fifth round of the Speed-INRC’s Coffee Day Rally of Chikmagalur here on Saturday. His fervent prayers obviously didn’t work as the heavens opened up much before the start. However, that was not a deterrent for the speed demon from Delhi. The Team MRF driver was off the blocks in a flash and although he didn’t finish in a blaze — thanks to gearbox problems — the 27-year-old was perched firmly on top of the leaderboard.

Gunning for his second win here and his second overall title, Gill clocked the fastest times in the first three stages to be 24 seconds ahead of defending champion Vikram Mathias (PVS Murthy) of Red Rooster Racing and teammate Lohitt V Urs (Srikanth Gowda) on an eventful day. Arjun Balu (BS Sujith Kumar) of MRF Tyres and Amittrajit Ghosh (Ashwin Naik) of Red Rooster, both in with a chance to annex the overall crown, are out of the reckoning after failing to finish. While Balu got stuck in the tree stumps after pulling to the left at a sharp right-hander on the third Special Stage, Ghosh ended up in a ditch after his brakes failed in the same Stage.

Ghosh had encountered a problem on the same Stage — run twice — earlier in the day. Winner of the seasonopener in Coimbatore, Ghosh went into a canal after Balu had stopped all of a sudden at the flying finish for some strange reason. Ghosh swerved right, found a canal and drove around 500 yards on it before finding an opening. That seemed to take a tool on his brakes and he crashed out.

Gill had no such problems until he hit the home stretch. There were problems with his gearbox and he encountered TPS (throttle position sensor) hiccup as well. With his Cedia guzzling gas, Gill even had to conserve fuel by cutting the engine on the transport sector. “So far so good,” said a rather subdued Gill. “I was concerned about the first stage because it was slushy, but I chose the right tyres and posted a good time. Throughout the day I drove with confidence, but I could have done without the problems on the final Stage. I slowed down a bit and didn’t push the car.”

Mathias too said the same. After his initial time on the first Stage was corrected later, where he was supposed to have been ahead of the field by a minute — thanks to a faulty timer — Mathias said he had to change his approach. “ I did not push the car in the other Stages,” said the defending champion.

Lohitt, who took the honours on the first day, lost time on the second Special Stage when he had to tail privateer Prithvi Dominic (Vinod Gowda) for most of the last two km. “I was asked to check in five minutes late, and so were the other MRF drivers, during the transport sector after the first Stage. But the same was not conveyed to the rest and I ended up tailing Dominic and losing valuable time,” said a dejected Lohitt.
   
But the battle for the title is not over yet. There are four more Special Stages to negotiate, 54-km in all in the seasons finale on Sunday.

IMSAC to decide this year’s winner
The Rally of Chikmagalur maybe the finale to the 2009 INRC calendar but the champion driver will not be decided on the flowing Special Stages of Chikmagalur on Sunday. Instead, the verdict may emerge from the boardroom in Chennai next week. The judgement on an appeal by Red Rooster Racing against Team MRF Tyres for a technical infringement will be awarded by the Indian Motor Sports Appellate Court (IMSAC) on November 28. Red Rooster had gone on appeal accusing MRF Tyres for using more number of air scoops than the specified limit during their victory in the K-1000 in August. For the record, Arjun Balu (S Sujith Kumar) had won the second round of the INRC in Bangalore.


The provisional results After Leg 1:
Overall: 1. Gaurav Gill & Musa Sherif (Team MRF) (48:42s); 2. Vikram Mathias & P.V.S. Murthy (Red Rooster Racing (49:06); 3. Lohith V. Urs & Srikanth Gowda (Team MRF) (49:06).

2,000cc N+: 1. Gill & Sherif (Team MRF) 48:52s; 2. Mathias & Murthy (Red Rooster Racing 49:06); 3. Urs & Gowda (Team MRF) 49:06.

1,600cc: 1. Girijashankar Joshy & M. Chandramouli (53:45s); 2. Joseph C. Jos / Royce Kizhakoodan (Team DDL) (54:18); 3. Rahul Kanthraj & Vivek Bhatt (54:47).

1,400cc: 1. Abhijeet N. Pai & G.A. Satvik (55:09); 2. Vikram Devadasan & Nihkil Pai (55:25); 3. Deepak Chinnappa & M. Chandrasekar (56:43).

Rally Star Cup: 1. C.G. Balram & C.G. Raghuram (56:52); 2. Phalguna Urs & Anoop Kumar (57:51); 3. A.M. Karan / A.G. Somaiah (58:11).

Gypsy: 1. Sandeep Sharma & Anmol Rampal (55.50); 2. Kushwant Randhawa & Ravindra (56.36); 3. Shafeeq Ur Rahman & K.P. Ajith (58:10).
 
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