| Ghosh wins overall at South India Rally |
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Chennai, June 26, 2011:
The elder Ghosh, Amittrajit (co-driver Ashwin Naik), driving for Team MRF, nursed his car through the testing final four stages of the South India Rally (SIR) to win the premier 2000cc N+ category and the overall crown. His sister Somonnita was not far behind, literally. She was co-driver to Karna Kadur and the duo won the 2000cc N class and finished second overall in the classic event, staged as the second round of Indian National Rally Championship (INRC).
SIR, revived after a gap of 11 years, tested the limits of drivers and their fine-tuned machines. While the heat sapped the drivers, the rough and twisty stages in and around the MMSC race track took a toll on the hardware. As electrical systems and gearboxes failed, Amittrajit found himself in the peculiar position of being the only driver left in the 2000cc N+ class on Sunday. The Kolkata lad was not complaining though as he has had his share of bad luck from "freak failures" in the last two years in INRC.
The other Team MRF drivers in the premier class - championship leader Gaurav Gill (co-driver: Musa Sherif), Arjun Balu (Sujith Kumar) - were already out of the reckoning after Day 1 on Saturday, both their cars succumbing to electrical failure. Privateer Arjun Rao Aroor crashed out as early as the second stage of the rally while MRF's Lohitt Urs, who was second after Saturday, was excluded by the stewards after it was found that he had helped teammate Gill when the latter's car packed up during transport.
That meant Amittrajit just had to finish on Sunday to win his category
and a three-minute lead over the second placed car of Kadur meant there
was no real threat in the overall race too.
However, his sister Somonnita and driver Kadur couldn't afford to ease
off the pedal. They were a second behind Rahul Kanthraj and Vivek Bhatt
going into the second day and had to pull out perfect stage runs for a
win in the 2000cc N class. |
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