Karna Kadur and Nikhil Pai jumped to the lead of the MRF FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) standings with victory in the Coffee Day India Rally at the end of three days of hard-fought action through the coffee plantations of Chikmagalur after favorites, Amittrajit Ghosh and Ashwin Naik could not finish the event on account of mechanical failure while leading by 27.6 seconds with just one special stage to go.
Kadur drove a Volkswagen Polo around the gravel-strewn twists in an overall time of 1:52:15.9.
Ghosh and Naik, who had a chance of sealing the championship in this round itself had they won, were leading all the way through the three-day event in their Mahindra XUV 500 even though it was not as well suited to the narrow twists that are a hallmark of the event.
Team Mahindra Adventure, of Dr Bikku Babu and Milen George, finished second overall, 1:15.5 adrift, and also finished second in the INRC 2000cc category which was won by Kadur as well. Coming in third overall as well as in the INRC 2000cc category was Rahul Kanthraj and Vivek Bhatt with a time of 1:55:27.6.
The FMSCI Cup was won by Jacob K J and Manoj Mohanan in 2:01:14.8.
The Coffee Day India Rally win was Kadur’s first this season. The Bangalore based 28-year-old has become the fourth winner this year in as many rallies with the opening three rallies been won by Amittrajit Ghosh, Gaurav Gill & Arjun Rao respectively. Kadur also finished second in the previous round, the MRF Rally de North, heading into the championship’s two-and-a-half month long mid-season break.
He gathered 25 points for the win but was denied the maximum 39 available this weekend with victory in the two legs – worth seven points each – split between him and Ghosh.
However, the win does put him at the championship lead held by Ghosh till now, setting the stage for a two-way title showdown between him and Dr Babu, in the fifth and final round of the season to be held in Bengaluru later this month.
A championship contender coming into this round, Arjun Rao, failed to finish the rally as he had engine failure in SS 3 and thus fell out of the championship race. Sunny Sidhu of Team Mahindra Adventure also failed to finish the event while running third due to mechanical failure. Gaurav Gill also no longer has a chance to win the championship owing to missing this round on account of his Team MRF duties elsewhere.
Sanjay Takale and Noriko Takeshita took overall honours in the MRF FMSCI Indian Rally Championship (IRC), run concurrently with the INRC, completing the event in a total time of 1:48:59.2, 12:13.1 ahead of Ritesh M Guttedar and Sheeraz Ahmed. Byram Godrej and Ninad Miraj Gaonkar were third with a time of 2:02:47.5.
It must be noted that the INRC and IRC are two separate championships and their results are not clubbed together or compared as they run distinctively different vehicles. The INRC is for two-wheel drive Indian vehicles only while four-wheel drive foreign vehicles are allowed to compete in the IRC.
The Coffee Day India Rally is the Indian rallying season’s blue-riband event and the only rally on the calendar to run across three days.
It is also the longest rally on the calendar, with drivers completing a total of 102.14 dust-churning competitive kilometres across two legs comprising special stages through Coffee Day Global Ltd’s estates as well as the season’s only super special stage on the premises of the Amber Valley Residential School.
Kadur and Pai took home Rs 50,000/- in prize money. The prize money and trophies for the podium finishers were handed out by Mr Farooq Ahmed, Vice President of the Motor Sports Club of Chikmagalur in the presence of Mr Arindam Ghosh.
The prizes for the different categories are as follows:
INRC Overall: 1st: Rs 50,000/- + Trophies; 2nd: Rs 30,000/- + Trophies; 3rd: Rs 20,000/- + Trophies
INRC 2000 cc: 1st: Rs 50,000/- + Trophies; 2nd: Rs 30,000/- + Trophies; 3rd: Rs 20,000/- + Trophies
FMSCI Cup: 1st: Rs 40,000/- + Trophies; 2nd: Rs 30,000/- + Trophies; 3rd: Rs 20,000/- + Trophies
IRC: 1st: Rs 50,000/- + Trophies; 2nd: Rs 30,000/- + Trophies; 3rd: Rs 20,000/- + Trophies
Another two-day event is due to be held in Bengaluru from December 17-18.
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