Rally of Coimbatore: Gaurav Gill wins second race of the season

Gaurav Gill

Coimbatore, July 13 (IANS) Asia Pacific champion Gaurav Gill (co-driver Musa Sherif) of Mahindra Adventure team won the Rally of Coimbatore for his second consecutive success in the FMSCI Indian Rally Championship, with over two minutes to spare to beat Arjun Rao (Satish Rajagopal).

"Obviously, it feels good to score my second win of the season. I didn't try anything fancy today and was intent on bringing my car (Mahindra XUV 500) home in one piece," said 32-year-old Gill, who won the first round in Nashik last month. For Mangalore-based Arjun Rao, driving a VW Polo, it was a good way to kick-start his 2014 campaign after having missed the Nashik event.

"The Polo is a great car to drive in our conditions. It handled well through the Rally and I did not have any problems," said a jubilant Rao who also topped the IRC 1600cc class.

Finishing third overall was Gill's team-mate Sunny Sidhu (PVS Murthy), also in a Mahindra XUV 500, and who like the rest of the front-runners safeguarded his overnight position.

Meanwhile, Bangalore's Vikram Devadasen (Srikanth Gowda), driving a VW Polo, moved up a spot in the overall standings to fourth after making up a six-second overnight deficit to edge past his Team Yokohama mate Rahul Kanthraj (Vivek Bhatt) who piloted Mitsubishi Cedia with 16 seconds separating the two.

Kanthraj, however, won the IRC 2000cc class while Raghunandan B (Suraj K), driving a Honda City V-Tec took the honours in the FMSCI 1600 Cup.

Provisional classification (after Leg 2):

IRC Overall: Gaurav Gill / Musa Sherif (Mahindra Adventure, XUV 500) 1 (1hr, 39mins, 53.2secs); Arjun Rao / Satish Rajagopal (VW Polo) 2 (01:41:56.9); Sunny Sidhu / PVS Murthy (Mahindra Adventure, XUV 500) 3 (01:42:45.8); Vikram Devadasen / Srikanth Gowda (Team Yokohama, VW Polo) 4 (01:44:05.4); Rahul Kanthraj / Vivek Bhatt (Team Yokohama, Cedia) 5 (01:44:21.6);

IRC 2000cc: Rahul Kanthraj / Vivek Bhatt (Team Yokohama, Mitsubishi Cedia) 1 (01:44:21.6); Byram Godrej / Somayya AG (Slideways Industries, VW Polo) 2 (01:44:36.0); Prithvi Dominic / Ravindra MS (Mitsubishi Cedia) 3 (01:45:57.7).

IRC 1600cc: Arjun Rao / Satish Rajagopal (VW Polo) 1 (01:41:56.9); Vikram Devadasen / Srikanth Gowda (Team Yokohama, VW Polo) 2 (01:44:05.4); Phalguna Urs / Anoop Kumar (VW Polo) 3 (01:44:33.7).

FMSCI 1600 Cup: Raghunandan B / Suraj K (Honda City V-Tec) 1 (01:46:31.3); Adith KC / Harish KN (Honda City V-Tec) 2 (01:48:27.1); Anirudha Ranganekar / Nitin Jacob (Maruti Baleno) 3 (01:52:24.7).