CHENNAI: Defending champions of APRC India leg Harkrishan Wadia and Kunal Kashyap of Arka Motorsports, along with reigning national champions Karna Kadur and Musa Sherif will spearhead Indian challenge at the Asia Zone round of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship from April 25-27 at the Madras International Circuit.

A record number of 21 entries have been confirmed and this is an all-time record for India in the APRC Asia Cup, which will be held alongside the FMSCI Indu Chandhok Memorial Indian Rally Championship (INRC), organised by Madras Motor Sports Club (MMSC).

The recce of all the 21 cars were completed on Thursday.

They will be given a tough challenge by former INRC champion and ERC round winner Amittrajit Ghosh, 2019 INRC champion Chetan Shivram and co-driver E Shivaprakash and Hyderabad’s Naveen Puligilla, who has entered with co-driver Santhosh Thomas.

Naveen recently won the RC3 class of the Kenyan Rally Championship, part of the World Rally Championship circuit. Arnav Pratap Singh along with co-driver Rohit N and Janson Saldanha along with PVS Murthy, will be the other drivers to watch out for.

Anushriya Gulati of Shimla will be the only lady entry while Hyderabad’s Jeet Jhabhak will debut the Hyundai i20 in the INRC.

Vicky Chandhok, president of the Asia Pacific Rally Championship working group, said, "Continuing his unstinted support from two years ago, for the FIA APRC, Vamcy Merla has been involved in backing the event in Indonesia, New Zealand and of course in India."