There were plenty of twists and turns on the day as the tricky ‘Special Stages’ took a toll on the top contenders in the season opener. Gaurav Gill (co-driver Musa Sherif), overnight leader Karna Kadur (Nikhil Pai), Amittrajit Ghosh (Ashwin Naik) and Dean Mascarenhas (Gagan Karumbaiah) dropped out due to different issues with their vehicles, thus opening up the path for Thakur’s maiden win. The 32-year-old Thakur, taking part in the INRC-3 category, notched up his first overall win in a National Championship since his INRC debut in 2018.

“I am absolutely delighted with my maiden victory. We made a small mistake [on Saturday], which put us in second position overnight. [On Sunday], I did not back off though I was a bit careful,” said Thakur.

Meanwhile, Gill was quickest for much of the day until his second retirement while Fabid Ahmer (G Sanath) climbed up the ladder to finish second overall. Seven-time National champion Gill had retired on Saturday too, with an electrical problem.

Results (after Leg-2): Overall/INRC: 1. Aditya Thakur/Virender Kashyap (02:03:29.5); 2. Fabid Ahmer/G Sanath (02:04:29.2); 3. Sahil Khanna/KN Harish (02:05:03.4). INRC-2: 1. Ahmer/Sanath (02:04:29.2); 2. Sahil Khanna/Harish (02:05:03.4); 3. Aroor Vikram Rao/AG Somayya (02:06:25.7). INRC-3: 1. Thakur/Kashyap (02:03:29.5); 2. Syed Salman Ahmed/BK Rishab (02:06:08.6); 3. Byram Godrej/Varun Satyanaranaya (02:06:15.6). INRC-4: 1. Mujeeb Rehman/Ravindra Kumar (02:12:18.3); 2. Deepak Chandra/Kenith Harsha (02:24:39.6); 3. P Ananth Kumar/ GM Manjunath (02:29:18.0)