Coimbatore
On a day of shock exits, the Bengaluru combination of Karna Kadur and co-driver Nikhil Pai, representing Arka Motorsports, took the overall lead in the Rally of Coimbatore – the first round of the FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship 2021 – here.
Driving a Volkswagen Polo, Kadur, who is supported by MRF Tyres, enjoyed a lead of over one minute in the overall standings after four loops of extremely dusty ‘Special Stages’ on Saturday. He is placed ahead of INRC-3 class leader Aditya Thakur (co-driver Virender Kashyap) and INRC-2 category topper Dean Mascarenhas (Gagan Karumbaiah).
Seven-time National champion Gaurav Gill (Musa Sherif) packed up after SS-2 owing to an electrical issue in the Mahindra XUV 300. Gill was ahead by 49 seconds at the time of exiting.
The 2019 title-winner Chetan Shivram (Dilip Sharan) also had to retire on the opening day, with a broken drive-shaft in SS-1. However, both Gill and Shivram will re-join the rally on Sunday in a bid to secure Leg points.
Despite nil seat time in the car ahead of the rally, Kadur showed tremendous pace. “I made some mistakes in the set-up for the first loop but enjoyed a good run,” said Kadur after securing the overall top spot. Thakur was fortunate to survive a crash as his Polo hit a tree in SS-1, damaging the front fender.
“The incident did not affect the performance of the car. I had good pace [on Saturday]. Hopefully, we do better [on Sunday],” said Thakur. Mascarenhas, who is supported by JK Tyres, came away with a bent rear wheel after his Polo slammed into a tree. He, however, had enough pace to lead in the INRC-2 category.
“One of the wheels got bent, but I managed to keep the car on the track. I will continue with the bent wheel and I hope to make time on the leaders,” said Mascarenhas. Meanwhile, the fancied Fabid Ahmer (G Sanath) had a disappointing day and finished fourth overall.
Results: Overall/INRC: 1. Karna Kadur/Nikhil Pai (1 hour, 00:06.2 seconds); 2. Aditya Thakur/Virender Kashyap (01:01:42.2); 3. Dean Mascarenhas/Gagan Karumbaiah (01:02:03.3)
INRC-2: 1. Mascarenhas/Karumbaiah (01:02:03.3); 2. Sahil Khanna/KN Harish (01:02:16.0); 3. Aroor Vikram Rao/AG Somayya (01:03.03.1)
INRC-3: 1. Thakur/Kashyap (01:01:42.2); 2. Maninder Singh Prince/Vinay Padmashali (01:02:18.0); 3. Byram Godrej/ Varun (01:02.58.1)
INRC-4: 1. Vaibhav Marathe/S Dinesh (01:07:22.7); 2. Mujeeb Rehman/Ravindra Kumar (01:07:24.8); 3. Shivani Parmar/ Vani Parmar (01:08:35.4)
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