Celebrated motorsports driver Gaurav Gill supported by JK Tyre displayed high skills and admirable car control to come out triumphant in the Blueband Rally of Hyderabad, the fourth round of the Blueband FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship 2024, which concluded in Shamshabad.
The two stages run within the private properties of My Homes had JVR 16.50kms and JJR 21kms were run thrice, this rally had the second shortest transport in the recent rallies, organised by TMSF, Telangana.
INRC:
The only Arjuna Awardee in motorsports, Gill, along with co-driver Anirudha Rangnekar, supported by JK Tyre, began the second day with a blistering run in the first stage and the seven-time National champion, eased off to nurture the car with superb consistency thereafter, and notched a well-deserving victory. After finishing day one with 57sec lead, he had to just bring back his car safely on the final day, he further extended his lead to 1min 20sec from the remaining two stages on the final day.
“This is one of the hottest rallies and the terrain is treacherous. So, we were calm and consistent and that paid rich dividends. We had some new upgrades and new compounds and JK Tyre has been supporting me with a lot of faith and we are happy to get back a win in the middle of the year,” said a visibly happy Gill.
Former champion Chetan Shivram and co-driver E Shivaprakash of A & A Motorsports for the first time were driving the full setup Fiat Abarth Punto on dirt took an admirable overall second, with two stage wins, and they also won their class, INRC2. They consistently held on to the second position from day one, but only the gap increased. They had a lead of 1min 16sec on day one over Fabid which was extended to 1min 26sec on the final day. The Kerala’s ace driver, Fabid Ahmer and co-driver Milen George, supported by MRF, showed great resilience to grab an overall podium pipping a marauding Arka Motorsports pair, Karna Kadur and co-driver Musa Sherif also supported by MRF, by a mere two seconds. Karna was seeming to have some issues with the car and was not on full throttle on day one where he finished ninth. After rectification on final day he also clocked the second fastest timing in one of the stage and missed the podium with 2sec, thus climbing five positions up. However, Karna and Musa, supported by MRF, took the overall lead in the INRC 2024 championships with two more rallies to go. While there teammates Jason Saldanha and Thimmu Uddapanda were unable to hold on to their day one third position finish, they slided down two positions on the final day to finish fifth with a deficit of over 5sec on Karna. With a further 32sec difference the Snap Racing pair of Arnav Pratap Singh and Rohit Nair finished sixth retaining the same position as day one. Daraius Shroff and Arjun Dheerendra from Chettinad Sporting gained one position up on the final day to finish seventh. With a mere difference of less than a second the pair of Arjun Rajiv and Vinay Padmashali from Chettinad Sporting supported by MRF finished eighth by gaining two positions from day one. Sahil Khanna and Arjun SSB from Snap Racing slided two position down from the previous day to finish ninth. Abhin Rai and Moideen Jasheer from Ideal Racing finished in tenth position while Chandan M Gowda and Venu Ramesh Kumar from Arka Motorsports finished eleventh.
INRC2:
The Bengaluru pair of Chetan Shivram and E Shivaprakash won the class as Fabid Ahmer along with Milen George finished second while Jason Saldhanha and Thimmu Uddpanda completed the podium. Sahil Khanna and Arjun SSB with 1min 11sec difference finished fourth, Yashas M Nayak and Jeeva Rathinam finished in fifth position, Localite Naveen Pulligalla and Santosh Thomas settled for sixth. Aditya Thakur and Virender Kashyap the winners of round3 held at Coimbatore were unable to repeat their performance, they had to rejoin on day two after the day one final stage cancellation finished in seventh position. Harkrishan Wadia and Kunal Kashyap from Arka Motorsports finished eighth, Philippos Matthai and PVS Murthy after being stuck in a mud mount on a left hair pin were unable to put it back on the road, but made their way into the final day to finished in ninth position. The final day run for the pair of Ritesh Guttedar and Suraj M never lasted long, they started dropping from the third position start of the day due to throttle response issues.
INRC3:
Gurugram’s Arnav Pratap Singh and co-driver Rohit of Bengaluru won the class with 13sec lead over the second finishing pair of Daraius Shroff and Arjun Dheerendra, Arjun Rajiv and Vinay Padmashali had to settle for third with a marginal deficit of under a second. With a difference of 1min 08sec the pair of Abhin Rai and Moideen Jasheer missed the podium and settled for fourth, Chandan M Gowda and Venu Ramesh Kumar with 47sec further difference were fifth, Venunath V along with Arun Chakkalakkal from Chettinad Sporting with 58sec were in sixth position, Anushriya Gulati along with Karan Aukta finished in seventh, Nikeetaa Takkale and Arvind Dheerendra were in eighth. Uday Pilani along with Sheraz Ahmed and Hardhik Patel along with Harish KN Gowda settled for ninth and tenth position. Jeet Jhabakh who began this round leading the championship, with the 11th place finish he was pushed down to third.
Women's class:
The Dehradun pair of Anushriya Gulati along with Karan Aukta from Arka Motorsports with a total time of 1hr 55min 26sec were the winners of the class, Pune's Nikeetaa Takkale along with Bengaluru's Arvind Dheerendra supported by JK Tyre with a difference of 2min 56sec finished second. Shillong's Phoebe Nongrum along with Arvind KP a celebrity from Karnataka representing Snap Racing completed the podium with 1min 48sec difference. The championship leader Harshitha Raj Gowda along with Pramod Raman both from Bengaluru had to rejoin on day two after they had to withdraw on day one due to drive shaft issues.
Junior INRC:
Arnav Pratap Singh co-driven by Rohit N won the class with a total time of 1hr 51min 46.1sec, Arjun Rajiv and Vinay were 13sec slower to settle for second position, while Abhin Rai and Moideen Jasheer with 1min 08sec difference finished third.
FMSCI Classic Challenge:
The husband-wife pair of Aneeshnath and Amitha Aneesh from Bengaluru of A & A Motorsports won the class. “We are very happy to grab the victory in this tricky rally,” said the Bengaluru pair. Shaik Hussain Pasha from Hyderabad and Ashfaque Afrid from Sattupalli finished in second position, while Praveen Dwarakanath from Bengaluru and Arun V from Tirupur finished third.
Gypsy Challenge:
After many twist and turns, the class results were altered thrice and yet provisional. Dr. Akarsh Sundar from Chikkamagaluru and Ravi Kumar from Bengaluru supported by Vista Car Care initially were declared the winners, but slided down to fourth and had to miss the podium. The A&A motorsports pair of Baljindar Singh Dhillon along with Goutham CP were declared the winners with a total time of 2hr 04min 39.800sec, the Hyderabad pair of Sachin and Anand Raj were 1min 08sec slower to finish in second postion and the Bengaluru pair of Sanjay Agarwal and Dheeraj Manae completed the podium with 27sec deficit. Kariappa Mekerira from Coorg along with Vignesh Mahalingam were leading the rally till the second stage but clutch shaft issues hindered their run and finished in fifth position.
Star of Hyderabad:
The pair of Uday Pilani and Sheraz Ahmed from Chettinad Sporting won the class with a tota time of 1hr 58min 48.7sec. Amit Sanghi along with Dinky Varghese K from Arka Motorsports finished second witn 3min 16sec difference, with 21sec further difference the pair of Sravan Kumar Kuttoor along with Nash Ross finished third.
Comments