Top Indian rally driver Gaurav Gill and co-driver Aniruddha Rangnekar won the iconic K1000 rally the sixth and final round of the Blueband fmsci Indian National Rally Championship which concluded at Gubbi, near Tumakuru, on December 15.
It was a hattrick of victories following his success in Hyderabad and Kodagu. Jason Saldanha and co-driver Thimmu Uddapanda came overall second ahead of Aroor Arjun Rao and Satish Rajagopol, who slid to the third position after suffering a puncture in the last stage.
The K1000 rally was run on two physical stages of Theertharama, 20.78 kms long, and Hatyalu 16.07 kms, and both were run thrice in the same direction, twice on Saturday and once on Sunday, cumulating in 110.55 kms of Special Stage distance. Along with Liaison distance of 82.56km, the total distance of the rally was less than 200km. The stages were run on dirt, about 14km from Nittur, towards Tiptur.
Day1:
Arjuna Awardee Gaurav Gill and co-driver Aniruddha Rangnekar began on a cautious note and finished the first day with an overall lead of 25 seconds over Aroor Arjun Rao and Satish Rajagopoal. Jason Saldanha and Thimmu Uddapanda with over a second further difference were in third.
The Delhi driver in JK Tyre colours, Gill, faced power issues after the first water crossing and lost time in the first two stages of the day. But the seven-time National champion played a cool-headed game and made-up time in the third stage after finishing sixth and seventh respectively, in the first two stages.
He was unstoppable in the very first stage after service which was SS-3 as he made up 47sec and thereon he emerged as the new leader and added up a further 13 seconds from the final stage of the day and with a 25-sec lead he topped Day 1.
While defending champion Aroor Arjun Rao and co-driver Satish Rajagopal clocked the best time in SS2, the finished the day in second position.
Jason Saldanha and co-driver Thimmu Uddapanda were the fastest in SS1 with a lead of 16sec and they were running in second position till the final stage, where they started losing ground to Arjun but they were well in the race as they finished just a second behind in third.
Aditya Thakur and Virender Kashyap by the end of the day had 45-sec deficit and finished fourth. But they had a 48sec advantage over Fabid Ahmer and Milen George, who were in fifth at the end of Day 1.
Daraius Shroff and Arjun Dheerendra, the INRC3 toppers, managed to finish in the top six with a further difference of 7sec to Fabid
Meanwhile, Championship leaders Karna Kadur and co-driver Musa Sherif of Arka Motorsports were stuck in a bush in the second stage that cost them dearly. They will be running again on Sunday but had lost valuable points affecting their title hopes.
However, the championship fight goes to the wire with table toppers Karna Kadur (co-driver Musa Sherif) of Arka Motorsports and Himachal Pradesh drivers Aditya Thakur and navigator Virender Kakshyap, who are second in the leader board, still in contention.
INRC2:
Among INRC2 drivers, Jason Saldanha along with Thummu Uddapanda were the fastest in all the four stages. With this they were about 43sec ahead of Aditya Thakur and Virender Kashyap, while Fabid Ahmer and Milen George were 38sec behind in third place. Dean Mascarenhas and Gagan Karumbaiah supported by MRF and Sidvin with 9sec difference were in third, as Harkrishan Wadia along with Kunal Kashyap had to drive with breakpedal issues till the first service, which cost them over a minute. After service they managed to comeback but fell short of 34sec and finished fifth. With a further 15sec difference Vikram Rao Aroor along with AG Somayya were in sixth.
INRC3:
Clocking the fastest timing in all the stages were the leaders of the day Daraius Shroff and Arjun Dheerendra. Arjun Rajiv along with Vinay Padmashali with 48-sec behind in second. With a 52sec difference Vishakh B and Anil Abbas were in third. Jenu Johnson in his second rally along with Anirudh Ramesh was fourth with a 30-sec difference. Jeet Jhabakh along with V Sekar were 19sec behind in fifth.
Ladies class:
Nikeetaa Takkale along with Rohit Gowda by clocking the fastest timing in SS2 and SS3 were in a dominant position with a lead of over 2min 16sec on the pair of Phoebe Nongrum and Nash Ross. Harshitha Raj Gowda along with Pramod Raman was 44sec behind in third.
FMSCI Classic:
The husband and wife pair of Aneeshnath S and Amitha Aneesh were the fastest in the first three stages and were the leaders. Praveen Dwarkanath and Kariyappa KB were in second with over 5min difference. Siddartha Santhosh and Sawan were in third with further 46sec difference. Harish KN Gowda along with Dhanush CP and Bopanna, along with Deeksha Balakrishna were in fourth and fifth positions respectively.
Gypsy class:
Kariappa KG and Gaurav Aiyappa with a total time of 1hr 08min 41.500sec were the leaders in the class. Abhishek Gowda and Mahesh Nandi with 11sec difference were in second with a 20-sec deficit. Baljindar Singh Dhillon and Goutham CP were in third. Sachin Singh along with Prakash Muthusamy came fourth with a further difference of 8sec. Sanjay Agarwal and Dheeraj Manae with another 21-sec difference were in fifth even as Kariappa Mekerira and Vignesh Mahalingam came sixth.
Day2:
There was no second thought Gaurav Gill and Aniruddh Rangnekar supported by JK Tyre were fastest in both the stages on the final day and they further extended their lead by 46 seconds and achieved a Hattrick of wins with a lead of 1min 12sec.
Jason Saldanha along with Thimmu Uddapanda from Arka Motorsports finished second. They managed to climb one position up from their previous day finish. They had 20-sec transport penalty due to lower arm issues but still had lead of 18-sec over the third finishers Aroor Arjun Rao and Satish Kumar Rajagopal. The Arka Motorsports team, supported by MRF, slid one position down, due to a left rear wheel puncture as they lost about 30sec in the final stage of the rally.
Aditya Thakur and Virender Kashyap from Chettinad Sporting supported by MRF and Sidvin began their final day from 4th position, which they retained with a 40-sec difference.
Dean Mascarenhas and Gagan Karumbaiah supported by MRF and Sidvin were second fastest of the day and climbed two positions up to finish in fifth position with a difference of 29sec.
Fabid Ahmer and Milen George from Chettinad Sporting supported by MRF did manage to finish one position up, in sixth, with a difference of 7sec.
INRC2:
Hassan's Jason Saldanha and Coorg's Thimmu Uddapanda from Arka Motorsports were the fastest in the first stage and retained their day one top position, they won with a lead of 58sec over the Chettinad Sporting pair from Himachal Pradesh Aditya Thakur and Virender Kashyap supported by MRF and Sidvin.
Privateers Dean Mascarehnas from Mangaluru and Gagan Karumbaiah from Coorg supported by MRF and Sidvin were the fastest in the final stage and also they clocked the fastest timing of the day to climb one position up to finish third.
Palakkad's Fabid Ahmer and Kottyam's Milen George from Chettinad Sporting supported by MRF missed the podium by 7sec and settled for fourth while the Hyderabad pair of Naveen Puligilla and Santosh Thomas finished fifth another 5min 25sec behind.
Tumkuru's Lady driver Shana Parmeshwar who returned back to rallying after a gap of 16 years along with Anoop Kumar from Bengaluru was the only lady to finish in seventh position. They rejoined the rally on day two after they pulled out in the third stage of the day due to sump guard issues. The second lady driver Pragathi Gowda along with Chandramouli, who were supported by MRF and Sidvin, had to pull out in the very first stage of day one in the 3rd km after crashing on a left hander. This was her second back-to-back crash.
INRC3:
Daraius Shroff from Mumbai and Arjun Dheerendra from Bengaluru won the class with a lead of 37sec. Bengaluru pair of Arjun Rajiv and Vinay Padmashali, supported by MRF, from Chettinad Sporting were the fastest in both the stages. They cut down the Day 1 difference with the leader from the 58sec to 37.9 sec and finished in second position. Ernakulam pair of Vishakh B and Anil Abbas form Chettinad Sporting completed the podium with a third place another 1min 53sec behind.
Jenu Johnson in his very second rally along with Anirudh Ramesh from Ammyfied Rallying missed the podium by 20-sec and had to settle for fourth. Jeet Jhabakh and V Sekar from Chettinad Sporting with over 14-sec difference came fifth. The pair of Chandan M Gowda and Venu Ramesh Kumar from Arka Motorsports finished sixth.
Women class:
The Bengaluru pair of Harshitha Raj Gowda and Pramod Raman won the rally with a 3-sec difference over Phoebe Nongrum and Nash Ross from Snap Racing. Anushriya Gulati and Karan Aukta from Arka Motorsports who rejoined Day 2. They pulled out on Day 1 after hitting a rock and damaging the radiator. It restrained her from starting the second stage. With a difference of 17min 13sec, they managed to hold on to the podium in third place.
Tarushi Vikram from Chikkamagaluru along with seasoned navigator Ashiwn Naik fom Mangaluru with 7min 30sec difference finished fourth. They also rejoined the final day after pulling out in the second stage on Day 1 due to clutch issues. Nikeetaa Takkale along with Rohit Gowda from Snap Racing began the day in first position and with a huge lead of over two minutes but had to pull out in the final stage of the rally due to engine issues.
FMSCI Classic class:
The husband and wife pair of Aneeshnath S along with Amitha Aneesh from A&A Motorsports were comfortably placed on top with over 9-min lead at the start of the final day. They had to just bring back the car safely which they did and with a lead of 6min55sec they won the class.
Harish KN Gowda along with Dhanush CP from Snap Racing was the fastest in both the stages and cut down the previous day lead by over 2min 13sec and finished second. Siddhartha Santhosh and Sawan Sathyanarayan finished third with a difference of 18sec. Bopanna along with Deeksha Balakrishna finished fourth while Shaik Hussain Pasha and Ashfaque Afrid from Addon Motorsports finished fifth. Praveen Dwarkanath and Kariyappa KB from Kass Motorsports finished sixth as they slided four places down from their Day 1 position.
Gypsy Cup:
Kariappa KG along with Gaurav Aiyappa from Osprey Racing continued their consolidation on the final day as well. They were the fastest on Day 2 and extended their lead to 1min 08sec to win the class. Abishek Gowda and Mahesh Nandi finished in second position as Sachin Singh along with Prakash Muthusamy with four-seconds difference completed the podium.
Sanjay Agarwal along with Dheeraj Manae missed the podium by 15 sec and finished fourth. Baljindar Singh Dhillon along with Goutham CP was further behind by 30sec and finished fifth. Dr. Akarsh Sundar and Ravi Kumar were fifth while Kariappa Mekerira and Vignesh Mahalingam from Osprey Racing logged a DNF.
Junior INRC:
Arjun Rajiv and Vinay Padmashali from Chettinad Sporting supported by MRF won the JINRC class. Abhin Rai and Arvind Dheerendra from Ideal Racing finished second with 5min 55sec difference. Arnav Pratap Singh and Rohit N from Snap Racing came third another 22min 21sec behind. They rejoined the rally on Day 2 after crashing out in stage two of Day 1.
Tarushi Vikram and Ashwin Naik finished fourth. They also rejoined the rally on Day 2 after pulling out on Day 1 due to clutch issues. Sharath Kumar and Syed Gouse MP from Ammyfied Rallying came fifth while Nikeetaa Takkale and Rohit Gowda pulled out in the final stage of Day 2 due to engine issues.
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