The Himachal Pahadi boys Aditya Thakur and Virender Kashyap from Chettinad Sporting supported by MRF and Sidvin also the 2021 National champions came back to limelight with a convincing win at the Rally of Coimbatore, Round 3 of the BlueBand FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship 2024.
Karna Kadur and Musa Sherif from Arka Motorsports supported by MRF and Sidvin finished second, while Harkrishan Wadia and Kunal Kashyap also from Arka Motorsports settled for third.
Coimbatore suppose to be one of the dustiest rally terrain, forms a thick cloud of dust along with every action. This impression did take a hit during the first stage as the overnight rain tried every efforts to douse the dust, but from the repeat run onwards it was the original Coimbatore coarse in the menu.
Run on a total distance of 270kms which included 8 stages out of which six were run on day one at SM Agro near L&T bypass and two on the final day was held in the Windmill section at Kethanur.
The event was flagged-off by The Chief Guest, V. Balakrishnan IPS, Honourable Coimbatore City Police Commissioner, in the presence of the Guest of Honour, R. Sundar, Joint Managing Trustee, SNR Sons Charitable Trust.
DAY 1:
After missing his fourth straight overall win in the championship at Nashik Championship leader Harkrishan Wadia along with Kunal Kashyap from Arka Motorsports was the route opener and was unable to capitalise as the surface was not fully dry.
Adding up his experience to the drive was the Arjuna awardee Gaurav Gill and Aniruddha Rangnekar supported by JK Tyre who has been reeling under many DNF's clocked the fastest timing of the stage and the mechanical failure sword was hanging on his head, midway on stage two he had to pull out as the wheel bolts sheared off.
With 4sec difference the 2021 INRC overall champions, currently running fourth in the championship were the Himachal Pahadi boys Aditya Thakur and Virender Kashyap from Chettinad Sporting supported by MRF and SIDVIN were the second fastest in stage one. But were unstoppable from there on, they were fastest in all the remaining 5 stages of the day and with a very huge lead of over 1min 16sec they finished their day one.
Defending champion from Mandovi Racing Arjun Rao from Mangaluru and Satish Rajagopal from Bengaluru supported by MRF after being the fourth fastest in the first stage had to pull out in the same stage repeat run as the lower arm got cut after hitting a strayed boulder at the apex of the corner.
The teammates from Arka Motorsports Amittrajit Ghosh from Kolkota and Ashwin Naik from Mangaluru after their win at Nashik on the just brought new car managed to clock the third fastest time in the first stage, there on they were consistently running second and finished the day as Aditya was uncatchable.
Currently running third in the championship the Bengalurian Karna Kadur and Musa Sherif from Kasargod representing Arka Motorsports supported by MRF and SIDVIN were finding it difficult to carry the winning spree of Nashik forward with 8sec difference finished the day in third.
Mumbaikar Darius N Shroff and Bengalurian Arjun Dheerendra from Chettinad Sporting running second in the championship were 10sec slower to finish 4th.
There was a tie between the two Arka Motorsports teammates Delhi's Philippos Matthai and Bengalurian Murthy PVS supported by MRF and Harkrishan Wadia with same penalties 0f 9sec to finish in fifth position.
Keralite Younus Ilyas and Nitin Jacob from Hyderabad representing Snap Racing were behind in seventh with a .100th of a second difference.
Jeet Jhabakh from Hyderabad in his second season of rallying along with V Sekar from Erode was 10sec behind to finish 8th.
The Bengalurian's pair of lady driver Pragathi Gowda along with Sujith Kumar had a 6sec deficit and stood ninth.
Sheshank Jamwal from Himachal and Aseem Sharma from Chandigarh representing Arka Motorsports with further difference of over 2sec were in 10th position.
INRC2:
Running third in the championship Aditya Thakur was the leader of the class while Philippos Matthai and Harkrishan Wadia both with same 1min 44sec difference were second, with a 16sec difference Pragathi was in fourth. The pair of Adith KC from Kerala and Harish KN Gowda from Bengaluru were in fifth. The championship leader Fabid Ahmer had to pull out after just completing the stage one due to drive shaft issues.
INRC3:
With a difference of 20sec Daraious the championship leader was ahead of Jeet Jhabakh as Sheshank Jamwal was in third with further 8sec deficit. Arka Motorsports pair of Chandan M Gowda from Bengaluru and localite Venu Ramesh Kumar were in fourth and Jagbir Nirwan and Dr. Dinesh S were in fifth as six sec separated the two. Lady driver Phoebe Nongrum from Shillong and the Celebrity Aravind KP from Bengaluru had to pull out in stage2 due to fuel pump issues.
FMSCI Classic class:
Bengaluru husbnad and wife pair of Aneehnath S and Aneesh Amitha from A&A Motorsports were the leaders as they were 5sec ahead of the pair of Brian Michael from Trivandrum and Prakash M from Erode, The second Bengaluru pair of Tehejas S Reddy and Ravindra Kumar from Snap Racing were running third.
Gypsy Class:
The Kodagu pair of Kavan Kariappa KG along with Gaurav Aiyappa MS with a lead of 13sec finished the day on top while the championship leaders Baljinder Singh Dhillion from Delhi and Goutham CP from Bengaluru finished in second position.
Seasoned driver Sanjay Agarwal and Dheeraj Manae were never trouble free right from the start but rectified the issue midway and were able to clock few fastest stage timing and once again lost time in the final stage of the day and were in third position.
Dr. Akarsh Sundar and Ravi Kumar both Bengalurians from A&A Motorsports running second in the championship had to pull out 1kms before the stage one finish, they were driving on three wheels as their rear right wheel was completely detached after hitting a tree 4kms before the finish,
The fastest first stage time setters the pair of Kariappa Mekerira from Kodagu and Vignesh Mahalingam from Coimbatore toppled the vehicle in second stage 1km before the finish.
Day 2:
MRF and Sidvin supported pair of Aditya Thakur and Virender Kashyap from Chettinad Sporting on the final day had to just finish the rally without any overdoing, which they did as the lead they had accumulated was impossible to be breached as only two stages were to be run. With a total time of 1hr 50min 11sec they managed to win the rally of Coimbatore with a lead of 1min 14sec. Gaurav Gill and Anirudha Rangenakar supported by JK Tyre took a start on day two once again finding themselves in the non finishers list due to gearbox issues but not before stamping their dominance by clocking the fastest first stage timing by keeping their follower behind by 11sec.
200mts from the transport start the chances of finishing on the podium was shattered for the pair of Amittrajit Ghosh and Ashwin Naik from Arka Motorsports had a very bad day as they had to retire due to engine mount issues after beginning the day in second position.
Karna Kadur and Musa Sherif from Arka Motorsports supported by MRF and Sidvin managed to climb one position up to finish second and reducing the day one margin by 11sec over the winner.
Harkrishan Wadia and Kunal Kashyap from Arka Motorsports were the fastest in the final stage of the day and were able to reduce the difference from 20sec on day one to 10sec till the finish on their teammate Karna and had to settle for third.
Younus Ilyas and Nitin Jacob from Snap Racing were unable to clock better timing then Wadia who was just .100th of a second ahead. They missed the podium with a difference of 32sec and finished fourth.
Philippos Matthai and Murthy PVS from Arka Motorsports also were unable to capitalise on the tie with Wadia and .100th of a second lead on Younus on the day's start. They started in fifth and finished fifth.
The Chettinad Sporting pair of Pragathi Gowda and Sujith Kumar supported by MRF and Sidvin managed to finish sixth with 20sec difference.
INRC2:
The final day results were more or less the same as the day's start Aditya Thakur and Virender Kashyap from Chettinad Sporting supported by MRF and Sidvin were the winners followed by Harkrishan Wadia and Kunal Kashyap from Arka Motorsports finished second and were quicker than everyone by 20sec leaving there teammates Philippos Matthai and Murthy PVS behind in third after beginning the day with a tie. The lady driver Pragathi Gowda along with Sujith Kumar from Chettinad Sporting supported by MRF and Sidvin missed the podium with 20sec difference.
Adith KC and Harish KN Gowda from Snap Racing finished fifth.
INRC3:
Jeet Jabakh and V Sekar from Chettinad Sporting were the winners, they were really lucky as their vehicle came to an standstill at about 4th kms in the final stage but after repeated cranking it restarted but had lost lot of time and were safe enough with a 2sec lead for this top slot.
Sheshank Jamwal and Aseem Sharma from Arka Motorsport finished second.
Chandan M Gowda and Venu Ramesh Kumar from Arka motorsports finally got themselves on the podium in third after years of struggle. Jagbir Nirwan and Dr. Dinesh S finished fourth. The Bengaluru pair of Nikhil J and GM Manjunath finished fifth. The day one leaders and the front runners of the championship Daraious Shroff and Arjun Dheerendra had to pull out.
FMSCI Classic class:
The husband and wife team of Bengalurians Aneehnath S and Aneesh Amitha from A&A Motorsports were the winners followed by the first timer Brian Micheal from Trivandrum and PrakashM from Erode in second
While the Bengaluru pair of Praveen Dwarkanath and Kariyappa KB finished third.
Gypsy Class:
Baljindar Singh Dhillon and Goutham CP from Mandovi Racing were the winners with a lead of over 2sec. Kavan Kariappa KG and Gaurav Aiyappa MS also from Mandovi Racing were unable to hold on their day one lead of 14sec and slided to second position. Sanjay Agarwal and Dheeraj Manae from Bengaluru completed the podium.
JINRC:
Abhin Rai and Moideen Jasheer from Ideal Racing in their first season after graduating from INRC4 class were the winners followed by Ajay Sankar and Vybhav Mukund Rao from Mandovi Racing finished in second position. Aditya Kousgi and Deeksha Balakrishna the just formed pair from Bengaluru finished third. The championship leader Arjun Rajeev and Vinay Padmashali had to pull out on day one due to mechanical issues and rejoined on day two and finished the rally.
Ladies class:
The pair of Harshitha Raj Gowda and Pramod Raman from Bengaluru were the lone finishers and winners as the pair of Nikeetaa Takkale from Pune and Arvind Dheerendra from Bengaluru had to pull out in the final stage of the day. Championship leader Phoebe Nongrum and Aravind KP pulled out on day one due to mechanical issues.
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