It will be a power packed line up of Veteran and Young guns in the JK Tyre cadre, as it is all set for the Rally of Coimbatore, second round of the Blue Band FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship 2022.
The team is led by Arjuna Awardee, seven-times INRC (Indian National Rally Championship) Champion and three-time APRC (Asia-Pacific Rally Championship) Champion, Gaurav Gill (co-driver Musa Sherif) who will be putting his Mahindra XUV 300 through the paces. With the team re-evaluating its strategy, star rallyist from Mangalore Dean Mascarenhas (co-driver Gagan Karumbaiah) gets an upgrade to the INRC 1 Category after giving an impressive performance in INRC 2 and will be driving the all-new rally spec Baleno R2 which has been developed by JK Motorsport.
Carrying the baton and ensuring the team has a strong foothold in the INRC 2 category will be reigning INRC 2 Champion Fabid Ahmer (co-driver Sanath G) from Palakkad, Suhem Kabeer (co-driver Jeevarathinam) from Coorg and 23 yr old Harkrishan Wadia (co-driver Amber Udasi) from Delhi. The INRC 3 category will have the line-up of Syed Salman (co-driver Rishabh BK) from Mysore, Kuber Sharma (co-driver Kunal Kashyap) from Nalagarh (H.P), Maninder Singh (co-driver Eldo Chacko) from Delhi, and Shivani Pruthvi (co-driver Deepti Pruthvi) from Davangere.
Giving company to the seasoned drivers will be the new introduction, 19 yr old Jahaan, who has excelled in all parameters in his tests to find a place in the JK Tyre team. Driving in INRC 3, he is being considered as one of the most promising and fearless drivers on the grid.
While the team tasted a bit of a disappointment in Round 1 of INRC-South India Rally in Chennai with Gaurav’s car facing mechanical failures and Dean & Suhem despite finishing on podium in their respective categories after giving a tough fight had to let go off their positions due to some technical irregularity pointed by scrutineers. However, the team has the pace now and is back with new energy and enthusiasm to prove their mettle in the known turf of Coimbatore.
With his years-long experience and sheer dominance over the challenging routes of Coimbatore, Gill is a favourite going into the Rally this weekend (30-31st July, 2022). Gill’s dominance, however, is not limited to the Indian courses, he recently made a powerful comeback to World Rally Championship Safari Rally Kenya 2022 round.
With this line-up, one can expect some crazy action over the weekend and the weather gods too have plans to play around and it can turn out to be a quite a slushy affair.
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