It was time for Maharashtra to get into the groove of motorsport and what better place than the wine city - Nashik - to stage the second round of the Indian National Rally Championship (INRC).
Amittrajit Ghosh and co-driver Ashwin Naik, having won the opening round of the 2013 INRC season at Chennai, continued their charge at the Rally of Maharshtra to take first place overall in their Mitsubishi Cedia.
Vikram Mathias and co-driver Srikanth Gowda, also driving a Cedia, placed second while Arjun Rao Aroor and co-driver Satish Rajgopal powered their VW Polo to third overall.
There was no surprise in the SUV category of the INRC as Gaurav Gill along with co-driver Musa Sherif topped the timing sheets in the Mahindra XUV 500 not only in their category but overall as well, despite not being eligible for overall honours.
Gill’s decision of using gravel tyres instead of tarmac tyres proved to be correct. following the realization that rain was imminent.
Gill didn’t hesitate to acknowledge that he had learnt a lot from the Malaysian rally legend Karamjit Singh, who participated in the Indian Rally Championship (IRC) class with co-driver Jagdev Singh. He was behind the wheel of a modified VW Polo fielded by Slideways Industries and took second place overall behind Gill..
Singh was, however, comfortably ahead of team-mate Rohan Pawar and co-driver Arjun Mehta by over nine minutes in their category.
Driving a Maruti Esteem, Asad Khan with co-driver Zayne Asrar took top honours in the Junior INRC category. They finished ahead of Aniruddha Rangnekar and co-driver Nitin Jacob and Pawar and Mehta, who were second and third respectively in their Volkswagen Polos.
All eyes now turn to Coimbatore, where the next round of the INRC is scheduled.
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