forty sixth South India Rally – Day 1

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Chennai, March 17: Driving a Subaru Impreza, Gaurav Gill, together with first-time co-driver, Aniruddha Rangneskar, set the tempo on the opening day within the FIA-APRC (Asia Rally Cup, Spherical-2) section of the 46th South India Rally which can be a spherical of the Blueband Sports activities Fmsci Indian Nationwide Rally Championship organised by the Madras Motor Sports activities Membership on the Madras Worldwide Circuit, right here on Friday.

Toyota Rally Crew’s (Thailand) Mana Pornsiricherd (co-driver Phanyathat Meenil) was positioned second behind Gill, whereas final yr’s winner and reigning Nationwide champion Karna Kadur (Nikhil Pai) was in third spot on the finish of two loops of Tremendous Particular Stage completely 3.1 Kms. By the way, Kadur additionally leads the INRC area.

A spell of rains on the fag finish of the session added a twist to the proceedings and extra moist climate that’s forecast for tomorrow when 5 Particular Levels are scheduled, might make the going that a lot harder. The cross-over format right here additionally caught out a number of rivals who selected the flawed lane, thus including to the drama.

Reflecting on his efficiency right this moment, Gill, driving the Subaru with barely any pre-event testing barring a small take a look at run over 700 metres final night time, stated: “All the pieces went based on plan. We needed to complete on the prime of the order right this moment. It was a superb shakedown for the automotive. To be trustworthy, I used to be nonetheless getting used to the automotive, attempting to grasp how the tyres and the automotive are working, and the set-up of the automotive for my type of driving. As for tomorrow when the actual rally begins, we have now understood how the sector is. Given our expertise and the pace, our technique after all is to complete first.”

For Mana, too, it was nearly a recent outing within the APRC-spec Toyota CH-R automotive. “I final drove this automotive six months in the past. At this time’s Stage was very, very brief (about 1.55 Kms). General, I used to be pleased with our efficiency right this moment. For us, it was security first as we nonetheless have two extra days of rallying. At this time, I didn’t push a lot, however tomorrow, I can be,” he stated.

In distinction, Kadur felt he might have carried out higher. “We had a reasonably good run, although I believed, we might have been faster by a few seconds extra. I might have carried a bit extra tempo in some sections. Nevertheless it was a really brief stage for me to get up and drive. The rains will change our strategy tomorrow. Now we have at all times pushed in Chennai in dry climate. So, let’s see what occurs tomorrow.”

Provisional, unaudited classification (Leg-1, Part-1):

FIA-APRC (Asia Rally Cup):

  1. Gaurav Gill / Aniruddha Rangnekar (India) (02mins, 46.700secs)
  2. Mana Pornsiricherd / Meenil Thanyaphat (Thailand) (02:49.900)
  3. Karna Kadur / Nikhil Pai (India) (02:53.100)

INRC: 1.

  1. Karna Kadur / Nikhil Pai (Bengaluru) (02:53.100)
  2. Dean Mascarenhas (Mangaluru) / Gagan Karumbaiah (Kodagu) (03:00.100)
  3. Aroor Arjun Rao (Mangaluru) / Satish Rajagopal (Bengaluru) (03:03.400)

INRC-2:

  1. Suhem Kabir (Virajpet) / Jeeva Rathinam (Bengaluru) (02:58.700)
  2. Dr Bikku Babu (US) / Milen George (Kottayam) (02:59.200)
  3. Charen Chandran / Vignesh Mahalingam (Coimbatore) (03:03.400)

INRC-3:

  1. Mohammed Sahil / Eldo Chacko (Kerala) (03:04.500)
  2. Himanshu Arora/ Kunal Kashyap (Himachal) (03:08.700)
  3. Pragathi Gowda / Trisha Alonkar (Bengaluru) (03:15.100)

INRC-4.

  1. Jagbir Nirwan / Karanpreet Mattu (03:22.100)
  2. Abhin Rai / D Uday Kumar (03:23.800)
  3. Ruthuparna Vivek / Santhosh Thomas (03:27.400)

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