Thaindian News

Coimbatore, July 23 (IANS) Favourite Gaurav Gill (co-driver Musa Sheriff) of Team MRF looked set to clinch the overall title in the Rally of Coimbatore with a 28.6 seconds lead over his former team-mate Arjun Rao Aroor, now a privateer, at the end of the first leg, here Saturday.

Gill, the 29-year old from Delhi, and winner of the first round of the Indian National Rally Championship at Nashik, paced himself well to top the time charts while team-mates Amittrajit Ghosh (Ashwin Naik), the second round champion in Chennai, and Lohitt Urs (PV Srinivasamurthy) retired due to mechanical problems.

Meanwhile, in all other classes, barring the 2000cc Group N, the issue was more or less settled as CG Balaram (co-driver Santosh Kumar) in the 1600cc, Karan AM (Shanmuga SM) in the 1400cc Star Cup and Bangalore’s Sanjay Agarwal (Shivaprakash E) in the Gypsy Cup enjoyed sizeable leads going into the final day on Sunday when only two Special Stages and a Super Special Stage are to be run.

Of interest though would be the battle in the 2000cc (Group N) Class where Vikram Devadasen (Somaya AG) and Karna Kadur (Somonita Ghosh) were locked in a close fight with just 2.4 seconds separating the two with Shailendra Hegde (Prajval Pai), a further 36 seconds behind in third position.

Devadasen from Bangalore with his rookie co-driver Somaya, began on a sedate note before stepping up the pace to move into second position behind Kadur after five Stages. Thereafter, Devadasen made ground to finish the day ahead of Kadur.

Provisional Classifications (Leg 1):

Overall/2000cc (N+): Gaurav Gill / Musa Sherif (MRF) 1 (1hr, 12mins, 42.3secs); Arjun Rao Aroor / Satish Rajagopal (Pvt) 2 (01:13:10.9); Arjun Balu / BS Sujith Kumar (MRF) 3 (01:13:26.0).

2000CC (Group N): Vikram Devadasen / Somaya AG (Pvt) 1 (01:18:10.7); Karna Kadur / Somonita Ghosh (Pvt) 2 (01:18:13.1); Shailender Hegde / Prajval Pai (Pvt) 3 (01:18:46.7).

1600cc: Balaram CG / Santosh Kumar S (Pvt) 1 (01:23:44.6); Prakhyat Shirole / Roopesh Kholay (Pvt) 2 (01:27:31.1); Siddharth Ranganekar / Nitin Jacob (Pvt) 3 (01:28:39.8).

Star Cup (1400cc): Karan AM / Shanmuga SM (Pvt) 1 (01:23:47.8); Vikram Rao / S Dinesh (Pvt) 2 (01:27:40.8); Vineeth Vincent Tom / Sob George (Pvt) 3 (01:28:32.3).

Gypsy Cup: Sanjay Agarwal / Shivaprakash E (Pvt) 1 (01:24:44.8); Shafeeq-ur Rehman / Adiraj Bardhan (Pvt) 2 (01:29:42.0); John K Phillip / Phillip Thomas (Pvt) 3 (01:38:29.5).