Thaindian News

Sriperumbudur, June 26 (IANS) Notching his first win in two years, Kolkata’s 25-year-old Amittrajit Ghosh (co-driver Ashwin Naik) of Team MRF kick-started his challenge in the Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) by annexing the overall title in the South India Rally here Sunday.

In fact, it was a sort of family celebration for Ghosh as his sister Somonita Ghosh, co-driver for Karna Kadur, finished second overall and first in the 2000cc Group N (un-modified) class.

Ghosh, in fact, was the lone finisher in the top-end 2000cc (N+, modified) class that witnessed the retirement of other top guns, including three of his team-mates, Gaurav Gill, Arjun Balu and Lohitt Urs, who, incidentally, was excluded for an infringement.

Urs, who was placed second overall at the end of day 1, was penalised for pushing Gill’s stranded off the highway on the run back to Service Saturday evening.

While Ghosh virtually enjoyed a Sunday drive in the absence of any competition, Kardur was involved in a neck-and-neck battle with Rahul Kanthraj (Vivek Bhatt) who led by a second overnight.

Kanthraj’s challenge effectively ended on the day’s second Stage when he suffered a puncture and lost about 21 seconds. Kadur went on to extend the advantage to eventually win the class honours by over a minute.

Among other winners were Vignesh Devarajan (Anoop Kumar) in the 1600cc, Hrishikesh Thackersey (Kaushik Shinde) in the 1400cc Star Cup and Bangalore’s Sanjay Agarwal (Shivaprakash E) in the Gypsy Cup.

Speaking to IANS, Ghosh said: “It is obviously great to win my first overall title in two years. This is my fifth INRC season and there have been times when I was in the running for the top honours, but always my car broke down.

“I have never crashed in my INRC career, but somehow, always had problems with my cars. The only way I could console myself was that I did my best and if the car didn’t last an event, then tough luck. Not much I could do really.”

For Agarwal, it was an equally poignant win considering that back in 1998 during the same event he suffered a spinal injury when he hit a dip at high speed.

“I had a trouble-free run this time, except that my Gypsy twice stalled due to electrical problems, but still we had sufficient lead and of course, it is a nice feeling to win,” said Agarwal, who had won the first round at Nashik, but in the T1 category (modified), before switching to a stock Gypsy for the South India Rally.

The results (provisional):

Overall: Amittrajit Ghosh / Ashwin Naik (MRF) 1 (2hrs, 5mins, 12secs); Karna Kadur / Somonita Ghosh 2 (02:08:44.0); Rahul Kanthraj / Vivek Bhatt 3 (02:09.34)

2000cc (Group N): Kadur / Ghosh 1; Kanthraj / Bhatt 2; Vikram Devadasen / Somayya AG 3 (02:09:53.0).

1600cc: Vignesh Devarajan / Anoop Kumar 1 (02:31:56.0); Anirudha Ranganekar / Halley Prabhakar 2 (02:41.31.0).

1400cc (Star Cup): Hrishikesh Thackersey / Kaushik Shinde 1 (02:18:56.0); Karan AM / Shanmuga SN 2 (02:19:59).

Gypsy Cup: Sanjay Agarwal / Shivaprakash E 1 (02:14:35.0); Sachin Singh / Venu Ramesh 2 (02:17:17.0); Shafeeq-ur Rahman / Adhiraj Bardhan 3 (02:18:57.0).