Gaurav Gill triumphs in Rally of Coimbatore
"It was a very special win for us. We started the day with some electrical problems with our car and I knew I had to avoid committing anything silly," Gaurav said.
Coimbatore: Gaurav Gill turned in a stellar performance to clinch the Rally of Coimbatore, Round 3 of Champions Yacht Club – FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship 2020 here on Sunday.
The win not only saw the JK Tyre driver and his trusted co-driver Musa Sherif complete a hat-trick of wins in this year’s championship but also took him an inch closer to his seventh national title, a record that is currently being held by the legendary V R Naren Kumar.
Gaurav, who entered the final day leading the table faced a late but spirited onslaught from MRF Tyre driver Dr. Bikku Babu. However, he held his end and despite facing issues with his car, he managed to win both the special stages of the day to end with a total time of 01:27:56.700 hours to record yet another victory.
“It was a very special win for us. We started the day with some electrical problems with our car and I knew I had to avoid committing anything silly,” Gaurav said. “So I made sure that I drive safe and do just enough to protect the lead that I had,” he further added.
Bikku Babu and his co-driver Milen George came into the last day trailing by over a minute and launched a tough fightback but eventually had to settle for the second spot with a total time of 01:29:21.100 hours.
He however took the top honours in his INRC 2 category.
Fabid Ahmer & his co-driver (JK Tyre) who impressed everyone with his performance this round won the overall third podium and pocketed the first place in the INRC 3 category with a total time of 01:29:57.200 hours.
Defending champion Chetan Shivram of Yokohama Tyre along with co-driver Shahid Salman posted a total time of 01:31:05.800 hours to finish second in the INRC 2 classification followed by Ritesh Guttedar & Lokaranjan H J who took a total of 01:31:43.600 hours to complete the six special stages.
Team Nutulapati’s Aditya Thakur & co-driver Virender Kashyap returned with a performance of 01:31:36.700 hours to finish behind Fabid in the INRC 3 category, while Maninder Singh Prince and his navigator Vinay Padmasali finished third with a total time of 01:32:57.400 hours.
Yokohama Tyres’ Vaibhab Marathe and his co-driver Suhan Kabeer won the INRC 4 category after they finished with a time of 01:36:51.700 hours, while Sanjay Razdan along with Karan Aukta won the FMSCI Gypsy Challenge.
Athira Murali from Kerala won the ladies class closely followed by Amandeep Kaur from Delhi.
Organised by CASC, the event turned out to be a grand success with a record number of 63 participants lining up for glory including nine women participants, a first in the history of INRC.
Now you can get handpicked stories from Telangana Today on Telegram everyday. Click the link to subscribe.
Click to follow Telangana Today Facebook page and Twitter .
