For Team Yokohama, it was a
double delight as Bengaluru pair of Rahul Kanthraj and his co-driver Vivek
Bhatt came out on top in the IRC 2000 class and also sealed the championship in
their category, as did Karna Kadur (co-driver Vivek Ponnusamy) in the IRC 1600
category.
While it was smooth sailing
for Kanthraj who thus completed a clean sweep by winning all the four IRC
rounds, Kadur was a bit lucky as overnight leader Dean Mascarenhas (Shanmuga
SN) was docked a one-minute penalty for early check-in at a Time Control and
thus finished second.
Also, IRC 1600 championship
leader Dr Bikku Babu retired on Saturday (Dec 12) and it paved the way for
Kadur’s triumph. “Not the way I wanted to win the championship with Dr Babu
retiring and Dean getting a penalty which helped me. But, it is nice to win
considering that we had issues with the car through the weekend,” said Kadur.
The three-day event, which was
also a contender for a round of the 2016 Asia Pacific Rally Championship, was
supported by Karnataka Toursim and Indian Oil.
PROVISIONAL
CLASSIFICATIONS:
FIA Asia Cup: Lohit Urs / Srikanth Gowda (Pvt, Evo VIII) 1 (2hrs,
14 mins, 11.2 secs); Satyan Kochar / Amit Wagchoure (Pvt. VW Polo) 2 (02:32:13.2);
Pradeep RG / Shekar 3 (Pvt, Evo VIII) 3 (02:37:22.5).
IRC (Overall): Gaurav Gill / Musa Sherif 1 (Mahindra Adventure, XUV
500) 1 (02:06:18.6); Lohitt Urs / Srikanth Gowda (Pvt, Evo VIII) 2
(02:06:34.2); Amittrajit Ghosh / Ashwin Naik (Mahindra Adventure, XUV 500) 3
(02:07:08.5).
IRC 2000: Rahul Kantharaj / Vivek Y Bhatt (Team Yokohama, Cedia) 1
(02:11:16.0); Younus Ilyas / Paul Thomas (Pvt, Cedia) 2 (02:12:09.4); Sumit
Punjabi / Shahid Salman (Pvt, Cedia) 3 (02:12:44.1).
IRC 1600: Karna Kadur / Vivek Ponnusamy (Team Yokohama, VW Polo) 1
(02:07:29.3); Dean Mascarenhas / Shanmuga SN (Pvt, VW Polo) 2 (02:08.08.5);
Bopaiah KM / Karumbaiah KS (Pvt, VW Polo) 3 (02:09:58.6).
FMSCI Cup 1600: Druva Chandrasekhar / Jeevarathinam J (Pvt, Honda
City V-Tec) 1 (02:10: 45.5); Adith KC / Harish KN (Pvt, Honda City V-Tec) 2
(02:12:46.5); Michu Ganapathy / Venu Ramesh Kumar (Pvt, Maruti Baleno) 3
(02:15:01.4).
Source: COFFEE DAY
INDIA RALLY