Overnight
leaders Gaurav Gill and Musa Sherif, won the JK Tyre-powered Rally of
Coimbatore, the second round of the FMSCI-Indian Rally Championship (IRC), by over
two minutes, on July 13 2014. The winners were driving a Mahindra XUV 500
The
second spot was won by Karnataka’s Arjun Rao and Satish Rajagopal in a VW Polo.
They also took the top spot in the IRC 1600 category, while reigning Asia
Pacific champion Gill’s Mahindra Adventure teammates Sunny Sidhu and PV Srinivas
Murthy were third.
A run over the two Special Stages of 26.10 kms
and 12.65 kms comprised Sunday’s Leg 2. “I didn’t want to take any risks as I
already had a good lead overnight,” Gill said. “I wanted to hold on to the lead
and it just so happened that I was fastest in both the stages today,” added
India’s top rally driver after the race.
While the top three overnight leaders finished
in that order, Team Yokohama’s Vikram Devadasen and Shrikanth in a VW Polo
turned in faster times in both Super Stages to finish fourth overall ahead of
their Team Yokohama mates Rahul Kantharaj and Vivek Bhatt in a Mitsubishi
Cedia.
According
to an FMSCI press release, Kantharaj and Bhatt topped the IRC 2000cc class,
while Devadasen and Shrikanth finished second in the IRC 1600cc category. Arjun
Rao and Sathish were returning to action after missing the opening round in
Nashik and the pair, winners of the INRC 1600 class last season and second in
the overall category, turned in another impressive show.
“The gap between Gill and us was big, but that
didn’t change my approach. I was aggressive and I am happy to have finished
second overall with a 1600 cc car,” he said. B Raghu Nandan and K Suraj topped
the FMSCI 1600cc Cup category.