CHIKMAGALUR: On a day of mayhem that saw retirements of 19 of the 38 starters, former World champion Karamjit Singh, despite his Volkswagen Polo R2 running on three cylinders, topped the time charts while Arjun Rao came up with an equally impressive drive to take the INRC Overall lead in the Coffee Day Rally, the fifth and concluding round of the FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship, here on Friday.
The tight, twisty and rough coffee estate roads where the three Special Stages were run twice, caught out many competitors. Asia Pacific champion Gaurav Gill (co-driver Musa Sherif) and Samir Thapar (GS Mann) of JCT Rallying, were among those to retire due to mechanical problems while young Dean Mascarenhas and his codriver Shanmuga SM rolled their Volkswagen Polo, but walked out unscathed.
Karamjit Singh and his fellow-Malaysian co-driver Jagdev Singh were quickest on the day with a timing of one hour, 27 minutes, 58.2 seconds at the end of Leg 1.
Meanwhile, Rao (Satish Rajagopal), driving a Volkswagen Polo, put in a grand performance as he nearly matched pace with Karamjit Singh towards the end of the day to take the lead in INRC Overall and 1600cc class, clocking 1:29.42.7. P Pr ro ov vi is si io on na al l r re es su ul lt ts s ( (L Le eg g 1 1) ): : INRC Overall: Arjun Rao / Satish Rajagopal (VW Polo) 1 (1hr, 29mins, 42.7secs); Vikram Devadasen / Ashwin Naik (Mitsubishi Cedia) 2 (01:34:12.3); Suhem MK / Jeevarathinam (Maruti Baleno) 3 (01:34:19.1).
INRC 2000cc: Vikram Devadasen / Ashwin Naik (Mitsubishi Cedia) 1 (01:34:12.3); Dr Bikku Babu / George Verghese (Mitsubishi Cedia) 2 (01:34:44.6); Prithvi Dominic / Ravindra MS (Mitsubishi Cedia) 3 (01:34:53.3).
INRC 1600cc: Arjun Rao / Satish Rajagopal (VW Polo) 1 (1hr, 29mins, 42.7secs); Sirish Chandran / Nikhil Pai (Slideways Industries, VW Polo) 2 (01:34:45.8); Hrishikesh Thackersey / Ninad Mirajgaonkar (VW Polo) 3 (01:40:05.5).
JINRC: Suhem MK / Jeevarathinam (Maruti Baleno) 1 (01:34:19.1); Rohan Pawar / Arjun Mehta (Slideways Industries, VW Polo) 2 (01:37:44.0); Dhruva C / Roopesh BC (Maruti Esteem) 3 (01:38:55.7).
SUV NRC: Sunny Sidhu / PVS Murthy (Mahindra Adventure Rally, XUV 500) 1 (01:31:24.8); Lohitt Urs / Bonnie Thomas (Mahindra Adventure Rally, XUV 500) 2 (01:36:03.4).
IRC: Karamjit Singh / Jagdev Singh (Slideways Industries, VW Polo R2) 1 (01:27:58.2); Sumit Panjabi / Venu Ramesh Kumar (Mitsubishi Cedia) 2 (01:40:15.0); Shyam Chellappan / Sob George (Maruti Baleno) 3 (01:52:46.4).
New: Vikram Mathias / Vivek Ponnusamy (Team Jungle Hut, Volkswagen Polo TDI) 01:39:26.9.
