CHIKKAMAGALURU : With the recce done late on Friday and the shakedown complete on Saturday morning, the stage is set for the Coffee Day India Rally 2016. The Super Special Stage — the first official stage of the rally — was conducted in front of more than 10,000 people here on Saturday afternoon.
After the cars competing in the Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) were done with their run of the 2.12km Super Special Stage, it was the turn of the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) entrants to thrill all with their powerful cars. Indians are not used to seeing such cars in action and it was a sight to behold.
Team MRF’s Fabian Kreim-Frank Christian (Germany) topped the APRC time chart with teammate Gaurav Gill and his co-driver Glenn MacNeall (New Zealand) just 0.7s behind. Gill-Macneall have already wrapped up the 2016 title. Sanjay Takale-Noriko Takeshita (India-Japan) were the fastest in the IRC class of the national championship, and Amittrajit Ghosh-Ashwin Naik were first overall.
The gruelling part starts early on Sunday morning. The APRC will be run over 225.26 km of competitive distance over 17 Special Stages, while the national championship cars will run 102.14 km. The stages here, all run in coffee estates, are known for their tight and twisty nature. This will reduce the average speed and keep drivers fighting to keep their cars in the centre.
To add to the drama, there was light rain in the morning, but it cleared up. However, there was a heavy shower late in the evening and it could mean the drivers have more to worry about.
“The recce was a long one. There have been a number of changes as compared to last year. It was a mix of wide and narrow sections in the stages. The roads can be tricky,” said Gill. “It has been a difficult year and learning curve with the new Skoda R5 car. We have waited for many years and the car is a good package.”
Results
APRC: 1. Fabian Kreim/ Frank Christian (Team MRF) (2:17.8sec); 2. Gaurav Gill/ Glenn MacNeall (Team MRF) (2:18.5sec); 3. Yuya Sumiyama/ Takahiro Yasui (Cusco Racing) (2:23.4sec).
INRC overall: 1. Amittrajit Ghosh/ Ashwin Naik (Mahindra Adventure) 2:37.9sec; 2. Arjun Rao/ Satish Rajagopal (2:38.9sec); 3. Sunny Sidhu/ Musa Sherif (Mahindra Adventure) (02:40.0sec).
INRC 2000: 1. Dean Mascarenhas/ Shanmuga SN (2:40.8sec); 2. Karna Kadur/ Nikhil Pai (Yokohama 2K) (2:42.6sec); 3. Rahul Kanthraj/ Vivek Bhatt (Yokohama 2K) (2:42.7sec).
IRC: 1. Sanjay Takale/ Noriko Takeshita (2:28.0sec); 2. Younus Illyas/ Nitin Jacob (2:42.8sec); 3. Ritesh Guttedar/ Sheeraz Ahmed (2:45.4sec).
FMSCI Cup: 1. Vikram Gowda/ Uday Kumar KV (2:49.5sec); 2. Michu Ganapathy SC/ Venu Ramesh Kumar (2:52.8sec); 3. Fabid Ahmer/ Arjun Dheerendra (2:55.6sec).
Gypsy Star (non-championship): 1. Sanjay Agarwal/ Smitha N (2:59.6sec); 2. Avin Nanjappa/ Suraj Setti (3:09.5sec); 3. Dheeraj KV/ Ravi (3:15.7sec).
vivekphadnis@newindianexpress.com