Indian National Rally C’ship: Aroor Arjun seals first win in seven years

[Photo: IANS]


Mangaluru’s Aroor Arjun Rao, with co-driver Satish Rajagopal, took the Overall title in the Fmsci Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) which was held as part of the 46th South India Rally, at the Madras Motor Sports Club, here on Sunday.

This was the first win in seven years for Aroor Arjun.

Sahil Khanna (Harish KN Gowda) topped the INRC-2 category while Daraius Shroff (Shahid Salman) sealed his maiden win in the National Championship crown by finishing first in the INRC-3 category.

Abhin Rai (D Uday Kumar) emerged as champion in the INRC-4 category while Pragathi Gowda (Trisha Alonkar) took the honours in the Ladies’ class and Arjun Rajiv (Rohit Gowda) topped the Junior INRC category.

Two physical Stages were to be run twice each in reverse direction on Sunday. But both the loops of the MIC Track Stage were cancelled. Thus, the final day’s schedule was reduced to two runs of the Aavisa Stage that held up well to the heavy rains and were dry.

Provisional classifications:

Overall INRC: 1. Aroor Arjun Rao / Satish Rajagopal (01:55:26.6); 2. Daraius Shroff / Shahid Salman (01:58:11.1); 3. Sheshank Jamwal / Aseem Sharma (0158:30.1).

INRC-2: 1. Sahil Khanna / Harish KN Gowda (02:01:38.9); 2. Charen Chandran / Vignesh Mahalingam (02:15:29.4); 3. Harikrishan Wadia / BK Rishabh (02:16:53.8).

INRC-3: 1. Daraius Shroff / Shahid Salman (01:58:11.1); 2. Sheshank Jamwal / Aseem Sharma (0158:30.1); 3. Vishakh Balachandran / Anil Abbas (01:59:29.8).

INRC-4: 1. Abhin Rai / D Uday Kumar (02:04:48.5); 2. Dheeraj KV / Pramod Raman (02:07:51.2); 3. Arun Mohan / Rishikesh KR (02:45:44.9).

Junior INRC: 1. Arjun Rajiv / Rohit Gowda (02:00:13.2); 2. Arnav Pratap Singh / Arjun SSB (02:00:50.6); 3. Jahaan Singh Gill / Suraj Keshava Prasad (02:01.04.9).

Ladies Cup (Open): 1. Pragathi Gowda / Trisha Alonkar (01:59:58.5); 2. Shivani Parmar / Sanath G (02:20:12.4).

Fmsci Gypsy Challenge: 1. Samrat Yadav / Arvind Dheerendra (02:03:12.1); 2. Darshan Nachappa / Abhinav Ganapathy (02:09:35.8); 3. Baljinder Singh Dhillon / Goutham CP (02:15:26.4).