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Photo Credits: Anand Philar
Reigning national champions Gaurav Gill and Mahindra lead on the day one of the 40th South India Rally, the opening round of the INRC 2018 at the MMSC race circuit at Chennai.
The rally started off with the Super Special Stage in the race circuit with most competitors opting for the tarmac tyres. Vicky Chandhok who is returning to competitive rallying after a gap on 17years was the fastest man in the opening stage of the rally with a time of 2:00.0mins while Gill finished the stage in 2:03.02mins.
Gill, however, took the lead back in the first gravel stage of the day and continued to extend his lead on rest of the pack. He leads the rally with a comfortable lead of over a minute as of day 1.
Younus Ilyas and co-driver Harish Kumar of Race Concepts were the biggest surprise of the day with their blistering pace posing a threat to the other Mahindra driver Amittrajit Ghosh and Karna Kadur of Arka motorsport.
Younus IIyas and Karna Kadur are the two drivers to watch out in the second leg of the rally as the fight for the second position in the overall standing gets intense, the duo separated by just 5 seconds with 5 stages to go.
The scorching and the fast gravel stages took the toll on a few cars retiring due to mechanical problems. Chettinad Sportings’ Darius Shroff and PK Racing’s Mohammed Kasim were the notable ones to retire.
Results End of Leg1
INRC: Overall
1.Gaurav Gill/Musa Sherif (Team Mahindra Adventure) 44:35.0mins
2. Younus Ilyas/Harish Kumar (Race Concepts) 45:39.5mins
3.Karna Kadur/Nikhil V Pai (Arka Motorsports) 45:44.2mins
INRC 2:
1.Younus Ilyas/Harish Kumar (Race Concepts)" 45:39.5mins
2.Karna Kadur/Nikhil V Pai (Arka Motorsport) 45:44.2mins
3. Rahul Kanthraj/Vivek Y Bhatt (Arka Motorsports) 46:57.7mins
INRC 3:
1. Dean Mascarenhas/Shruptha Padival (Falkon Motorsports) 45:51.1mins
2. Aroor Vikram Rao/Somayya A G (Falkon Motorsports) 46:10.2mins
3. Chetan Shivram/Rupesh Kholay (Team Akshara) 46:16.4mins
FMSCI 2wd Cup:
1. Adith K.C / Suraj K (Race Concepts)46:46.0mins
2. Suraj Thomas / Sob George (Privateer)47:56.5mins
3. Ravi M.S / Priyamvada Saradhi (Snap Racing) 50:48.4mins
