The Hindu : Sport / Racing : Motor : Gill-Ahmed duo leads the pack

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Sunday, May 07, 2006

Sport

Sport - Racing : Motor

Gill-Ahmed duo leads the pack

Special Correspondent

PUNE: Gaurav Singh Gill, along with Farooq Ahmed, overcame self-made and natural obstacles to lead the pack in the Xtrapremium Overdrive Rally of Pune, the first leg of the Indian National Rally Championship 2006. The Team JK Tyre duo, driving a Maruti Baleno were ahead in the 1600cc class, timed at 55 minutes, 51 seconds over nine special stages (87.6kms) on the second day of the three-day competition, conducted in torrid heat at Shirur, between Pune and Ahmednagar.

Gill's time included 50 seconds penalty for late reporting at start control before the Super Special Stage at Balewadi on Friday. Team MRF's Arjun Rao Aroor (co-driver M. Chandramouli) trail behind the leader by one minute, 15 secs, followed by Naren Kumar/Ram Kumar (Team JK Tyre) in 57.31, Sunny Sidhu (Vivek Anandan) of Team JK Tyre are fourth.

Taking a toll

The course took its toll on man and machine, two Ford Fiestas forced out due to technical problems. Team MRF's Arjun Balu (Kumar Ramaswamy) opted out due to broken sump at the second stage. Team JK Tyre's Vikram Mathias (Nikhil Pai) withdrew due to broken rear axle on stage four. National champion Naren Kumar (D. Ramkumar) of Team JK Tyre overcame time loss due to flat tyres twice, retained lead till the seventh stage before being pushed into third spot after the second setback on stage eight.

Scratch timings

The Super Special stage at Balewadi on Friday evening saw 12 drivers, nine of them in the elite 1600cc category, given scratch timings after delays stretched the event into the night. Team MRF Tyres and Team JK Tyres had brought the fading light issue to the organisers' notice. Four participants, mostly amateurs overshot the given time limit and on set of dusk forced the main rally teams to complete the course under streetlights, using headlights to navigate the tarmac in the absence of floodlights.

For safety

According to Ashwin Pandit, clerk of the course, the decision to award scratch timings were taken on `grounds of safety'. The Stewards announced time of 3m, 48.76s for 1600cc; 3m, 45.00s for 1400cc; 3m, 28.76s for Gypsy categories. Late reporting for SS stage by 10 teams, leading to event finishing at night, attracted penalty points. Adding to the organisers woes were a few amateurs driving two kilometres extra with two teams rolling over.

Provisional timings:

Overall (1600cc): Gauravsingh Gill/Farooq Ahmed (Team JK Tyre) 55m, 51s; Arjun Rao Aroor/Chandramouli (Team MRF) 57.06; Naren Kumar/Ram Kumar (Team JK Tyre) 57.31; Sunny Sidhu/Vivek Anandan (Team JK Tyre) 58.08; Karandeep Singh/Jaidas Menon (Team MRF) 58.19; Lohit Urs/Moosa Sherief (Team MRF) 58.25.

1400cc: Girijashankar Joshy/Srikanth Gowda 1:02.23; Chetan Shivram/Rupesh Kholay 1:05.06; Domnic Prithvi/T. Arumugam 1:08.17.

Rally Star Cup: Rajesh Gadakh/Paritosh Kohok 1:03.13; Vatcha Mazdayar/Kaushik Shinde 1:04.16; Khushwant Randhawa/Amandeep 1:05.07.

Gypsy Cup: Amanpreet Ahluwalia/Manoj Shadija 1:04.17; Sanket Shanbagh/Ramesh Shanbagh 1:06.32; Sandeep Sharma/Kulbir Singh 1:09.25.

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