Karna Kadur (co-driver Nikhil Pai) secured the overall title despite finishing sixth in the 42nd K1000 Rally, the final round of the MRF FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship, at Hosadurga near here on Sunday.
Ammittrajit Ghosh (co-driver Ashwin Naik) claimed the day’s honours, clocking 51:40.2, but Kadur, who won the Coffee Day India Rally in Chikkamagaluru last fortnight, had done enough.
“Unfortunately, it did not go according to our plan today, but towards the end of the last two stages we did well,” the Team Yokohama 2K driver said afterwards.
“We secured the points required to win the championship. Credit goes to Leela Krishnan and the team, who have been developing the car well.”
Pai expressed surprise at the victory. “We never expected that this would happen,” he said. “We were not even concentrating on the overall championship but more on the 2000cc championship. But, as it turned out, we started leading from Chikmagalur.”
The results: INRC overall: 1. Amittrajit Ghosh (co-driver Ashwin Naik) 51:40.2, 2. Phalguna Urs (C.M. Chandramouli) 53:38.1, 3. Rahul Kanthraj (Vivek Bhatt) 54:30.5.
INRC 2000: 1. Kanthraj (Bhatt) 54:30.5; 2. K.M. Bopaiah (Gagan Karumbaiah) 54:35.8, 3. Aroor Vikram Rao (J. Jeevarathinam) 54:56.0.
IRC: 1. P.G. Abhilash (Srikanth Gowda) 54:31.4, 2. Mohammed Kasim (G. Sanath) 59:28.4, 3. Ritesh Guttedar (Sheraz Ahmed) 1:00:00.9 . — Sports Bureau
