Team MRF's Amittrajit Ghosh and Ashwin Naik ended day one of the Speed-FMSCI South India Rally with a lead of 99 seconds over the pair of Lohitt Urs and P.V. Srinivasa Murthy (also of MRF), at Irungattukottai here on Saturday.
The two MRF cars were the sole survivors in the 2000cc (N+) class on the first day of the championship. Gaurav Gill (co-driver Musa Sherif) of MRF, who was in the overall lead coming into the second round, joined the Mitsubishi Cedias on the casualty list late in the day.
In the 2000cc (N) class, Rahul Kanthraj (Vivek Bhatt) was ahead of Karna Kadur (Somonnita Ghosh) by just one second while Vikram Devadasen (A.G. Somayya) trailed the leaders by 16 seconds. In the 1600cc class Den Thimmaiah (Pradeep Kumar) ran up a 32-second lead over Ashish Nath (Chandrasekaran), and in the Gypsy class, Sanjay Aggarwal (Sivaprakash) led Sachin Singh (Venu Ramesh) by 91 seconds. The 1400cc Star Cup category saw Hrishikesh Thackerey (Kaushik Shinde) end the day comfortably ahead of A.M. Karan (S.N. Shanmuga). The second round of the rally will conclude on Sunday.
Provisional results (day one):Overall: 1. Amittrajit Ghosh & Ashwin Naik 1h:22m:59.0secs; 2. Lohit V. Urs & P.V. Srinivasa Murthy 1:24:38.0; Rahul Kanthraj & Vivek Bhatt 1:25:37.0. 2000cc (N+): 1. Ghosh & Naik; 2. Urs and Murthy. 2000cc (N): 1. Kanthraj & Bhatt 1:25:37.0; 2. Karna Kadur & Somonita Ghosh 1:25:38.0; 3. Vikram Devadasen & A.G. Somayya 1:25:53.0. 1600cc: 1. Den Thimmaiah & Pradeep Kumar 1:26:26.0; Ashish Nath & V. Chandrasekaran 1:26.58.0; 3. Vignesh Devarajan & Anoop Kumar 1:42:12.0.
1400cc (Star Cup): 1. Hrishikesh Thackerey & Kaushik Shinde 1:31:26.0; 2. A.M. Karan & S.N. Shanmuga 1:32:52.0.
Gypsy-stock: 1. Sanjay Agarwal & E. Shivaprakash 1:29:00.0; 2. Sachin Singh & Venu Ramesh 1:30:31.0; 3. Shafeeq-ur-Rehman & Adhiraj Bardhan 1:30:49.0.
