Overnight leader and defending champion Amittrajit Ghosh, with co-driver Ashwin Naik, pulled his problem-plagued Mitsubishi Lancer Cedia to victory in the AVT Premium South India Rally, the first round of the FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) 2013, at the MMRT here on Sunday.
Ghosh and Naik manoeuvred through 14 special stages to emerge 30 seconds ahead of second-placed Vikram Devadasen and Shrikanth Gowda, also in a Mitsubishi Cedia, to win the overall title.
2011 champion Gaurav Gill, along with Musa Sherif, was quickest overall and won the INRC 1600cc class. Volkswagen Polo cars, making their debut, tasted success too when Sirish Chandran (co-driver Nikhil Pai) and Arjun Rao (Satish Rajagopal) managed a one-two finish in the 1600cc class.
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Overall: 1. Amittrajit Ghosh & Ashwin Naik (Mitsubishi Cedia) 1:54:9.3s; 2. Vikram Devadasen & Shrikanth Gowda 1:54:41.5s; 3. Bikku Babu & George Verghese (Mitsubishi Cedia) 1:55:31.0s.
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1600cc: Sirish Chandran & Nikhil Pai (Volkswagen Polo) 1:56:0.2s; 2. Arjun Rao & Satish Rajagopal (Volkswagen Polo) 1:56:47.6s; 3. Byram Godrej & Prajwal Pai (Maruti Baleno) 1:57:19.4s.
JINRC: M.K. Suhem & J. Jeevarathinam (Maruti Baleno) 1:58:8.8s; 2. Asad Khan & Zayne Asrar (Maruti Esteem) 1:58:54.5s; 3. K.C. Adith & Robin Rajkumar (Maruti Esteem) 2:03:21.0s.
SUV: 1. Gaurav Gill & Musa Sherif (Mahindra Adventure, XUV 500) 1:50:32.3s; 2. Sunny Sidhu & P.V. Srinivas Murthy (Mahindra Adventure, XUV 500) 1:59:20.9s; 3. Sanjay Agarwal & E. Shivaprakash (Maruti Gypsy) 1:59:27.5s.
IRC: Samir Thapar & Vivek Ponnusamy (JCT Rally) 1:52:59.0s.