JOIN USA Zuhin once again brought his Subaru Impreza to the party as he and his seasoned navigator Musa Sherif used the brute power of the four-wheel drive WRX Sti to clock the quickest time in the Super Special Stage of the Coffee Day Rally — the third round of the FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship -- to take charge of the overall standings and the Indian Rally Class here on Friday.
Zuhin, driving a Subaru serviced by the Malaysia MRU Motor Sport, used his 300bhp engine to the hilt to run through the 2.5-km course in two minutes and 39 seconds, nearly eight seconds in front of the second best driver ahead of Saturday’s six Special Stages.
Amittrajit Ghosh (navigator Ashwin Naik) finished second overall in his Group N-spec Mitsubishi Lancer Cedia in a time of 2:47.0.
In the 2000 cc category, Ghosh was followed by Rahul Kanthraj (navigator Vivek Bhatt) of Team Horizon R3A (2:48.7) in second and Karna Kadur (Somonita Ghosh) in third (2:49.2).
K-1000 winner and overall leader Lohitt Urs (navigator Sujith Kumar) finished a disappointing fourth in a time of 2:49.4, but with the Special Stages to come, the Mysore-based driver can be expected to rule the roost once again.
Results (Super Special Stage): IRC/ overall: Zuhin A/ Musa Sherif (Kajah Motorsports, Subaru Impreza) 1 (2 minutes, 39.4 seconds).
INRC (2000cc, Group N): Amittrajit Ghosh/ Ashwin Naik (Cedia, 2:47.0) 1; Rahul Kanthraj/ Vivek Bhatt (Team Horizon R3A, Cedia, 2:48.7) 2; Karna Kadur/ Somonita Ghosh (2:49.2) 3.
INRC (1600cc): Sirish Chandran/ Nikhil Pai (2:51.1) 1; Byram Freddy Godrej/ Prajval Pai (2:55.6) 2; Suhem MK/ Jagdevan Jeevarathinam (2:57.4) 3.
Junior INRC: Karan AM/ Shanmuga SN (2:56.1) 1; Dean Mascarenhas/ Shurptha Padiwal (2:56.2) 2; Samrat Yadav/ Tushar Marwaha (2:58.2) 3.
Gypsy (non-championship): Sanjay Agarwal/ Shiva Prakash E (2:57.9) 1; Harsha SD/ Rashid Kazi (3:03.0) 2; Shafeeq-ur Rehman/ Dr S Dinesh (3:06.8) 3.