Samit Thapar set the Super Special Stage on fire with a typically aggressive drive astride the Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X to clock the fastest time on the spectator friendly stage of the Coffee Day Rally here on Thursday.
Guided by navigator Gurinder Singh Mann, the seasoned rallyist put best use the the four-wheel drive system as he pushed his Evo to the limits on the straights and tight corners at the Amber Valley School grounds to stop the clock at two minutes and 39.3 seconds over the 2.5-km course.
Another veteran -- former World Rally Champion Karamjit Singh (navigator Jagdev Singh) from Malaysia -- was second quickest in the IRC division but was well behind Thapar’s time. Newly crowned Asia Pacific Rally Championship champion Gaurav Gill (navigator Musa Sherif) drove his Mahindra XUV 500 to perfection and enthralled the crowd to no end by finishing on top in his category.
While the big guns drove their big machines to perfection, Sirish Chandran (navigator Nikhil Pai) of Slideways Industries topped the INRC segment with an impressive display. His 2:45.20 drive earned him the top spot on the overall table while Arjun Rao (navigator Satish Rajagopal) was second overall followed by Girijashankar Joshy in third. The start grid was reduced to 38 after three more entries pulled out due to various reasons and the cars will head to the Special Stages which will be run on Friday and Saturday.
Results: INRC overall: Sirish Chandran/ Nikhil Pai (Slideways Industries, VW Polo, 2:45.3) 1; Arjun Rao/ Satish Rajagopal (VW Polo, 2:45.7) 2; Girijashankar Joshy/ Chandramouli (Mitsubishi Cedia, 2:46.0) 3.
INRC 2000cc: Girijashankar/ Chandramouli (2:46.0) 1; Vikram Devadasen/ Ashwin Naik (Mitsubishi Cedia, 2:46.2) 2; Rahul Kanthraj/ Vivek Bhatt (Mitsubishi Cedia, 2:46.5) 3.
INRC 1600cc: Sirish/ Nikhil (2:45.3) 1; Arjun/ Satish (2:45.7) 2; Phalguna Urs/ Anoop Kumar DS (VW Polo, 2:47.8) 3. INRC JINRC: Aniruddha Rangnekar/ Nitin Jacob (Slideways Industries, VW Polo, 2:51.3) 1; Adith KC/ Harish KN (Honda City, 2:52.4) 2; Suhem MK/ Jeevarathinam (Maruti Baleno, 2:53.4) 3. SUV RC: Gaurav Gill/ Musa Sherif (Mahindra Adventure Rally, XUV 500, 2:46.1) 1; Sunny Sidhu/ PVS Murthy (Mahindra Adventure Rally, XUV 500, 2:49.9) 2; Lohitt Urs/ Bonnie Thomas (Mahindra Adventure Rally, XUV 500, 2:50.7) 3. IRC: Samir Thapar/ Gurinder Singh Mann (JCT Rallying, Mitsubishi Evo X, 2:39.3) 1; Karamjit Singh/ Jagdev Singh (Slideways Industries, VW Polo R2, 2:42.8) 2; Prakhyat Shirole/ Dr S Dinesh (Mitsubishi Cedia, 2:54.4) 3.