Aroor surges ahead in National Rally Championship

MRF driver takes an impressive 15.5-second lead

Aroor, with Satish K Rajagopal as co-driver, kept his foot planted on the accelerator right through the three stages to virtually seal the title in the 2000 N+ category of one of India's oldest rallies, completing the demanding course in a time of 1:47:17.6, 15.5 seconds ahead of team-mate Lohitt V Urs (Srikanth Gowda, 1:47.33.1).

Surprise podium finisher CG Balram (brother and co-driver CG Raghuram), driving in the 1400N category, finished third overall after stopping the clock at 2:02.54.8.

RRR’s Vikram Mathias, who held a 42-second lead at the end of the first day for three leg points, was expected to retain his comfortable lead, if not extend it, but disaster struck as the Bangalore-based driver’s fuel line clip slipped and brought the car to a standstill.
Half-an-hour later, Mathias got back on track and grabbed the third spot in the race but slipped to the tenth position on the overall table.

The race will now move to Sammy’s Dreamland for the Super Special Stage on Sunday, with Aroor in the driver’s seat. But what the 2.2-kilometre course has in store is as good a guess as any.

Results (Day II): Overall: Arjun Rao Aroor/ Satish K Rajagopal (Team MRF, 1:47.17.6) 1; Lohitt V Urs/ Srikanth Gowda (MRF, 1:47:33.1) 2; CG Balram/ CG Raghuram (privateers, 2:2:54.8) 3.  2000 N+: Aroor/ Rajagopal (1:47:17.6) 1; Lohitt/ Srikanth (1:47:33.1) 2; Vikram Mathias/ PV Srinivasa Murthy (Red Rooster Racing, 2:12:17.9) 3.
1400: Balram/ Raghuram (privateer, 2:2:54.8) 1; Rattan N Gangadhar/ GN Nikunj (pvt, 2:58:13.6) 3.

Rally Star Cup: Kaushik H Shinde/ Ninad A Mirajgaonkar (pvt, 2:7:18.1) 1; Dhirendra Kumar/ Ravi Raidurg (2:7:56.6) 2; S Aditya/ KB Kariappa (pvt, 2:11:0.9) 3. Gypsy: Amrinder Brar/ Himanshu (Army Adventure Wing, 2:3:09.5) 1; Shakti Bajaj/ Dharmesh Sinha (AAW, 2:8:08.3) 2; Harpreet Singh Sidhu/ Hardevinder S Brar (2:12: 05.4) 3.