JOIN USOvernight leader Amittrajit Ghosh (co-driver Ashwin Naik) nursed his ailing Mitsubishi Lancer Cedia (Group N) to a splendid victory in the AVT Premium South India Rally even as debutants Mahindra XUV 500 and Volkswagen Polo achieved a 1-2 finish in their respective categories to provide a memorable finale to the first round of the 2013 FMSCI Indian Rally Championship here on Sunday.
It was all that Kolkata’s Ghosh could do to bring the Cedia home in one piece as he had to deal with mechanical problems through the two days and 14 Special Stages to clock one hour, 54 minutes, 09.3 seconds to annex the overall title.
“Over the two days, we had to change 13 parts and we never had a clean stage,: Ghosh, the reigning National Champion. “Thus, it was great to come away with a win, my second here after 2011, and start the new season with maximum points although we didn’t get to drive the way we wanted.”
Finishing second behind Ghosh was Bangalore’s Vikram Devadasen (Shrikanth Gowda), also in a Cedia, with a time of 01::54:41.5.
Provisional final classification: Overall: Amittrajit Ghosh/ Ashwin Naik (Mitsubishi Cedia) 01::54:09.3. 1; Vikram Devadasen/ Shrikanth Gowda (Mitsubishi Cedia) 01::54:41.5, 2; Dr Bikku Babu/ George Verghese (Mitsubishi Cedia) 01::55:31.0, 3
2000cc (Group N): Ghosh/ Naik 1; Devadasen/ Gowda 2; Dr Babu/ Verghese 3. 1600cc: Sirish Chandran/ Nikhil V Pai (Volkswagen Polo) 01::56:00.2, 1; Arjun Rao/ Satish Rajagopal (Volkswagen Polo) 01::56:47.6, 2; Byram Godrej/ Prajwal Pai 01::57:19.4, 3.
JINRC: Suhem MK/ Jeevarathinam J (Maruti Baleno) 01::58:08.8, 1; Asad Khan/ Zayne Asrar (Maruti Esteem) 01::58:54.5, 2; Adith KC/ Robin Rajkumar (Maruti Esteem) 02::03:21.0, 3. SUV: Gaurav Gill/ Musa Sherif (Mahindra Adventure, XUV 500) 01::50:32.3, 1; Sunny Sidhu/ PV Srinivas Murthy (Mahindra Adventure, XUV 500) 01::59:20.9, 2; Sanjay Agarwal/ Shivaprakash E (Maruti Gypsy) 01:59:27.5, 3. Indian Rally Championship: Samir Thapar/ Vivek Ponnusamy (Mitsubhishi Lancer Evo X) 01:52:59.0, 3.