Vikram-Swaroop take honours

Vikram Mathias and co-driver Swaroop Mohan, in the Mitsubishi Evo IX, nursed their overnight lead to win the Coffee Day Rally, the sixth and concluding round of the FMSCI Indian Rally Championship, here on Sunday.

Dean Mascarenhas (Shanmuga SN) in a Volkswagen Polo finished second, ahead of Arjun Rao Aroor (Satish Rajagopal) who drove R2 variant of VW Polo. Mascarenhas also took the honours in the IRC 1600 class while newly-crowned IRC 2000 National champion Rahul Kanthraj (Vivek Bhatt) topped his category in the Mitsubishi Cedia and Raghu Nandan B (Suraj K) powered his Honda V-Tec to victory in the FMSCI 1600 Cup.

Former National champion Mathias was ecstatic over his victory which he said was totally unexpected.

“It was an experience of a lifetime as I always wanted to drive a 4-wheel drive car. I didn’t do any testing and also had a first-time navigator (Mohan). The conditions were treacherous. So, there were a lot of question marks, but I had no expectations going into this event. I didn’t care whether I won or lost, but just wanted to spend time in the Evo.

“There were issues with the brakes  and then the clutch packed up. So, I had to drive very conservatively and just wanted to keep the car on the road to finish the event,” said 40-year old Mathias who is from Mangalore but currently based in Masinagudi, near Ooty. It was his first win in four years.

Results: IRC: Vikram Mathias/ Swaroop Mohan (Mitsubishi Evo IX)  (1:59.32) 1; Dean Mascarenhas/Shanmugha SN (VW Polo) (2:05.38) 2; Arjun Rao Aroor/Satish Rajagopal (VW Polo R2) (6:26.9) 3.

IRC 2000: Rahul Kanthraj/Vivek Bhatt (Team Yokohama, Cedia) (2:8:33.4); Byram Godrej / Somaya AG (Slideways Industries, VW Polo) 2 (2:10:19.7) 2; Prithvi Dominic / Chandrashekar M (Cedia) (2:10:48.3) 3.

IRC 1600: Dean Mascarenhas/Shanmuga SN (VW Polo) (2:05:38.0) 1; Raghu Nandan B/Suraj K (Honda City V-Tec) (2:11:43) 2; Bopaiah KM/K Karumbaiah (Maruti Esteem) (2:12:3.1) 3.

FMSCI 1600 Cup: Raghu Nandan B/Suraj K (Honda City V-Tec) (2:11:43) 1; Bopaiah KM /K Karumbaiah (Maruti Esteem) (2:12:3.1) 2; Lokesh Gowda/Ashika Menezes (Maruti Esteem) (2:13:52.4) 3.