JOIN USMahindra Adventure's Gaurav Gill clinched his fifth MRF FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship trophy after winning the MRF 43rd K-1000 Rally here on Sunday.
The three-time Asia Pacific Rally Championship winner claimed all the five Special Stages. He recorded an overall timing of 00:55:41.6 minutes, almost three minutes ahead of the second-placed Arjun Rao, to take his final tally to a perfect 100 points.
INRC 3 champion Dean Mascarenhas, despite rolling into a ditch in the first Super Stage and falling behind by over 16 minutes, managed to take second place in the overall standings.
Dean (and Shruptha Padival) picked up a puncture in SS2 too but hung on to keep pace with the rest of the field in the remaining stages. Though the initial meltdown meant that he finished eighth (3rd in his category) and could add only four points to his final tally.
Defending INRC champion Karna Kadur, however, took advantage of familiar home conditions to force his way to the third position in the K-1000. It ensured him two podium finishes too, the second place in his INRC 2 category and the third place in the overall championship.
Rao took the second place in the rally but he had to be content with a sixth-place finish in the Championship thanks to DNFS in three rounds.
Rahul Kanthraj claimed the INRC 2 trophy, despite finishing third (fourth overall) in his category.
Overall rankings: MRF FMSCI INRC: Gaurav Gill (100 points) & Musa Sherif (110), 1; Dean Mascarenhas (67) & Shruptha Padival (69), 2; Karna Kadur (58) & Nikhil Vittal Pai (58), 3.
INRC 2: Rahul Kanthraj & Vivek Y Bhatt (97), 1; Karna Kadur & Nikhil Vittal Pai (75), 2; Younus Ilyas & Harish KN (58), 3.
INRC 3: Dean Mascarenhas (115) & 3Shruptha Padival (118), 1; Saddam Ali Sheikh (54), 2; Daraius N Shroff (51), 3.
**Co-drivers Nitin Jacob (54) and Mrinmoy Saha (53) took the second and third places in this category.