Ghosh and Naik Win AVT Premium South India Rally

Published: Tuesday, March 26, 2013, 12:13 [IST]

National champion Amittrajit Ghosh, along with co-driver Ashwin Naik, in their Mitsubishi Lancer Cedia have emerged as the overall victors in the AVT Premium South India Rally 2013. Even as the first round of 2013 FMSCI Indian Rally Championship came its conclusion on Sunday Sirish Chandran and Nikhil V Pai in their Volkswagen Polo and Gaurav Gill and Musa Sherif in their Mahindra Adventure, XUV 500 clenched the titles in the 1600cc and SUV categories respectively.

Amittrajit Ghosh, who had to deal with technical difficulties for most part of the race clocked 1 hour, 54 minutes and 9.3 seconds to grab the Overall title. Bangalore's Vikram Devadasen, along with co-driver Shrikanth Gowda, also in a Cedia, came in second, with a time of 01:54:41.5. The second runner up was Kerala's Dr Bikku Babu, with co-driver George Verghesewith a time of 01:55:31.0.

Provisional final classification

INRC Overall: Amittrajit Ghosh / Ashwin Naik (Mitsubishi Cedia) 1 (01hr, 54mins, 09.3secs); Vikram Devadasen / Shrikanth Gowda (Mitsubishi Cedia) 2 (01:54:41.5); Dr Bikku Babu / George Verghese (Mitsubishi Cedia) 3 (01:55:31.0).

"Over the two days, we had to change 13 parts and we never had a clean stage. 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," said Ghosh.

Provisional final classification

INRC 1600cc: Sirish Chandran / Nikhil V Pai (Volkswagen Polo) 1 (01:56:00.2); Arjun Rao / Satish Rajagopal (Volkswagen Polo) 2 (01:56:47.6); Byram Godrej / Prajwal Pai (Maruti Baleno) 3 (01:57:19.4).

"It was a good result for Volkswagen Polo considering that we came to the event with hardly any testing, but the car handled well even in the rougher sections which speaks a lot for its reliability. Our thanks to Volkswagen for providing all the support," said Chandran.

Provisional final classification

SUV: Gaurav Gill / Musa Sherif (Mahindra Adventure, XUV 500) 1 (01:50:32.3); Sunny Sidhu / PV Srinivas Murthy (Mahindra Adventure, XUV 500) 2 (01:59:20.9); Sanjay Agarwal / Shivaprakash E (Maruti Gypsy) 3 (01:59:27.5).

Provisional final classification

INRC 2000cc (Group N): Ghosh / Naik (Mitsubishi Cedia) 1 (01:54:09.3secs); Devadasen / Gowda (Mitsubishi Cedia) 2 (01:54:41.5); Dr Babu / Verghese (Mitsubishi Cedia) 3 (01:55:31.0).

"The performance of the XUV 500 was beyond our expectations. A lot of people had underestimated the capability of the XUV, but we showed what it was capable of. It was a learning experience and I am sure we will improve through the season.
"The MRF tyres also played an important part in our success. They gave us specially prepared tyres for this event and they worked really well," said Gill who underlined his status as country's top Rally driver.

Provisional final classification

JINRC: Suhem MK / Jeevarathinam J (Maruti Baleno) 1 (01:58:08.8); Asad Khan / Zayne Asrar (Maruti Esteem) 2 (01:58:54.5); Adith KC / Robin Rajkumar (Maruti Esteem) 3 (02:03:21.0).