Gaurav Gill-Musa Sherif Win 40th K-1000 Rally

By Rajkamal

Updated: Wednesday, November 26, 2014, 14:34 [IST]

Gaurav Gill and co-driver Musa Sherif made almost a minute over Mahindra Adventure teammate and overnight leader Sunny Sidhu (co-driver PVS Murthy) to win the Overall title in the 40th edition of the Mahindra Adventure's IMG K-1000 Rally.

Gill and Sherif, driving a Mahindra XUV500, had secured themselves the fourth National Overall title at the end of Saturday's first leg after taking the lead in the championship points tally, but were trailing Sidhu by 2.2 seconds, which the team made up up a 59.6-second lead to secure their fourth overall K-1000 crown.

Gill said, "It was a good battle with my teammates and to have my name as the winner of the 40th K-1000 feels great."

Mahindra Adventure took the top three places in the Indian Rally Championship, with Amittrajit Ghosh and co-driver Ashwin Naik finishing third in a Mahindra XUV 500.

Gill, the 2013 Asia-Pacific Rally champion added saying "We were prepared for it and the car was perfect, thanks to the team, mechanics and Red Rooster Racing. The new MRF SUV tyres we used were good. Everything fell into place and I am happy that Mahindra got the top three podium places."

"We are looking forward to the last round in Chikkamagaluru. We want the team to do well there also," he said, referring to the final round to be held mid-December.

Karna Kadur and co-driver BS Sujith Kumar, in a Mitsubishi Cedia, won the IRC 2000 class in the K-1000, beating city-mates Rahul Kanthraj and Vivek Bhatt of Team Yokohama, also in a Mitsubishi Cedia.

Phalguna Urs and co-driver Anoop Kumar, in a VW Polo, won the IRC 1600 class of K-1000 to take the championship lead going into the final round, while Adith KC and co-driver Harish KN in a Honda City Vtec won the FMSCI 1600 class in the K-1000 to assure themselves of the National championship in this class.

On the final day, one of the stages was interrupted due to a car breakdown in the middle of the second stage, Kadur and co-driver Sujith Kumar finished fourth in the K-1000 Overall, Urs and Anoop Kumar finished fifth, followed by Kanthraj and Bhatt.

Results (after leg two, unaudited and provisional):

Class IRC:

Driver	Co-Driver	Time	Vehicle
Gaurav Gill	Musa Sherif	01:35:32.0	Mahindra XUV500
Sunny Sidhu	PV Srinivasa Murthy	01:36:31.6	Mahindra XUV500
Amittrajit Ghosh	Ashwin Naik	01:38:17.9	Mahindra XUV500

Class IRC 2000:

Driver	Co-Driver	Time	Vehicle
Karna Kadur	Sujith Kumar BS	01:39:47.0	Mitsubishi Cedia
Rahul Kanthraj	Vivek Bhatt	01:40:57.3	Mitsubishi Cedia
Byram Godrej	Somayya AG	01:41:55.4	VW Polo

Class IRC 1600:

Driver	Co-Driver	Time	Vehicle
Phalguna Urs	Anoop Kumar	01:40:26.3	VW Polo
Hrishikesh Thackersey	Ninad Mirajgaonkar	01:42:08.9	VW Polo
Vikram Devadasen	Chandramouli	01:43:23.1	VW Polo

Class IRC FMSCI 1600:

Driver	Co-Driver	Time	Vehicle
Adith KC	Harish KN	01:42:57.5	Honda City Vtec
Bopaiah KM	Konganda Karumbaiah	01:48:00.5	Maruti Esteem
Aniruddha Rangnekar	Nitin Jacob	01:49:37.7	Maruti Baleno