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Rallye de Goa ends with Team MRF at the forefront
Panjim, Nov 03: Arun Balu and co-driver Kumar Ramaswamy of Team MRF, driving a Honda City V-Tec, expectedly won the overall title of the Rallye de Goa, the fifth round of the MAI-Indian National Rally Championship, sparing over four minutes to their nearest rival, here yesterday.
Panjim, Nov 03: Arun Balu and co-driver Kumar Ramaswamy of Team MRF, driving a Honda City V-Tec, expectedly won the overall title of the Rallye de Goa, the fifth round of
the MAI-Indian National Rally Championship, sparing over four minutes to their nearest rival, here yesterday.
Coming in second were R Karthikeyan and co-driver G Satish in a Maruti Esteem, who also topped the INRC 1400cc category, ahead of Team Novva, comprising Rahul Kantharaj and Vivek Bhatt.
Fourth overall were the Gulf Oil-sponsored pair of Jiby Maliakkal and co-driver Nikhil Pai in a Honda City. After their off-road excursion Saturday when they lost a lot of time, Jiby could not make up the deficit and had to content with finishing the event that was contested by eight cars all of which made it to the finish yesterday afternoon.
"It was nice to win my first event since the India rally last year, but it would have been more satisfying had my team-mates too taken part," said Balu.
Balu was referring to the absence of reigning national champion V R Naren Kumar, Karandip Singh, Narayanaswamy Leelakrishnan and Vikram Mathias, all of Team MRF, who could not take the start Saturday as their Honda City cars did not arrive at the venue in time.
Balu, thus, moved to second position on the championship leaderboard, behind Naren Kumar and ahead of Karandip Singh.
However, Naren still enjoys a 28-point lead with two more rounds left in the championship.
Bureau Report
Coming in second were R Karthikeyan and co-driver G Satish in a Maruti Esteem, who also topped the INRC 1400cc category, ahead of Team Novva, comprising Rahul Kantharaj and Vivek Bhatt.
Fourth overall were the Gulf Oil-sponsored pair of Jiby Maliakkal and co-driver Nikhil Pai in a Honda City. After their off-road excursion Saturday when they lost a lot of time, Jiby could not make up the deficit and had to content with finishing the event that was contested by eight cars all of which made it to the finish yesterday afternoon.
"It was nice to win my first event since the India rally last year, but it would have been more satisfying had my team-mates too taken part," said Balu.
Balu was referring to the absence of reigning national champion V R Naren Kumar, Karandip Singh, Narayanaswamy Leelakrishnan and Vikram Mathias, all of Team MRF, who could not take the start Saturday as their Honda City cars did not arrive at the venue in time.
Balu, thus, moved to second position on the championship leaderboard, behind Naren Kumar and ahead of Karandip Singh.
However, Naren still enjoys a 28-point lead with two more rounds left in the championship.
Bureau Report