Driving a Subaru Impreza, Gaurav Gill, along with first-time co-driver, Aniruddha Rangneskar, set the pace on the opening day in the FIA-APRC (Asia Rally Cup, Round-2) segment of the 46th South India Rally which is also a round of the Blueband Sports Fmsci Indian National Rally Championship organised by the Madras Motor Sports Club at the Madras International Circuit, here on Friday.
Toyota Rally Team’s (Thailand) Mana Pornsiricherd (co-driver Phanyathat Meenil) was placed second behind Gill, while last year’s winner and reigning National champion Karna Kadur (Nikhil Pai) was in third spot at the end of two loops of Super Special Stage totally 3.1 Kms. Incidentally, Kadur also leads the INRC field.
A spell of rains at the fag end of the session added a twist to the proceedings and more wet weather that is forecast for tomorrow when five Special Stages are scheduled, could make the going that much tougher. The cross-over format here also caught out several competitors who chose the wrong lane, thus adding to the drama.
Reflecting on his performance today, Gill, driving the Subaru with barely any pre-event testing barring a small test run over 700 metres last night, said: “Everything went according to plan. We wanted to finish at the top of the order today. It was a good shakedown for the car. To be honest, I was still getting used to the car, trying to understand how the tyres and the car are working, and the set-up of the car for my style of driving. As for tomorrow when the real rally begins, we have understood how the field is. Given our experience and the speed, our strategy of course is to finish first.”
For Mana, too, it was almost a fresh outing in the APRC-spec Toyota CH-R car. “I last drove this car six months ago. Today’s Stage was very, very short (about 1.55 Kms). Overall, I was happy with our performance today. For us, it was safety first as we still have two more days of rallying. Today, I didn’t push much, but tomorrow, I will be,” he said.
In contrast, Kadur felt he could have performed better. “We had a fairly good run, though I thought, we could have been quicker by a couple of seconds more. I could have carried a little more pace in some sections. But it was a very short stage for me to wake up and drive. The rains will change our approach tomorrow. We have always driven in Chennai in dry weather. So, let’s see what happens tomorrow.”
Provisional, unaudited classification (Leg-1, Section-1):
FIA-APRC (Asia Rally Cup): 1. Gaurav Gill / Aniruddha Rangnekar (India) (02mins, 46.700secs); 2. Mana Pornsiricherd / Meenil Thanyaphat (Thailand) (02:49.900); 3. Karna Kadur / Nikhil Pai (India) (02:53.100).
INRC: 1. Karna Kadur / Nikhil Pai (Bengaluru) (02:53.100); 2. Dean Mascarenhas (Mangaluru) / Gagan Karumbaiah (Kodagu) (03:00.100); 3. Aroor Arjun Rao (Mangaluru) / Satish Rajagopal (Bengaluru) (03:03.400).
INRC-2: 1. Suhem Kabir (Virajpet) / Jeeva Rathinam (Bengaluru) (02:58.700); 2. Dr Bikku Babu (US) / Milen George (Kottayam) (02:59.200); 3. Charen Chandran / Vignesh Mahalingam (Coimbatore) (03:03.400).
INRC-3: 1. Mohammed Sahil / Eldo Chacko (Kerala) (03:04.500); 2. Himanshu Arora/ Kunal Kashyap (Himachal) (03:08.700); 3. Pragathi Gowda / Trisha Alonkar (Bengaluru) (03:15.100).
INRC-4. 1. Jagbir Nirwan / Karanpreet Mattu (03:22.100); 2. Abhin Rai / D Uday Kumar (03:23.800); 3. Ruthuparna Vivek / Santhosh Thomas (03:27.400).