The Hindu : Karandip ends title drought

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 17, 2003

Sport

Sport - Racing : Motor

Karandip ends title drought

By Our Special Correspondent

Bangalore Nov. 16. Chandigarh-based Karandip Singh (co-driver Jaidas Menon) of Team MRF finally broke a jinx and notched up his first win in nearly two years finishing first overall in the Movva Rally de Bangalore, a round of the MAI Indian National rally championship, here today.

Driving a Honda City V-Tec, Karandip, whose last success in a National championship was in 2001, when he won the Karnataka-1000, was in his element and saw off a late challenge from reigning National champion and team-mate V.R. Naren Kumar (co-driver D. Ramkumar) to emerge a convincing winner.

Meanwhile, Naren Kumar confirmed his third National championship title by finishing third behind Karandip and Arjun Balu (co-driver Kumar Ramaswamy), also of Team MRF.

The third place finish was sufficient for Naren, the 29-year-old from Coimbatore, to clinch the National title with a tally of 68 points with just one more round of the INRC to be gone through in Pune (December 5-7).

He has aggregated 68 points to Balu's 47 and Karandip's 44. The maximum points on offer in an INRC event is 16 (10 for win and three each for the two legs).

Trailing Karandip by 53 seconds overnight, Naren stepped up the pace today and made up 58 seconds before suffering a puncture on the penultimate special stage that cost him about 20 seconds as he slid from second to third position.

Though Naren finished fifth on Saturday at the end of the first leg, he was elevated to second spot after team-mates N. Leelakrishnan (Farooq Ahmed), Balu and Vikram Mathias (Sujith Kumar) conceded road penalty of 20 seconds apiece.

Meanwhile, in a strange turn of events, the 1400cc class saw none of the three contenders finishing the event, but picking up leg points. Lohit V. Urs (co-driver M.K. Bopanna) and Rahul Kantharaj (co-driver Vivek Bhat) found themselves on level terms with 44 points apiece, while the third contender, Karthikeyan R. (co-driver Sathish G.), also could not complete the event due to mechanical failure, and remained on 38 points.

Ranjit Ballal and co-driver Shanmuga S.N., who had won the Rally Star Cup category, were subsequently excluded following post event scrutiny.

Provisional classifications (after Leg 2):

INRC 1600cc: 1. Team MRF (Karandip Singh/Jaidas Menon 1hr, 29 mins, 13 secs); 2. Team MRF (Arjun Balu/Kumar Ramaswamy 1:29:50); 3. Team MRF (V.R. Naren Kumar/D. Ramkumar 1:30:10); 4. Team MRF (N. Leelakrishnan/Farooq Ahmed 1:30:25); 5. Team MRF (Vikram Mathias/Sujith Kumar 1:30:34); 6. Jiby Maliakkal/Nikhil Pai 1:32:24).

INRC 1400cc: No finishers.

Rally Star Cup: 1. Ram Prashanth/Thiru Murthy (1:30:51); 2. Prithveen Rajan/P.V.S. Murthi (1:32:30); 3. Arun Kumar/Lohit Anand (1:33:0); 4. Arjun Rao Aroor/Ashwin Naik (1:35:08); 5. Anitha Kholay/Rashmi Bopanna (1:50:52).

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