The Hindu : Sport / Racing : Motor : Vikram and Sujith back to winning ways

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 23, 2004

Sport

Sport - Racing : Motor

Vikram and Sujith back to winning ways

By Our Principal Correspondent

KOCHI, AUG. 22. After virtually being down in the dumps last year, Team MRF's Vikram Mathias lifted the overall title in the 21st Popular Rally, the third round of the MAI National Championship.

"We had just two finishes from seven starts last season. We've begun well this year," said Vikram (co-driver Sujith Kumar) on Sunday after the simple awards ceremony here. Vikram's last overall title had come three years ago.

The official final results of the rally, which was terminated last evening after an unfortunate accident in the fourth special stage, were announced here on Sunday. Since the first leg of the two-day rally could not be completed, only the first three special stage timings were taken into consideration for the final placings.

Vikram, who runs a popular jungle resort in Nilgiris, was virtually the king of the forest stages, gaining small four second leads over his fancied team-mate, National champion V.R. Naren Kumar.

However Naren, who was running second after the first three stages, could not reach the finishing point as he had to complete the formalities in connection with the accident which resulted in the death of a five-year-old boy, and lost his points and position.

Vikram thus emerged an easy winner with his other team-mate Arjun Balu (co-driver K.Ramaswamy) finishing second overall. Arjuna Rao Aroor (C.K.Chinnappa) who finished third a creditable third, also topped the 1400cc category.

However, Delhi's Philipose Mathai still leads the National Championship despite failing to pick any points from the Kerala Auto Sports Club-organised event. The youngster went off the road and was forced to pull out.

MRF's Karandip Singh also was forced to withdraw after the second stage after hitting a tree and damaging his Baleno's front arm.

Final placings:

Overall: 1. Vikram Mathias/Sujith Kumar (MRF, Maruti Baleno, 25 mins, 40 secs for four stages), 2. Arjun Balu/Kumar Ramaswamy (MRF, Baleno, 26:13 secs), 3. Arjuna Rao Aroor/C.K.Chinnappa (Esteem, 26:52), 4. Jiby Maliakkal/Nikhil Pai (Honda City, 27:08), 5. E.V.M.Renjith/Anoop (Baleno, 27.51).

1600cc cars: 1. Vikram Mathias/Sujith (MRF), 2. Arjun Balu/K.Ramaswamy (MRF), 3. Jiby Maliakkal/Nikhil Pai.

1400cc cars: 1. Arjuna Rao Aroor/C.K.Chinnappa, 2. Ranjith K.Ballal/Ramesh (Esteem), 3. Sandeep Sharma/Kulbir Singh Dhaliwal (Esteem).

Gypsy class: 1. Gaurav Chiripal/G.M.Srikkanth, 2. Anil Wadia/K.Pradeep Kumar.

Rally Star Cup (for novices): 1. Sanjay Agarwal/Chandramouli, 2. Faraz Khalid/G.S.Joshi, 3. Jasbir Singh/Jeetender Nath.

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