The Hindu : Sport / Racing : Motor : Dhanaraj tops Kochi drive

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Sunday, May 01, 2005

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Sport - Racing : Motor

Dhanaraj tops Kochi drive

Principal Correspondent

KOCHI: With a comfortable drive, Coimbatore's seasoned S. Dhanaraj topped the Kerala qualifying round of the Airtel One India Challenge Rally at the Marine Drive Ground here on Saturday.

The 42-year-old businessman, who has his friend K. Jagadish as his navigator, finished with the least penalty points in the 16.5-km drive near the city today.

"We have a few years experience in TSD rallies," said Dhanaraj. And clearly it came in handy.

The event was run in the time-speed-distance (TSD) format, which requires drivers to cover a certain distance at a specified average speed or in a specified time.

Thiruvananthapuram's Abhilash R.J. Nair, an executive with the ING Vysya Bank, and

Pramod from Palakkad took the next two spots.

Thirteen cars were in the fray for Kerala's qualifying round in Kochi on Saturday. And with all the teams finishing within the stipulated minimum penalty points, a draw of lots was held to pick the three Kochi qualifiers for the South Zone drive, which begins in Chennai on May 9. And Dhanaraj, Abhilash and Pramod turned out to be lucky. They were presented trophies too.

But a couple of hours later, Kochi runner-up Abhilash opted to skip the Chennai round.

"A couple of reserves also backed out and finally, Premanand from Coimbatore, the reserve No.4, signed to compete in the Chennai leg," said J. Prithiviraj, a FMSCI official who supervised the Kochi qualifiers.

Fifty teams will be picked from all over the South and qualifying rounds were held in Hyderabad and Coimbatore a few days ago.

And after the May 9 Chennai first leg flagoff, the cars will proceed to Nagpur for the main leg. A total of 200 cars (50 from each zone) will start the final leg from Nagpur on May 12 and the rally will end in Delhi on May 14.

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