The Hindu : Sport / Racing : Motor : Urs in the van; Gaurav, Vikram forced to quit

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Sport - Racing : Motor

Urs in the van; Gaurav, Vikram forced to quit

KOCHI: Team MRF’s Lohit Urs was in the lead in the 23rd Popular Rally which returned to Kochi after the first leg, run mainly in Idukki, on Saturday night.

However, MRF’s big star Gaurav Gill, who won the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship’s Indonesia round a few days ago, was forced to call it quits after going off the road in the day’s first stage this morning.

“The stages were a gamble. Some went off the road,” said Urs. “Gill’s car went off the road in the first stage, it was badly damaged.”

According to the organisers, Gill suffered a nose injury and was taken to a nearby hospital.

The day’s first stage, Illythode, which was repeated later in the evening, turned out to be very rough.

“There were lot of stones and holes and since the road was covered with water, we couldn’t make much of it. And it was a fast stage too, we were touching around 100kmph and then braking frequently. We also hit a culvert in the first stage, but we were lucky,” said the 28-year-old Urs, who hails from Mysore.

He enjoyed a strong lead of one minute, 41 seconds by the end of the day with his teammate Arjun Rao Aroor.

“Now, we’ll just be easing off,” he said. “We got the lead in the fifth stage. Amittrajit Ghosh (Red Rooster Racing) was in front till then but he went off.”

Thirty-four cars started the rally in the morning but by the end of the day, 10 were out of the event. Former National champion, Vikram Mathias, with an engine failure, was one of the top stars to call it quits.

An unfortunate incident in the morning caused much confusion and a delay of nearly an hour.

“One of the cars which had our rally sticker on it was involved in an accident and a child was killed near Kalady this morning,” O.G. Sunil of the Kerala Auto Sports Club, the rally host, said.

“But it was not a competitor or a rally vehicle,” he explained.

The rally is likely to take a different route for its final leg on Sunday. — Principal Correspondent

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