Arjuna Awardee Gaurav Gill having won the previous round in Hyderabad is keen to sustain the winning momentum in the Robusta Rally, the fifth and penultimate round of the Blueband fmsci Indian National Rally Championship 2024 which commenced here on Friday with a ceremonial flag-off.
The event organised by Robusta Adventure and Sports Academy has attracted 61 entries including a healthy 23 cars in the most competitive INRC 3 class. The top INRC class will have only four cars - Gaurav Gill (co-driver Anirudha Rangnekar), Karna Kadur (Musa Sherif), defending champions Arjun Rao Aroor (Satish Rajagopal) and the Bengaluru-Erode AART pair of Monish L (Lenin Joseph).
“We are bringing back the INRC round to the coffee land of Kodagu. The 61 entries speak for the popularity of the event which will test the man and machine given the tight and twisty estate roads. As usual, the safety arrangements and all the essentials are taken care with ambulances and marshals in place. We look forward to another amazing rally before the finale, Karnataka 1000, to be run in December” said Premnath, the Chief Promoter, Blueband Sports.
The rally comprises of four physical Special Stages to be run in Anandpura, the longest with a distance of 12.30-km. All the other three, Pollibetta, Woshully and Margolly are 8-km long. Anandpura and Pollibetta will be run thrice in the same forward direction on Saturday, while Woshully and Margolly, will be run thrice, also in the forward direction, on Sunday. The total Special Stage competitive rally distance will be 108.90km.
Karna Kadur and Musa Sherif, who are leading the National Championship table, are eager to consolidate their position. In the INRC2 class, Aditya Thakur (Virender Kadhyap) is leading over Fabid Ahmer, who has a new navigator in celebrated Ashwin Naik. INRC3 class is led by Daraius Shroff. Harshitha Gowda, who had a forgettable Hyderabad rally, is still leading the women’s class with Phoebe Nongrum from Shillong () is close on her heels. The Husband wife pair of Aneeshnath and Amitha head the Classic challenge class while Baljinder Singh Dhillon(Goutham CP) tops the Gypsy class.
The other strong challenger and lady driver in the INRC2 class, is Pragathi Gowda, who missed the Hyderabad Rally due to her European commitments. She returns with Trisha Alonkar as her co driver.
The rally was flagged off at the Stadium, near Ammathi School, on Friday.
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