It was a second straight win for Abdul Wahid Tanveer from three rounds of the MRF Mogrip FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship 2023 for 2W promoted by Godspeed.
Abdul Wahid managed to fill the top slot with a difference of 5sec, as his teammate the defending champion and championship leader Rajendra RE who was leading the rally till the last minute lost about 14sec in stage 4 due to rear brake failure which slided him down to second position at the Rally of Coimbatore held at Kethanur organised by CASC. With a further difference of 20sec the third Petronas TVS Racing rider Samuel Jacob completed the podium. Nataraj R supported by VM Sports Foundation missed the podium with a difference of 1min 20sec as he had a crash in the final stage and lost lot of time, Imran Pasha with a 10sec liaison penalties and with a further difference of 2min 1sec finished fifth.
The total distance of the route was approximately 93.94 kms, with the Special Stage distance of 66.38 kms from four stages. Out of the total of 106 participants and 27 podium positions from 9 championship classes, VM Sports Foundation supported riders managed Nine, privateers held on to Eight podium finishes, Seven went to Petronas TVS Racing kitty, and Hero Motorsports held on to three.
Nataraj R a privateer from Kanakpura supported by VM Sports Foundation riding the latest KTM XCF 450cc was the Expert Group A class leader with a lead of 3min 16sec over the second finisher Suhail Ahmed from Bengaluru as Aman Prabhakar Pawade from Nagpur with 7sec further difference finished third.
Supersport 260 Group B: Imran Pasha and Sachin D gave a top two finish for Petronas TVS Racing as Arun T and still recovering from wrist injury at Chikkamagaluru Karan Kumar from Hero Motorsports finished in third and fourth position. Fifth and sixth position was bagged by two riders supported by VM Sports Foundation Pavan BK from Bengaluru and V Trinesh from Hoskote.
Supersport 165 Group B: Yogesh P from Bengaluru was the winner followed by Abrar Pasha from Shivamogga in second while just recovered from a previous year major accident Francis PV supported by VM Sports Foundation from Chikkamagaluru finished on the podium in third position in his come back event after recovery. Roy Stephen and Varun Kumar A both supported by VM Sports Foundation finished in fourth and fifth position respectively.
Supersport 400 Group B: It was a clean sweep for the VM Sports Foundation supported riders who dominated the podium Akhand Pratap Singh from Uttarakhand was the winner followed by Russel Jossy from Mumbai in second and Aakash Aithal from Puttur in third. Rohit Sinde from Baramati and Sumesh Reddiar from Bengaluru finished in fourth and fifth position respectively.
Supersport 550 Group B: VM Sports Foundation supported rider from Bengaluru Naresh VS was the winner of the class followed by Mohammed Zaheer from Bengaluru in second position, three VM Sports Foundation supported riders Jeemon Antony from Ernakulam finished in third position, Sharath Kumar from Bengaluru finished fourth while Arun Joy from Ernakulam finished fifth.
Scooter Class: Syed Asif and defending champion Shamim Khan both from Petronas TVS Racing finished in first and second position as Goutham N from JB Racing completed the podium and Prem Kumar Y from Coimbatore finished in fourth and Pinkesh Thakkar from JB Racing finished fifth.
Superstock upto 450 Group D: Niitish Bhardwaj from Kullu Manali supported by VM Sports Foundation was the winner of the class followed by Shivam Thakur also from Kullu Manali in second and Eldhose P Benny from Thrissur finished third. Pradeep C from Bengaluru supported by VM Sports Foundation finished fourth while Gowtham Rao from Bengaluru finished fifth. Two riders who finished on podium Sabarish from Coimbatore and Mohammed Arshad M from Thrissur were disqualified. Ladies Class: Championship leader from SataraTanika Shanbhag was the winner followed by her Hero Motorsports teammate Tanaya Singh in second and Fazeela U from Kerala supported by VM Sports Foundation finished third. Elakiya from Chennai and Sneha CC from Thrissur finished in forrth and fifth respectively. Rehana Bee from Chennai supported by VM Sports Foundation she was running in second position had to pull out in the third stage due to crash.
Star of Tamil Nadu: A Tharun was the topper followed by G Jagadeesh in second and Ricarius Venchaslaus in third. M Santhosh and Elango G finished in fourth and fifth position.
Petronas TVS Racing had fielded 9 participants including Aishwarya Pissay a lady participant in three classes out of which they managed to hold on top three position out of 7 on podium.
Hero Motorsports put on 5 riders including two lady riders in fray, they managed to get one top finish out of the three on podium.
VM Sports Foundation had began supporting the new and upcoming riders from grass root level in this process they had supported a total of 24 riders from across India, they managed 4 top finishes out of the total of 9 podiums.
While the privateers were 68 in number and managed to occupy 8 on podium.