Rajendra RE from Shivamogga led to a top five finish for Petronas TVS Racing in the Rally of Coimbatore, the round 3 of the MRF Mogrip FMSCI National 2W Rally championship promoted by GodSpeed. Rajendra RE riding a RTR 450 won the class 1, being fastest in the first two stages of the day managed to hold on to the top slot right from the start, Abdul Waheed Tanveer started making some good timing in the final two stages, in spite of being fastest in the two stages he had to settle for second position with a difference of 20seconds. Samuel Jacob completed the podium with a further difference of 2min 19seconds, Nataraj R was 13sec slower and managed to stay fourth and Imran Pasha completed the top five finish for his team with a further difference of 54 seconds. Sarath Moham finished in fifth position with a further difference of 1min 23sec.
The total distance of the route was approximately 85.24 kms, with the Special Stage distance of 68.80 kms.
Class 1 Superbikes, pro expert, Rajendra RE from Petronas TVS Racing, riding a TVS RTR 450cc motorcycle clinched the class apart from the overall win by posting a fastest timing of 57min 59sec. while three of his teammates followed him to complete the podium, Tanveer by clocking 58min 19sec finished in second position and Samuel riding a TVS RTR200 finished third. Nataraj finished in fourth position.
Class 1A Superbikes expert, Sarath Mohan from Kerala riding a HUSQVARNA was the topper of the class with a total time of 1:03.08, Anish Shetty from Hubballi riding a KTM390 was slower by 48sec and held on to second position, Jatin Jain from Nagpur riding on a KTM450 completed the podium with a further difference of 3min 4sec. Sinan Francis from Vennala also riding a KTM450 missed the podium with 9sec deficit and had to settle for fourth position. Lady rider Tanika Shanbag from Satara riding a HUSQVARNA finished in fifth position.
Supersport 130 GroupB, Chalass K Bose riding a Stunner from Kottayam with a total time of 01:14.48 was the winner followed by Vinoth Kumar from Erode riding a Stunner in second position with a difference of 6seconds, Hari Krishna riding on a Gladiator from Kerala was further slower by 2min 33sec and managed to secure third position. Two Bengaluru riders Anoop Manjappa and Raj Bharath both riding a Stunner finished in fourth and fifth position. There were five DNF, Prajwal V from Bengaluru and Dilip Raj from Chikkamagaluru dropped out in the very first stage. Sudharshan from Chikkamagaluru, Praveen from Ernakulam and Azeeb from Kottayam all the three had to pull out in the third stage.
Supersport 165 GroupB, All the riders were on a Hero Impulse, Localite Sasi Kumar K was the fastest in two stages with a total time of 01:08.29 was the winner. Francis PV from Chikkamagaluru was the the leader from second stage onwards but he lost time in the final stage due to gear lever issues and 10sec Liaison penalties pushed him to second spot with over 15sec difference. Vikram Sekar a Localite was consistently running third with 1min 43sec further deficit he finished in the same position. Bengaluru boy Varun Kumar with further 17sec deficit missed the podium, Nirmal E Paret from Kottayam with further 30sec difference was fifth and Gowtham Rao R from Bengaluru stood sixth with a further difference of 56sec, Ajin Abraham had issues with the bike right from the start and had to pull out in the second stage.
Supersport 260 GroupB, Imran Pasha riding a TVS RTR200 from Petronas TVS Racing apart from being the winner of the class found his space in overall as well with a total time of 01:01.45. While his teammate Sachin D who had to take late start without penalty due to kidney belt issues was 2min 11sec slower and finished in second position, route opener Mangaluru boy Adnaan Ahmed riding a Hero Xpulse with 2sec deficit settled for third position. Bantelang from Petronas TVS Racing missed the podium with over 1min10sec further difference. Yuva Kumar from Hero Motorsports Team Rally finished fifth with further 31sec deficit and his teammate Sathyaraj was sixth with a difference of 48seconds.
Supersport 400 GroupB, Localite Venu Ramesh Kumar riding a KTM390 was fastest in the first three stages and took the top slot in the podium by clocking 01:09.16, also riding a KTM390 was Bengaluru boy Amogh Nag in his second season of rally managed to secure second position with a difference of 1min 5sec, Mohammed Zaheer riding a KTM ADV from Bengaluru with 9sec difference stood third. Ashwin Anantha Raju also from Bengaluru riding a KTM390 with 5min 58sec difference finished fourth, Russel Jossy from Mumbai riding a KTM390 finished fifth followed by Hansraj Saikia from Assam in Sixth, while Aakash Aithal from Puttur due to side stand sensor issues had to pull out in the very first stage, the issue which cropped up during reccee reflected on the stage.
Supersport 500 GroupB, Naresh VS from Bengaluru was unchallenged with a total time of 01:08.53 he was the winner of the class, followed him with 2min 31sec deficit was Arun Joy from Kerala in second position, Shajeer Ismail from Ernakulam with further 2min 35sec difference was the final man on the podium. Mahesh Kumar from Kochi finished fourth was just above 2sec slower to miss the podium, Sreekanth Komana from Kochi pulled out in the very first stage.
Ladies class GroupB, Aishwarya P riding a TVS RTR200 from Petronas TVS Racing won with a comfortable lead of over 2min 35sec on Fazeela riding a Hero Impulse from Ernakulam, having handling issues she lost lot of time in the very first stage of the day, Sameera Dahiya riding a Hero Xpulse completed the podium with a further difference of 17min 56sec, Deeksha Srivastava riding a Impulse from Pune finished fourth. Jeena Roy from Muvattupuzha finished in fifth.
Scooter upto 210cc GroupB, Syed Asif Ali riding a TVS NTORQ from Petronas TVS Racing had to defend his teammate who was clocking very close timing from third stage onwards, he managed to finish on top with a total time of 01:11.02, Shamim Khan started gaining time from the third stage but was finally able to close with 4sec difference, Subramanya T from Bengaluru riding a TVS NTORQ finished third with a further difference of 2min 56sec. Gowtham N from Bengaluru riding a NTORQ finished fourth and Elango from Erode finished fifth. Venkatesh Shetty riding a Aprilla finished in sixth position, while Muzaffar Ali riding a Aprilla from JB Racing and finished seventh. Pune rider Pinkesh Thakkar also on a Aprilla did not finish.
Superstock upto 450 GroupD, Sabarish from Coimbatore riding a Hero Xpulse was the winner by clocking 01:09.4, Arun T from Hassan riding a TVS RTR200 was 41sec slower and had to settle for second position, localite Saravana Kumar riding a Hero Xpulse with 1min 26sec further difference found a place on the podium. One minute Liaison penalties for Rakesh Kumar P from Coimbatore who was riding a TVS RTR200 was the reason to miss the podium, he finished fourth, Jagadeesh also from Coimbatore riding a Hero Xpulse with a deficit of 21sec was fifth and Naveen Somashekar finished in sixth position.
Star of Tamilnadu,
All the three riders on the podium were riding a Hero Impulse Vishnu Prakash S was the leader with a total time of 01:11.01 followed by Ricarius Venchaslaus in second with a difference of 55seconds, Shailesh Kumar finished third with further 19sec difference. finished in fourth and fifth position were Aswin JK and CV Vignesh with a further difference of 58sec and 2seconds. finished in sixth position was Karthikeyan D. The riders were honoured by Mr. Gautham Hari, Regional Sales Manager and Mr. Deeban, District Manager, MRF Limited
"The track gave ample scope to test the abilities of both Men and Machine by having many technical aspects in its stages. This is one of the finest event I have participated", said.Rajendra RE Overall winner.
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