Top three finish for Arka Motorsports as Dean begins his INRC 2026 journey with a win from Rally of Coimbatore.

Dean Mascarenhas and Gagan Karumbaiah turned a nine-second overnight deficit into victory at the BlueBand Sports Rally of Coimbatore. Round 2 of the Blueband FMSCI National Rally Championship 2026, held at the outskirts of Coimbatore. Karna Kadur and Musa Sherif finished second, with Jason Saldanha and Srinivas Murthy P V third.

Eight runs, two stages, one long argument

Over two days the crews faced eight stage runs and 110.80 km of competitive distance, almost entirely on gravel. Saturday's loop ran Black Thunder (13.50 km) and S.M. Agro (14.20 km) twice each. On Sunday the same roads came back in reverse, as S.M. Agro (R) and Black Thunder (R), so crews had to read familiar ground from the other direction.

Day 1:

The opening two stages were dominated by the former National Champion round 1 winner Karna, but there on it belonged to the defending champion Dean, who tried to cut down the 15sec deficit from stage 3 onwards and at the end of day one he was 9sec behind the leader Karna. Finishing the day with 3sec difference from the leader in second was Fabid. Aditya finished the day with 39sec behind Dean in fourth, Jason with further 10sec and Naveen with 4sec difference were amongst the drivers who had brought in new cars for this season. Jason in a Peugeot 208 was fifth and Naveen driving a Ford Fiesta was in sixth.

INRC1: Karna kadur dominated the class followed by Fabid Ahmer and Dean Mascarenhas. Naveen Puligilla and Ritesh Rai were in fourth and fifth. Harkrishan Wadia was behind them.

INRC2: Fabid was in command with a lead of 32sec over Aditya Thakur, while Philippos Matthai was within the ambient of 27sec difference within top three. Ritesh M Guttedar was consistently clocking fourth fastest timing and Pragathi Gowda with 2sec difference was in fifth. Front runner Jeet Jhabakh had to pull out in the second stage due to drive shaft issues.

INRC3T: Lady driver Anushriya Gulati was the leader of this class, she managed to keep the young Arjun Rajiv behind her with over 20sec lead, Adith KC who has returned to rallying after a long gap was amongst the top three with over 15sec difference. Maninder Singh Prince and Aneeshnath S were in fourth and fifth. Vishakh B one of the front runner was trailing right from the first stage and was too slow in the last two stages.

INRC3: Venunath V with 19sec advantage at the end of the day was the leader followed by Ashwin Pugalagiri P, Arvind Dheerendra with over 4sec difference finished behind. Abhishek Gowda TC and Jenu Johnson with further 9sec and 8sec difference were in fourth and fifth.

JINRC: Tarushi Vikram was leading the class with six seconds  being the quickest in the opening two stages, as Sonakshi Paranthaman was behind her, Hoshmand Elavia though was the fastest in the closing two stages was in distinct third. The youngest Vihaan Bhatt in his debut event had to pull out in the second stage due to mechanical issues.

INRC Women: Shivani Pruthvi returned to regular rallying after a long gap and was the leader of the day, Tarushi Vikram was 26sec slower in second and Phoebe Dale was running in third. Though being fastest in three of the opening stages Athira Murali lost over 10min in the final stage of the day due to throttle response issues and with 3min transport penalties was in fifth.

Gypsy class: Off-roader Chetan Chengappa was not the quickest in the opening stage but managed to clock the fastest time in the remaining three stages in his second season of rallying was at the top followed by the veteran driver Sanjay Agarwal in second with 21sec difference, Kariappa Mekerira was a distinct third. Vinod Singh and Avin Nanjappa were in fourth and fifth.

FMSCI Classic Challenge: Lavan Poonacha MP was the leader  followed by Sreejesh MP.

FMSCI Masters Cup: Pradeep Ravi was dominant in the newly introduced class followed by Dinesh Kumar T with 42sec difference, Balakrishna J driving after decades was in third. Ashok P John finished in fourth while Sangeeth Samuel  lost over 18min in the final stage of the day.

Day 2:

INRC1: It was a festive atmosphere at the pits of Arka Motorsports as the top three places belonged to them. Sunday brought the turn. On S.M. Agro Reverse, Mangalurian Defending champions Dean Mascarenhas and Kodagu's Gagan Karumbaiah from Arka Motorsports supported by Sidvin and MRF, took nearly nine seconds from their teammates Karna Kadur from Bengaluru and Musa Sherif from Kasargod supported by MRF  moved past Ahmer. The gap to the leader shrank to 0.148 seconds, smaller than a blink. On Black Thunder Reverse, he found a rhythm Kadur could not answer, taking more than 14 seconds in a single run. Mascarenhas was the faster of the two on every stage from SS3 onward, and he crossed the line in 1:36:19.777, 23.482 seconds clear. Kadur, the former National champion, never stopped pushing, and finished second. While Mangalurian Jason Saldanha and PVS Murthy from Bengaluru completed the top three for Arka Motorsports with over 1min 7sec difference. From Duran Racing the Hyderabad pair of Naveen Puligilla along with Santhosh Thomas driving a left hand drive Ford Fiesta for the first time this season missed the podium with 19sec difference. Privateers Harkrishan Wadia from Delhi and Kunal Kashyap from Shimla finished a distinct fifth. Madurai's Ritesh Rai and Coimbatore's Phalguna Raghavendra also privateers finished in sixth position.

INRC2: Solan's Aditya Thakur and Shimla's Virendar Kashyap from Chettinad Sporting were the winners of the class, as The cruellest exit belonged to Privateers from Kerala Fabid Ahmer and Milen George they were leading till the last stage of the rally, but had to pull out with just 3kms to the finish due to Engine issues giving way to Aditya for a win. Delhi's Philippos Matthai along with Bengalurian Harish KN from Duran Racing with 35sec deficit finished second, Bengaluru's Ritesh M Guttedar and Suraj M from Aart Motorsports also climbed one position up to complete the podium with 1min 2sec difference. With over 5sec deficit the Bengaluru pair of Pragathi Gowda and Trisha Alonkar from Chettinad Sporting missed the podium, Bengaluru's Arjun Mavaji along with Jeevarathinam J finished fifth.

INRC3T: Driving a Citroen C3 this season Dehradun's Anushriya Gulati along with Karan Aukta from Arka Motorsports further extended her overnight 20sec lead to 1min 10sec over the second finishing Bengaluru pair of Arjun Rajiv and Chandramouli from Chettinad Sporting. Representing Arka Motorsports were Palakkad's Adith KV along with Bengalurian Avinash CA  with 5sec difference completed the podium. The Snap Racing pair of Maninder Singh Prince from Delhi and Rohit Gowda finished a distinct fourth followed by the Kodagu's pair of Darshan Kokkengada and Kushalappa Madapanda in fifth.

INRC3: Cochin's Venunath V and Palakkad's Sanath G from Chettinad Sporting kept their overnight command under them to win the class with a 44sec lead over Mysuru's Jenu Johnson and Erode's Lenin Joseph from Aart Motorsports who climbed two position's up, Chikkamagularian Abhishek Gowda TC and Bengalurian Mahesh Nandi from Arka Motorsports with 5sec difference had to settle for third. Two lady drivers Tarushi Vikram and Athreya Kousgi from Chettinad Sporting and Shivani Pruthvi from Race Tech finished in fourth and fifth position, with a difference of .200th of a second.

JINRC: The Chettinad Sporting pair of Tarushi Vikram from Chikkamagaluru and Athreya Kousgi from Bengaluru were unchallenged and the only thing they had to was to bring the car safe back to the stable, with over 6min lead they were the winners followed by Mumbai's Hoshmand Elavia and Coimbatorian Venu Ramesh Kumar from Race Tech finished second, Privateers MJ Amiadh from Thrissur and Marimanavalan AP from Madurai finished a distinct third. The father and Son duo, the youngest this season Vihaan Bhatt in his debut rally along with experienced co-driver Vivek Bhatt restarted on day two to finish fourth.

INRC Women class: It was a double win for Chikkamagaluru’s Tarushi Vikram, she along with Athreya Kousgi from Bengaluru was the winner of women's class. Shivani Pruthvi's sliding down in the last minute of transport finish due to ignition issues, in spite of leading the rally by over 30sec was an perfect example of luck is essential in rally. By .200th of a second deficit she had to settle for second, Shillong's Phoebe Dale and Bengaluru's Shahid Salman from Chettinad Sporting  retained her overnight third position with over 1min 40sec difference. The Kerala pair of Athira Murali and Arun Chakkalayakal from Duran Racing with few fastest stage times had to settle for fourth.

FMSCI Gypsy Challenge: Overseeing Reduction of Transport time from stage 7 to stage 8 costed the class leaders Chetan and Sanjay  their placings. It was a top three finish for Kodava Racing. The Kodagu pair of Kariappa Mekerira and Abhinav Ganapathy made it to the top in the last minute. Avin Nanjappa from Kodagu and Abhilash Sudhindra from Bengaluru with 1min 24sec difference were in second. With six fastest stage timing and leading the rally till the final stage and losing out due to transport penalties were the Kodagu pair of Chetan Chengappa and Sujith Chengappa their huge lead in spite of 5min transport penalty held on to the podium. Similar was the case of Bengalurian Sanjay Agarwal and Dinky Varghese from Coimbatore clocking two fastest stage timings with 5min transport penalty with 16sec difference settled for fourth. Aart Racing pair of Vinod Singh from Indore and Shailendra Singh  from Agra with similar 3min penalty finished fifth.

FMSCI Classic Challenge: Kodagu pair of Lavana Poonacha MP and Ruthwick BH from Kodava Racing were the lone finishers of the class.

FMSCI Masters Cup:  All the top three retained their overnight positions, Arka Motorsports pair of Pradeep Ravi from Trivandrum along with Thimmanna Uddapanda from Kodagu extended their overnight lead of 42 sec to 2min 02sec to win the class, Coimbatorian Dinesh Kumar T and Chikkamagaluru's Lohith JM from Chettinad Sporting finished in second, Balakrishna J from Bengaluru and Bopanna Nelammakkada from Kodagu completed the podium with a huge difference. Ashok P John along with Arun V finished fourth, while Sangeeth Samuel and Vybhav Mukund Rao finished in fifth position. 

Dean Mascarenhas said, “Karna and Musa set a really strong pace on Saturday, so we knew we had to stay patient and keep chipping away. Being nine seconds down overnight wasn’t a bad place to be, because there was a lot of road left. On Sunday we found our rhythm, and once we got going on Black Thunder (R) we just kept pushing. It was a proper fight with a great competitor, and I’m delighted to take the win in Round 2.”

Gagan Karumbaiah, co-driver, added, “Pace notes were everything this weekend, especially on Sunday when the gaps were so small. Dean trusted every call, and that made all the difference. Beating a crew as experienced as Karna and Musa is never easy, and we’re looking forward to the rest of the championship.”

The dust of Coimbatore has barely settled, yet the road already turns towards the coffee hills of Kodagu (Coorg), where the next rally on the calendar, the Robusta Rally, will be run from November 20 to 22.