Round 4 of the Indian Rally Championship saw stalwart Gaurav Gill (navigator Musa Sherif) triumph on rough stages in the jungles of Jhargram in West Bengal.
Piloting the Super XUV 500 for Team Mahindra Adventure, Gill finished 23 seconds ahead of overnight leader Arjun Rao (navigator Satish Rajagopal) in a Volkswagen Polo, the latter having lead at the end of day one by roughly the same margin.
Gill’s Mahindra Adventure teammate Sunny Sidhu (navigator PV Srinivas Murthy) finished a distant third – over a minute and 15 seconds behind the leader.
Phalguna Urs (Anoop Kumar) and Rahul Kanthraj (Vivek Bhatt) rounded off the top five.
Out of 18 starters, 6 did not complete day one thanks to the extremely rough stages – with retirements including hometown hero and defending champion Amittrajit Ghosh, Karna Kadur, Byram Godrej, Vikram Devadassan, Samir Thapar and Abhilash PG.
Results
Rally De Bengal, Round 4 of the Indian Rally Championship
Overall:
1. Gaurav Gill/Musa Sherif 01:01:19.4
2. Arjun Rao/Satish Rajagopal 01:01:52.7
3. Sunny Sidhu/PV Srinivas 01:03:07.6
4. Phalguna Urs/Anoop Kumar 01:06:12.3
5. Rahul Kanthraj/Vivek Bhatt 01:08:41.0