Having won the opening round of the 2013 INRC season – the South India rally at Chennai, Amittrajit Ghosh (co-driver Ashwin Naik) continued his charge at the Rally of Maharshtra, piloting his Mitsubishi Cedia to first place overall.
He was followed home by a returning Vikram Mathias (co-driver Ashwin Naik), also driving a Cedia, while Arjun Rao Aroor (co-driver Satish Rajgopal) took third overall in his Volkswagen Polo.
In the SUV NRC category, it was no surprise to see Gaurav Gill (co-driver Musa Sherif) at the head of the field in the Mahindra XUV, topping the times not only in the class but also overall, despite not being eligible for overall honours. Second went to Lohitt Urs (co-driver Bonnie Thomas), despite having struggled with mechanical gremlins.
Asad Khan (co-driver Zayne Asrar) took top honours in JINRC category, meant for junior drivers. Driving a Maruti Esteem, he finished ahead of Aniruddha Rangnekar (co-driver Nitin Jacob) and Rohan Pawar (co-driver Arjun Mehta), finished second and third respectively in their Volkswagen Polos.
The next round of the Indian National Rally Championship is scheduled at Coimbatore on July 19.
RESULTS:
INRC Overall
Amittrajit Ghosh / Ashwin Naik (Group N Cedia) (1hr, 28mins, 16.0secs)
Vikram Mathias / Srikanth Gowda (Group N Cedia) (1:28:45.0)
Arjun Rao Aroor / Satish Rajagopal (VW Polo) (1:31:01.0)
INRC 1600cc
Rao Aroor / Rajagopal
Raghunandan B / Suraj K (Honda City) (1:33:17.0)
Byram Godrej / Prajval Pai (VW Polo) (1:33:51.0)
Junior INRC
Asad Khan / Zayne Asrar (Maruti Esteem) (1:36:12.0)
Anirudha Ranganekar / Nitin Jacob (VW Polo) (1:39:57.0)
Rohan Pawar / Arjun Mehta (VW Polo) (1:43:46.0)
SUV NRC
Gaurav Gill / Musa Sherif (Mahindra Adventure, XUV 500) (1:26:29.0)
Lohitt Urs / Bonnie Thomas (Mahindra Adventure, XUV 500) (1:46:12.0)
IRC
Karamjit Singh / Jagdev Singh (VW Polo) 1 (1:27:40.0)
Sumit Punjabi / Dr S Dinesh (Cedia) (1:46:00.0)