Gopalakrishna-Savera bag Chikmagalur Rally

The husband-wife combination of Sathis Gopalakrishna and navigator Savera D'Souza won both Overall and Expert class titles in the Grand Krishna Rally of Chikmagalur in the opening round of the third edition of the FMSCI-Indian National TSD Rally Championship here Sunday.

The Bangalore couple upstaged reigning national champion Karthick Maruthi and Sankar Anand (finished fourth), among others. Azgar Ali and Md. Musthafa from Kolkata came second and Vishwas (Natarajan) third in both Overall and Expert category.

Team Tata Motors' Chidananda Murthy (B.S. Sujith Kumar) from Bangalore, gunning for their third straight crown in the Stock class, also began on a winning note. Amarnath (Mukthiyar) from Bangalore finished second and Ravindra Kumar (Kumar M.), also from Bangalore, ended third.

Seventeen cars had registered for the championship (eight in Expert and nine in Stock) and another 15 in the local category for the rally which was run over 163-km, covering some of the most scenic spots in the picturesque coffee-growing region of Karnataka.

Competitors for the nine-round championship will have to take part in a minimum of six rounds with one round in each zonal region mandatory to quality for honours.

The second round will be held in Jaipur June 28 and 29.