Maruthi, Anand top in Nashik Rally

Erode's Karthick Maruthi and co-driver Shankar Anand won the Express Inn Rally of Nashik, the first round of FMSCI Indian National TSD Rally championship here Sunday.

The winning combination received a penalty of 54 seconds while Babno Machian and Rajanna Natrajan finished behind the Erode pair, some 56 seconds adrift while the experienced Girijashankar Joshy and Shrikant Gowda were third with 2:03.

Last year's championship winners Satish Gopalkrishnan and Savera D'Souza, the husband-wife duo from Bangalore, were among 10 pairs who were excluded for finishing the rally outside the maximum permitted lateness.

There were no finishers in the Stock pro category while Paritosh Kohok and Nitin Nagar bagged the title in the two-wheeler section with a penalty of 37:27.