Moorthy and Nagarajan emerge champions

Ganesh Moorthy and navigator Nagarjan came up trumps with a penalty time of 25 seconds in the Ceat Mahindra Monsoon Challenge TSD Rally that concluded here Sunday.

Finishing four seconds behind the winning pair were Karthick Maruthi and Sankar Anand while Abhijeeth Pai and Satish Gopalkrishnan, a further nine seconds adrift, completed the podium in the overall and pro-expert categories.

The pair of Amarnath and Mukhtiyar Ahmed finished on top in the Pro-Stock category with a penalty time of one minute 24 seconds, ahead of Sudheendra Hebbar and Sagar. M (01:30) and Dinky Varghese and Sakthivel (01:45).

The competitors were flagged off from Bangalore Saturday morning before finishing Leg 1 in Shimoga for an overnight halt before proceeding to Mangalore for the final leg of the event Sunday.

In all, the 24 vehicles completed a run of about 700 Kms with the heavy monsoon rains and sections of broken tarmac providing most of the challenge besides the strategically placed Time Control points which ensured that the competitors maintained the safe and prescribed speed limits throughout the two-day Rally.

Provisional classification (after Leg 2):

Overall / Pro-Expert: Ganesh Moorthy / Nagarajan 1 (00:00:25secs penalty); Karthick Maruthi / Sankar Anand 2 (00:00:29); Abhijeeth Pai / Satish Gopalkrishnan 3 (00:00:38); SK Azgar Ali / Mohd Mustafa 4 (00:00:41); Srikanth Gowda / Chandrasekar 5 (00:00:50).

Pro-Stock: AAmarnath / Mukhtiyar Ahmed 1 (00:01:24); Sudheendra Hebbar / Sagar M 2 (00:01:30); Dinky Varghese / Sakthivel 3 (00:01:45); Chestha Sood / Prakash 4 (00:01:48); Philip Baklin / David Sharon 5 (00:02:36).

Amateur: Anil Kumar / Shivakumar 1 (00:18:12); Rajesh / Arvind 2 (00:27:36); Darshan / Vishwanath 3 (00:56:29). All Ladies: Deepthi Gowda / Varshini Kataya 1 (01:55:00). Couple: Vikas Vijay / Shabina 1 (01:37:27).