Motorsports: Phalguna excluded from K-1000 Rally

Phalguna Urs (co-driver Anoop Kumar), representing Mud Man Motorsports team, who had finished second in the INRC 1600cc class, was excluded from the just-concluded IMG Karnataka-1000 Rally on a technical infringement.

During the mandatory post-event scrutiny Sunday, it was found that their VW Polo car was running on racing engine mounts that were not "in conformity with that of the homologation form and it was a performance enhancing part", according to an official notification.

Following the exclusion, Sirish Chandran (Nikhil Pai) of Slideways Industries moved from third to second behind Arjun Rao (Satish Rajagopal) while Dean Mascarenhas (Shanmuga SN) was elevated to third position.

The Stewards, who met following the scrutiny, then decided to exclude Urs after Anoop Kumar, who attended the hearing, accepted the findings.

Speaking to IANS Monday, the Mysore-based Urs, who had switched to the Polo after driving the Mitsubishi Cedia in the three previous rounds of the INRC, said: "We received the car straight from the Volkswagen factory about a week before the Rally.

"We did some testing and worked on the ECU, but we missed the mounts while checking the car. I enjoyed the experience and hopefully, will do better in the next event."