Murthy-Sujith clinches national rally title

Bengaluru's Chidananda Murthy and B.S. Sujith Kumar of Team Tata Motors clinched a hat-trick of national titles in the Pro Stock category when they won the Monsoon Drive 3, the seventh round of the 2014 FMSCI Indian National TSD Rally Championship here Sunday, with two rounds to spare.

The results of the championship are taken for the best six results in the season. The excellent driving skills of Chidananda Murthy and navigation by Sujith Kumar ensured that they won five rounds. The wins came in Jaipur, Bengaluru, Coimbatore, Goa and Kolkata.

Murthy and Sujith Kumar have 149 points, well ahead of teammates Saurav Chatterjee and Ashoke Kumar Basu (125).

The Bangalore pair won the Monsoon Drive with a total time penalty of two minutes and six seconds while Chatterjee and Basu finished second and Rajiv Sarkar and Moulinath Ghosh completed a Tata Motors sweep of the podium.

"It feels great to have won three titles in a row. This is a title we will always cherish due to all the hard work and effort we have put in all through the year in the TSD Championship," said Murthy.

Sujith Kumar said: "Celebration time has come a little early for us and this title is very close to our heart because it is the third in a row. Nevertheless, we will be giving it our best in the two remaining rounds."

Erode's K.P. Karthik Maruti and Sankar Anand took the Overall and Pro-Expert honours with a penalty of 35 seconds while Team Tata Motors took the second and third spots through Sachin Singh and Prakash M and MD Ganesh Moorthy and T Nagarajan.

Results:

Pro Stock: 1. Chidananda Murthy / BS Sujith Kumar (Team Tata Motors, 02:06); 2. Saurav Chatterjee / Ashoke Kumar Basu (Tata Motors, 02:32); 3. Rajiv Sarkar / Moulinath Ghosh (Tata Motors, 17:00).

Pro-Expert: 1. KP Karthik Maruti / Sankar Anand (35secs); 2. Sachin Singh / Prakash M (Tata Motors, 0:41); 3. MD Ganesh Moorthy / T Nagarajan (Tata Motors, 0:49).