Murthy, Sujith poised for hat-trick

Bangalore duo of Chidananda Murthy and navigator B.S. Sujith Kumar, representing Team Tata Motors, are poised for a hat-trick ahead of the Rally of Coimbatore, the fourth round of the 2014 FMSCI Indian National TSD Rally Championship to be run here Sunday.

Participating in the Pro-Stock category, Murthy and Kumar won the previous two rounds in Jaipur and Bangalore to head the championship with 56 points, 10 clear of Saurav Chatterjee and Ashoke Kumar Basu from Kolkata.

Only three points separate the top two contenders in the Overall and Pro-Expert classes. S.K. Ajgar Ali and M.K. Mohammad Musthafa are currently leading the championship with 53 points, followed by the husband-wife pair from Bangalore, Satish Gopalkrishnan and Savera D'Souza (50).

Gopalkrishnan and D'Souza had won the opening two rounds but could not score any points in the third round at Bangalore to slip to second position but will be looking to getting back to their winning ways here.

Team Tata Motors have also fielded Srikanth Gowda and M. Chandrashekar and Amul Satoskar and Nataraj. Both pairs will be competing in the Pro-Expert category. Gowda and Chandrashekar are fourth in the standings with 40 points.