Top entries for Coffee Day Rally

India's top-notch Rally crews will be seen in action in the Coffee Day Rally, the sixth and final round of the FMSCI Indian Rally Championship that will be held from Dec 12-14 in Chikkamagaluru.

The event will see 42 cars competing on newly-created dirt routes in the lush green coffee estates on the outskirts of Chikkamagaluru, it was announced at a media conference here Thursday.

The Rally is sponsored by Coffee Day in association with Turlube, organised by the Motor Sports Club of Chikmagalur (MSCC) and hosted by The Serai Resorts, Chikkamagaluru, covering a total of 329.88 kms, with a Special Stage distance of 109.24 kms.

The Rally will begin Dec 12 at the Amber Valley School at 2.30 p.m. with the Super Special Stage which is otherwise known as the Spectator Stage.

The Leg 1, will begin from the ABC premises Dec 13 at 8 a.m. On that day, the cars will run the three physical Stages twice, while Dec 14, the cars will do another loop of the three Stages once.

K. Farooq Ahmed, vice-president, MSCC, said: "We are expecting between 39 and 43 entries based on the list of the K-1000. There will be a few local drivers who will try their best to make Chikkamagaluru proud."

The competitors to watch out for are Vikram Mathias in the Mitsubishi Evo IX, Samir Thapar in the Evo X and P.G. Abhilash in the Evo VII. These are powerful cars, capable of good speeds and therefore thrilling action.

The other star attractions will be 2013 Asia-Pacific Rally champion Gaurav Gill who will drive the Mahindra XUV 500 for Team Mahindra Adventure with co-driver Musa Sherif. Gill and Sherif have already clinched the IRC Overall National title.

In the IRC 2000 class, Bengaluru's Rahul Kanthraj and Vivek Bhatt (Team Yokohama) have also wrapped up the National title in their category, while in the FMSCI 1600 Cup class, Adith KC and Harish KN have also clinched the National title.

In the IRC 1600 class, Phalguna Urs (Anoop Kumar) has 145 points, while Arjun Rao Aroor (Satish Rajagopal) has 115. The two crews will be locked in an intense battle for the championship in their class.