Chetan Shivram shows nerves of steel, wins Rally of Coimbatore

Team Akshara's Chetan Shivram rode on his overnight lead to emerge triumphant in the Rally of Coimbatore, Round 2 of the Champions Yacht Club FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship 2019, here on an action-packed Sunday.

Going into the second and final day with a mere four second lead over Suhem Kabeer (Privateer) and a 19-lead over Younus Ilyas (Race Concepts), Chetan Shivram (with brother Dilip Sharan by his side) showed nerves of steel to win the overall INRC title as well as his INRC 3 category.

He enjoyed a bit of luck as his main challenger, Suhem (with Jeeva Rathnam), got stuck in slush in the day's first stage itself. Suhem lost 6 minutes to slip out of the main reckoning though he could hold on to the third place in INRC 2 class.

Chetan, however, couldn't breathe easy as another Suhem's JK Tyre teammate, Younus was hot on his heels.

Younus kept pace with Chetan in all three stages of Day 2, even winning a couple. In the end, though, Younus had to settle for the second place on the INRC podium, falling just 04.600 seconds short.

It was good enough for Younus (& Harish Gowda) to take the top prize in INRC 2.

Team Champions' Dean Mascarenhas (Shruptha Padival) showed typical grit to claw up to the tenth place, climbing 32 places after a stroke of misfortune on Day 1 had condemned him to the bottom of the table. He was the standout driver on Day 2, even taking the second position in INRC 2.

Team Champions' Fabid Ahmer (with Sanath G) was equally impressive, matching the leaders in every stage to rise from his overnight fifth place. He clinched the overall third place and took the second place in INRC 3 for a remarkable double.

"We went flat-out in the first stage today as the gap between us and Fabid was really narrow. So we decided to try and increase the gap first and then play safe, an elated Chetan remarked.

"Suhem lost a lot time in that stage, making it just a little easy for us," he added.

In INRC 4, Vaibhav Marate (and Arjun SSB) maintained their winning streak, scoring a fairly easy win for the second consecutive time.