Reigning Asia Pacific Rally champion Gaurav Gill and Musa Sherif, in a Mahindra XUV 500, were leading at the conclusion of leg one of an eventful JK Tyre-powered Rally of Coimbatore, the second round of the FMSCI-Indian Rally Championship (IRC), here today.
The windy and wet opening day saw Gill's Mahindra Adventure teammate Amittrajit Ghosh and Ashwin Naik retire midway owing to mechanical problems, while PG Abilash and K R Kumar of R3A PGA Motorsport in a Mitsubishi Evo6 -- who thrillingly upstaged Gill in the opening Special Stage of 26.1km -- dropped out during the transport section after being second overall following four Special Stages.
Eight other cars in a field of 36 also retired during leg one.
At the conclusion of four Special Stages and a wet Super Special Stage (SSS), Arjun Rao and Sathish Rajagopal, in a VW Polo, were second in the IRC overall while they were leading in the IRC 1600cc category. Mahindra Adventure's Sunny Sidhu and PV Srinivas Murthy were third in the IRC.
Team Yokohama's Rahul Kantharaj and Vivek Bhatt, in a Mitsubishi Cedia, were fourth overall and on top of the ladder in the IRC 2000cc category. Their Team Yokohama mates Vikram Devadesen and Shrikanth, in a VW Polo, were fifth overall and second in the IRC 1600 class.
A run over the two Special Stages of 26.10 kms and 12.65 kms, comprise leg two tomorrow.
Gill, winner of the opening round of the Indian Rally Championship in Nashik, was quickest in three of the day's five stages.
"I realised I had to do something different after Abhilash turned out to be the fastest in the first stage," said Delhi's Gill.
"We made adjustments to the suspension among other things and I was all the more aggressive," he added.
