Rally of Hyderabad

HYDERABAD

Mangaluru’s Aroor Vikram Rao (co-driver A.G. Somayya) of Chettinad Sporting emerged the overall leader on first day while many big names, including his brother and championship leader Aroor Arjun Rao fell way behind in the tough and technical terrain of the Rally of Hyderabad, the fourth round of the Blueband Sports FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) at Sanghi Nagar, near Ramoji Film City, here on Saturday.

Another Bengaluru driver Rahul Kanthraj (co-driver Vivek Bhatt) stormed into the lead in the top INRC class with Younus Ilyas (co-driver Nitin Jacob, Hyderabad) in second. Kolkata’s Amittrajit Ghosh (co-driver Ashwin Naik) was third with two more tough stages to go on Sunday.

Provisional Results:

Overall: 1. Aroor Vikram Rao & A.G. Somayya (Chettinad Sporting) 54m, 15.3s); 2. Chetan Shivram & Shiv Prakash (54:19.0); 3. Fabid Ahmed & J. Jeevarathinam (54:39.2); 4. K.J. Jacob & S.N. Shanmugha (55:14.3); 5. Vishakh Balachandran & Anil Abbas (55:18.6).

INRC: 1. Rahul Kantharaj & Vivek Y. Bhatt (55:47.8); 2. Younus Ilyas & Nitin Jacob (55:56.6); 3. Amittrajit Ghosh & Ashwin Naik (1:00:45.4).

INRC 2: 1. Aroor Vikram Rao & A.G. Somayya (54:15.3); 2. Chetan Shivram & Shiv Prakash (54:19.0); 3. Fabid Ahmer & J. Jeevarathinam (54:39.2).

INRC 3: 1. Vishakh Balachandran & Anil Abbas (55:18.6); 2. Arjun Rajiv & Rohit Gowda (55:45.1); 3. Riyas Abdul Majeed & Lenin Joseph (55:50.9).