South India Rally: Kadur takes lead

Chennai: The Bengaluru combination of Karna Kadur and co-driver Nikhil Pai, representing Arka Motorsports, overcame teething issues on Saturday to head the ‘Overall standings’ at the end of Leg 1 in the 45th South India Rally here, which is the first round of the FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship 2022.

Meanwhile, seven-time National champion Gaurav Gill (Musa Sherif) exited early due to a mechanical problem. The Kadur-Pai duo leads the Dean Mascarenhas-Gagan Karumbaiah pairing, which is placed a close second, by a mere 2.9 seconds. The leaders are followed by 2021 National title-winner Aditya Thakur (Virender Kashyap) and Fabid Ahmer (G Sanath).

RESULTS:Provisional classification (Leg 1): Overall/INRC: 1. Karna Kadur/Nikhil Pai (54 minutes, 40.700 seconds); 2. Dean Mascarenhas/Gagan Karumbaiah (54:43.600); 3. Aditya Thakur/Virender Kashyap (54:53.400). INRC 2: 1. Mascarenhas/Karumbaiah (54:43.600); 2. Thakur/Kashyap (54:53.400); 3. Fabid Ahmer/ G Sanath (54:58.300). INRC 3: 1. Jahaan Singh Gill/Suraj Keshava Prasad (56:07.800); 2. Kuber Sharma/Kunal Kashyap (56:57.800); 3. Daraius Neville Shroff/Arjun Dheerendra (57:05.300). INRC 4: 1. Prakhyat Shirole/S Supreet (59:32.700); 2. Yeshwanth Padala/SM Bharath (01 hour, 01:08.900); 3. Deepak Chandra/GM Manjunath (01:02:11.000)