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Coimbatore : Fresh from their stints in Europe, India’s top rallyists Gaurav Gill and Amittrajit Ghosh will hope to extend their lead in the MRF Rally of Coimbatore. It is the Round Two of the MRF FMSCI Indian National

Rally Championship 2018 to be held this weekend.

The round also promises to be an exciting affair, with FMSCI president Akbar Ebhrahim set to take part as a guest driver for VW Motorsport and will be making a grand comeback, competing in a rally car after nearly 25 years.

The Mahindra Adventure teammates were at their dominating best in the first round, grabbing the first two positions and gliding to be on top of the table. Gill, who finished 12th (RC2 cars) in the Finland round of the World Rally Championship last month, will begin as firm favourite along with co-driver Musa Sherif.

Ghosh (co-driver Ashwin Naik), who made a dramatic comeback in the final three stages of the last round to jump to second place, will be high on confidence as he scored a spectacular victory (ERC 3 class) in the European Rally Championship round in Greece and will be eager to carry that momentum here too.

Team Mahindra Adventure will be wary of former INRC champion Karna Kadur and his co-driver Nikhil V Pai of Arka Motorsports though. Karna was quick and on Gill’s tail all through the stages in Round 1 until he faltered at the end.

He took the third place on the podium and will strive to recover lost ground. He is, however, leading in his INRC 2 category, with Rahul Kanthraj and Vivek Y Bhatt (Arka Motorsports) right behind him.

Aroor Vikram Rao (Falkon Motorsports) is the current leader in the INRC 3 category. The MRF Rally of Coimbatore will cover a total distance of 186 km on the outskirts of the Manchester of South India, with a
total distance of 104.80 km earmarked for six special stages to be run on dirt/gravel roads.

It will traverse past closed sections of public and private roads, giving the drivers the freedom to go all out in their quest for success. The roadmap was shared today, allowing the teams to complete
their reconnaissance and draw their strategies.

Current Leaders:

INRC: 1) Gaurav Gill/Musa Sherif (Team Mahindra Adventure); 2) Amittrajit Ghosh/Ashwin Naik (Team Mahindra Adventure); 3) Karna Kadur/Nikhil V Pai (Arka Motorsports).

INRC 2: 1) Karna Kadur/Nikhil V Pai (Arka Motorsports); 2) Rahul Kanthraj/Vivek Y Bhatt (Arka Motorsports); 3) Sumit Panjabi/Shahid Salman (Snap Racing).

INRC 3: 1) Aroor Vikram Rao/Anand Somayya (Falkon Motorsports); 2) Dean Mascarenhas/Shruptha Padival (Falkon Motorsports); 3) Fabid Ahmer/Omer Fayaz Arakkal (Chettinad Sporting)

FMSCI 2WD: 1) Adith KC/Suraj K (Race Concepts); 2) Suraj Thomas/Sob George; 3) Ravi MS/Priyamvada Saradhi (Snap Racing).