The Dynamic Duo: Gaurav Gill and Musa Sherif's Winning Ways

The combination of Gaurav Gill and co-driver Musa Sherif is quite a storied one as far as motorsport fans in India are concerned. And the ‘dynamic duo’ managed to nab their 20th win as a team in the Rally de Bengal and followed it with a win at the K-1000 rally in Bangalore. In both events the pair overcame an early defecit to win.

Meanwhile, the Bangalore pair of Rahul Kanthraj and Vivek Bhatt of Team Yokohama, not only topped the IRC 2000 class, but also sealed the championship in their category with two rounds to spare. Yokohama too clinched the team championship.

Gill, trailing, made about 23 seconds on overnight leader Arjun Rao (Satish Rajagopal) in the day’s first Special Stage and a further 27 seconds in the next to underline his status as India’s premier Rally driver while chalking up the season’s third win, followed by win number four in the K-1000.

The success took Gill’s championship tally to four, adding to title successes in 2007, 2009 and 2012. Meanwhile Arjun Rao Aroor and Satish Rajgopal had two mixed rallies with a strong finish in Bengal but retirement with the R2 Polo’s piston blowing out of its block in Bangalore.

Rao, however, took the honours in the IRC 1600 class in Bengal ahead of Mysore’s Phalguna Urs (Anoop Kumar), sparing over four minutes. The result helped Rao to ease past Urs in the class championship with 115 points to 105.

Kanthraj, leading by over three minutes after Leg 1, expectedly clinched the title in the IRC 2000 class for their third win of the season in Bengal to take his tally to 147 points for his Indian Rally Championship campaign.

In the FMSCI 1600 Cup in Rally de Bengal - where some stages were required to be policed in order to safeguard the event from Maoists - Adith KC (Harish KN) also consolidated his championship position with his second win of the season that took his tally to 137.

It was well clear of Anirudha Ranganekar (Nitin Jacob) who finished second and third placed Parag Dhiwar (Aditya Dhiwar). Both Ranganekar and Dhiwar are tied on 94 points.