Itanagar, Dec 20 (PTI): Three-time APRC champion Gaurav Gill claimed the Arunachal leg of the Champions Yacht Club-FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship 2020, winning the round 2 comfortably here on Sunday.
The JK Tyre driver with Musa Sherif started off from where he left and after recording a stellar victory in round 1. He posted a total time of 42:15.00 minutes to win the round 2 race.
Driving an XUV300, Gill looked in top form and dominated the rally right from the word go. He opened up a considerable gap of around 1:51 minutes in the first two night stages on Saturday evening, held onto his lead throughout and mixed aggression with caution perfectly to win all the six special stages including four night stages to consolidate his position at the top of the leaderboard.
His teammate Amittrajit Ghosh, along with co-driver Ashwin Naik, clinched the second place after posting a total time of 43.48.1 minutes.
Amittrajit, driving in XUV300, was impeccable behind the wheels and drove with great precision for his first podium finish of the season.
"It feels good to be rallying again more than anything. With the COVID 19 situation and then Mahindra pulling out, it was a tricky situation for us. But with JK Tyre and Mahindra''s support things eventually started falling in place," Amittrajit said.
"It was a great round for me because after a long time I made it to the podium. And a lot of credit has to go to the car for the way it behaved. It is much better than what I used to drive in Europe and finally I am so happy to be driving a proper rally car in India." Defending champion Chetan Shivram (and Rupesh Kholay) of Yokohama Tyres who had a DNF in the last round, started the round with a stock engine car and despite driving a vehicle with different specs did well to finish the overall 13th.

Karna Kadur of MRF Tyre also continued his good run and after finishing runner-up in the opening round claimed the third place. Along with Nikhil V Pai, Karna was constantly pushing Amitrajit but eventually had to contend with third place with a total time of 44:57.3 minutes. His place on the podium also secured his second position on the points table.
In the INRC 2 category, it was Dean Mascarenhas (and Shruptha Padival) who took the top honours by completing the six special stages with a total time of 45:38.6 minutes and was followed by Snap Racing''s Sahil Khanna (&Vidit Jain) who took 47.42.0 minutes to finish the rally.
Rahul Kanthraj (along with co-driver Vivek Y Bhat) ended up third with an overall time of 47:48.8 minutes.
Aditya Thakur (and Virendra Kashyap) of Team Nutulapati won the top place in INRC 3, after clocking a total time 47.24.5 minutes followed by Fabid Ajmer (and Eldo Chacko) who took 47:30.8 minutes to finish the rally.
Last round''s INRC 3 winner, Maninder Singh Prince and his navigator Vinay Padmasali made it to the third place on the podium with a total time of 48:06.4 minutes.

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Kenter Joya Riba

(Managing Editor)
      She is a graduate in Science with post graduation in Sociology from University of Pune. She has been in the media industry for nearly a decade. Before turning to print business, she has been associated with radio and television.
Email: kenterjoyaz@easternsentinel.in / editoreasternsentinel@gmail.com
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