The Hindu : WISA Taj Rally from July 5

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 03, 2002

Sport

Sport - Racing : Motor

WISA Taj Rally from July 5

Mumbai July 2. The second round of the Motorsports Association of Indias Indian National Rally Championship, the WISA Taj Rally will be held in Nashik from July 5 to 7, 2002, according to a press release from MAI, here, on Monday.

The rally, to be run on tarmac will comprise the championship for teams, besides cups for the driver and co-driver in categories from upto 800cc, 801-1400cc and 1401 to 1600cc.

There will also be the Rally Star Cup for drivers and co-drivers and the Gypsy Cup for drivers and co-drivers.

The rally, organised by the Western India Sports Association, will be run over a distance of 405km with a total of eight special stages.

Divided into two legs and three sections, the special stages will comprise 120kms.

With the torrential rains that the state had witnessed over the past few days, the tarmac of the Nashik round will definitely provide a stiff challenge to the rallyists, led by former National champion Naren Kumar of Team MRF.

Naran Kumar, the defending Asia Zone champion and winner of the first leg of the INRC at Coimbatore will be looking to maintain the early momentum he has gained in order to regain the National championship he lost to team-mate N. Leelakrishnan in 2001.

Also in the fray will be the other big names Arjun Balu, Sagar Muthappa, Karandip Singh and Vijayanth Chaudhary.

Last year's winner of the Nashik round, Vikram Mathias will also be looking forward to do an encore but he will definitely face a stiff challenge from Mumbai's Jiby Maliakkal, who has always done well on tarmac.

The rally begins on Friday evening and will conclude at the Taj Residency on Sunday afternoon.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport