Sport - Racing : Horse   

Team MRF holds all the aces

By Our Sports Reporter

Chikmagalur May 23. The long, winding roads of the Blue Mountain Estate at Sargod and Gunsland, 32km from here, forms the ideal backdrop for the first round of the Indian National Rally Championship this season.

The terrain has all the ingredients to test the skills of the drivers, the sharpness and navigational abilities of the co-drivers, as well as the endurance of the machines.

The Coffee Day Rally 2003 has a field of 18 cars in the three competition sections. An all-woman team of Anitha Kholay and Rashmi Bopanna also adds flavour to the competition.

Naren Kumar and Jiby Maliakkal, after the `recce', stated that the special stage was a tight course with no room for error. With rocks on one side of the narrow dirt roads and trees close by on the other the slightest mistake could mean scraping of the cars on these obstacles.

"I expect the timings to be slow,'' Naren said, a sentiment echoed by Jiby. Inputs from the co-drivers would play a huge part in the success of the teams in this rally.

While Team MRF holds all the aces, with top drivers donning the red colours, there will be some challenge thankfully from a lone contender in the 1600cc INRC category.

Jiby Maliakkal has stepped up from his successes in the Rally Star Cup section and with the support of Gulf Oil will now be steering a Honda City V Tec posing a threat to Naren Kumar, Leelakrishnan, Karandip Singh, Arjun Balu, Vikram Mathias and others. Jiby is quite a daring driver and will pull out all stops to make his maiden attempt in the highest section a winning one.

In the INRC 1400cc section, Rahul Kantharaj, Sham Sundar, Lohit Urs and Shresta Patil will be the main contenders. Others will be grouped in the Rally Star Cup.

The transport section is the 32-km stretch leading up to the special stages at the Blue Mountain Estate. However, the rally commences with a well-designed Spectator Stage located at the Mountain View School. This small 1.5-km stretch will have the drivers gunning their machines in a bid to record the fastest lap timings as well as display their `car handling' abilities.

The lead-up to the endurance tests looks to be a good draw and should attract a huge crowd. The Rally will cover about 282 km.

Chikmagalur has been an attractive centre for rallying. The doyen of Karnataka rallyists Gopinath Siva hailed from Chikmagalur and the Motor Sports Club of Chikmagalur is perhaps the only association with its own premises and band of ham operators.

Farook Ahmed has been amongst the winners on numerous occasions and will once again be striving for honours along with Leelakrishnan, acknowledged as the `guru' of engine tuners and daring drivers. Abhijeet Pai a debutant from Chikmagalur now hopes to fare well in that class and could be another person from these coffee lands to make a mark in motor racing in the future.

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