The Hindu : Naren Kumar on song

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 25, 2003

Sport

Sport - Racing : Motor

Naren Kumar on song

By Our Sports Reporter

Chikmagalur May 24. At the end of the spectator stage on Friday, Naren Kumar was affected by the non-performance of his Honda City V-Tec on the dirt track at the Mountain View School, which set him 28 seconds in arrears of his competitors. Naren was tight lipped about the problem but was sure that he would be ready for the real endurance test on Saturday.

Soon after the flag-off from the start at the ABC Trading company, Naren got into top gear. Though Vikram Mathias had a slender one-second lead after the first stage on Saturday, Naren was soon in the lead and from the second stage onwards had taken the outright lead. At the end of five special stages (inclusive of the Spectator stage held on Friday) Naren Kumar had a timing of 56.06s as against Vikram Mathias' second spot timing of 56.25s.

Naren Kumar started the special stage of the rally with a distinct disadvantage. The spectator stage drew a good crowd and the excitement ran high as four drivers of the MRF Team clocked identical timings of 2.04. Naren, the last of the MRF drivers (the flag-off was in the reverse order), looked to be in command when he began the laps but an electrical problem saw his car limping and struggling to finish the spectator stage.

According to information received, Jiby's car hit a boulder and had to be pushed off the narrow dirt track on the sixth stage at Gunsland.

With Jiby's car stalled on the single lane track there was a considerable delay at the start of the Sargod Sector thus pushing back compilation and confirmation of the day's results.

Meanwhile, it was also understood that the final special stage of the day was cancelled because of the delay in clearing Jiby's car.

In a late evening development, runner-up after the fifth stage, Vikram Mathais also ended up among the Did Not Finishers list. The number of cars that dropped out on Saturday were thus Jiby Malaikkal and Vikram Mathais in the 1600cc category and Shresta Patil in the INRC section and Thirtha Patil along with Ranjit Ballal in the Rally Star Cup section.

In the Rally Star Cup section, Lohit Urs lead after two stages but with the rest of the stages on Saturday yet to be authenticated there was some uncertainty to the placings.

The stewards would be having a late night meeting to decide how to award penalty points for the day's fifth and sixth stages and compile the standings after the end of Saturday's special stages. However, it was officially confirmed that Vikram Mathias had dropped out after the fifth stage and the results announced for the day were only up to the cumulative fifth stage (Stage one being the spectator stage on Friday and four stages of Saturday).

The results: INRC section: 1. Lohith Urs (M.K. Bopanna) 00.58.37s; 2. Rahul Kantharaj (Vivek Bhat) 00.59.58; 3. Shresta Patil 01.00:53; 4. Kartikeyan (Shanmugham) 01.01.32; 5. Sham Sundar (P.V.S. Murthy) 01.01.43.

Rally Star Cup: Arjun Rao (C.K. Chinappa) 01.00.57s; 2. Sanjay Aggarwal (Manoj Menon) 01.01.41; 3. Amith Kumar (Shanmug) 01.02.21; Roopesh Kholay (Chetan) 01.03.43; 5. Anitha Kholay (Rashmi Bopanna) 01.21.24; 6. Abhijeet Pai (Divin J.E.) 01.25.37.

1600cc: 1. Naren Kumar (D. Ramkumar) 56.06s; 2. Vikram Mathias (B.S. Sujith Kumar) 56.25s; 3. Arjun Balu (R. Kumar) 56.51 & Leelakrishnan (Farooq Ahmed ) 56.51; 5. Karandip Singh (Jaidas Menon) 57.16s (incl. 1m penalty).

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