Sport - Racing : Motor

Rathan bags novices title

NEDUMBASSERY: Bangalore’s V.S. Rathan and his navigator B.V. Ravindra Kumar won the novices title in the Maruti Suzuki Monsoor Car Rally here on Sunday. But the provisional class ended in protests and confusion and the final results were unavailable even five hours after the conclusion.

The professionals’ results were changed thrice, first with Thrissur’s Johnny Christopher as the winner and later with Mysore’s national rally star Lohit Urs as the champion.

And when the provisional results were put up the third time, Johnny was back on top. But since the protests continued, there was no clear winner at the time of going to the press.

The cause for the confusion was the cancellation of two time controls in the first leg.

“I had to cancel the two TCs (inside Kochi) on safety grounds. They were run along with heavy traffic and since the signal lights were not working, there was confusion,” said Shajan Daniel, the rally’s Clerk of the Course. The cancellation made Lohit Urs, who drives for MRF in the national rally championship, as the winner. But after another round of protests, the rally stewards discussed the issue and over-ruled the CoC’s decision. This pushed Lohit to fourth place and Johnny Christopher back on top.

Earlier, Airport Director A.C.K. Nair gave away the prizes for the novices class winners.

Final results: Novices class: 1. V.S. Rathan & B.V. Ravindra Kumar (Bangalore, 33:35s), 2. Lazar Manmanjila & Bejoy Paul (37:09), 3. Wilson Padayathil & Joshy Varkey (48:56). — Principal Correspondent

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