Tumakuru (K'taka), Dec 3 (PTI) Bengaluru's Karna Kadur along with co-driver Nikhil V Pai of Arka Motorsports stepped up to the challenging terrain to finish Leg-1 as the overall leader in the Prasaditya 46th Karnataka-1000 Rally, a round of the Blueband FMSCI Indian Rally Championship, here on Saturday which also saw the retirement of previous edition's winner, Gaurav Gill (co-driver Musa Sherif) due to mechanical issues.

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The day's schedule was shortened to four special stages as against the scheduled six following a delayed start due to a technical hitch. However, Kadur, the championship leader, kept his focus and came up with a well-paced drive to take a 47.4-second lead over Palakkad's Fabid Ahmer (Sanath G) on completion of Leg-1.

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Mangaluru's Aroor Vikram Rao (Satish Rajagopal) of Mandovi Racing came in third position, trailing the leader by one minute. Four more stages are scheduled to be run on Sunday, the concluding day of the event.

Ahmer, who missed the 2021 National championship narrowly, leads in the INRC 2 category while Maninder Singh Prince (Suraj Keshava Prasad) of JK Rallying is ahead in the INRC 3 category.

As well as Kadur drove, the expected clash with seven-time national champion Gill dissipated in the day's very first stage with the Delhi star pulling out due to an issue with the gearbox of his Mahindra XUV 300 barely two kilometres in the first stage. "We had put in some new parts, but in SS-1, we had to pack up due to some issue with the gearbox. I was looking forward to the event as the stages were to my liking. We will restart tomorrow and I hope to score some leg points," said a disappointed Gill.

Kadur, aiming to win the national title this season, and who leads Gill by 44 points in the championship standings, said: “We stuck to our plan today which was to bring the car home. We pushed more in the second loop in the afternoon and made time on our morning run. I enjoyed the drive today. Hopefully, we will have a good run tomorrow.”

The Prasaditya Karnataka-1000 Rally is being organised by the Karnataka Motor Sports Club under the aegis of FMSCI, the governing body of motorsports in India and promoted by Blueband Sports.

Provisional partial classification (After Leg-1):

Overall/INRC: 1. Karna Kadur / Nikhil V Pai (Bengaluru, Arka Motorsports) (36 mins, 03 secs); 2. Fabid Ahmer / Sanath G (Palakkad) (36:50.4); 3. Aroor Arjun Rao (Mangaluru) / Satish Rajagopal (Bengaluru, Mandovi Racing) (37:04.7).

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)