Sports News | South India Rally: Karna Kadur in Lead After First Leg
Get latest articles and stories on Sports at LatestLY. The Bengaluru pair of Karna Kadur and co-driver Nikhil Pai (Arka Motorsports) overcame teething issues to lead the Overall standings at the end of the first leg of the MRF 45th South India Rally here on Saturday even as seven-time national champion Gaurav Gill exited due to a mechanical problem.
Chennai, Apr 23 (PTI) The Bengaluru pair of Karna Kadur and co-driver Nikhil Pai (Arka Motorsports) overcame teething issues to lead the Overall standings at the end of the first leg of the MRF 45th South India Rally here on Saturday even as seven-time national champion Gaurav Gill exited due to a mechanical problem.
The rally is the first round of the Blue Band Sports FMSCI National Rally Championship 2022.
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Going into the overnight parc ferme, Kadur, winner of the Asia Cup round of the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship at the same venue last month, led Mangaluru's Dean Mascarenhas (co-driver Gangan Karumbaiah, Kodagu) by 2.9 seconds.
The two leaders were followed by Chettinad Sporting's 2021 National champion Aditya Thakur (Virender Kashyap) from Himachal and Pallakkad's Fabid Ahmer (Sanath G) in the provisional Overall classification.
With five more stages to be run on Sunday, just 17.6 seconds separated the top four contenders.
After Gill's retirement in the day's second stage, it was essentially a four-way battle for top honours, involving Kadur, Mascarenhas, Thakur and Ahmer. As the day progressed, Kadur and Mascarenhas stepped up the pace to pull away from the others.
Kadur won three of the five stages while Mascarenhas topped the other two.
(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)