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Loeb dominates Rally Bulgaria |
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Sebastein Loeb has unequivocally reinstated his supremacy in the sport by winning the seventh round of WRC calendar. The Citroen C4 driver led Rally Bulgaria from beginning-to-end, as he finished 29.5 seconds ahead of teammate Dani Sordo. With this win, the Frenchmen extends his lead in the Drivers Standings to 51 points over his nearest competitor, and other teammate, Sebastien Ogier.
Rally Bulgaria, which previously constituted a round of the FIA European Rally Championship, made its debut in the WRC this year. The first of four asphalt rallies in 2010, Bulgaria was a leap into the unknown for the majority of WRC teams and drivers. It consisted of a challenging route, and stunning mountain scenery.
The final day of the rally comprised of four stages that were spread over 94 kilometres, with the heat being at its gruesome best. Starting the day with a 40-second lead, Loeb managed to maintain the lead and seal the win comfortably. Second place, however, didn’t come easy for the Spaniard, Dani Sordo, as Peter Solberg finished just 5 seconds behind in his privately entered Citroen. He was followed by Citroen rising star, Sebastien Ogier, in fourth.
The Fords of Mikko Hirvonen and Jari-Matti simply didn’t have the pace to trouble the Citroens. And things didn’t get much better for former F1 champion, Kimi Raikkonen, as the Finn got stuck on a bank for more than half-a-minute on the final stage of the rally, and thus dropped out of the top-ten.
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Second round of the NRC sets Coimbatore ablaze |
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The second round of the National Racing Championship saw a packed weekend at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore last month, with five races taking place – two in the Polo Cup (featured elsewhere), and one each in the Formula Rolon, Formula Swift and Super Saloon classes.
In the revamped Formula Rolon series, Chennai’s Sarosh
Hataria of Meco Racing took first place, followed by G Vikash Anand of VA-Rad Racing in second, and Chittesh Mandody of Mohites Racing in third position.
In the Formula Swift Class, Chennai’s Ajay Kini of Wallace Sports had a dream run, as he finished on top in a race that was eventually red flagged. Not far behind, Goutham Parekh, and TVS Girling’s, Akhil Devraj, finished second and third respectively.
The Super Saloon class was won by Vizag’s Sailesh Bolisetti, who drove impeccably and extended his lead to 40 points. Maintaining a consistent pace, Bolisetti managed to keep the competition at bay, as he finished the race in 19 minutes and
5.24 seconds, followed by veteran B.Vijayakumar of Prime Racing in second, and G. Siddarth Kisshore of Performance Racing in third place.
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Gill pulls off an emphatic win at Nashik |
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Team MRF are on a high, as reigning National Champion,
Gaurav Gill, took victory at the first round of the Speed Indian National Rally Championships at Nashik. He, along with co-driver Musa Sherif, swept aside the competition to finish more than 2 minutes ahead of his nearest rival, Vikram Mathias, from Red Rooster Racing.
On the opening leg, Gill took a lead of 12 seconds. Nevertheless, the Red Rooster Racing veteran, and former INRC champion, was able to pull out a surprise stage win in the penultimate stage, and clinch stage points. But eventually his efforts were to no avail as Gaurav Gill sealed the rally by a comfortable margin of 2 minutes and 12 seconds. Amittrajit Ghosh and Aswin Naik from Red Rooster Racing took the final spot on the podium.
In the Group N category (2,000cc), Girijashankar Joshy and co-driver Chandramouli from Team Ovion took first position, while Rahul Kantharaj and co-driver Vivek Bhat took the honors in the 1,600cc class. In the 1,400cc class, Dr. Bikku Babu and co-driver Gerorge Varghese clinched first place, while Amrinder Brar and Himanshu Pareek won the Gypsy class, and Phalguna V. Urs and Anoop Kumar took the honours in the fiercely competitive Rally Star Cup.
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