Kochi, September 14, 2008

Team MRF Limited finished the Popular Rally of Kerala 2008, taking the top two spots comfortably. Capitalizing on the overnight lead, 'Team Red ' placed on the top two steps of the podium, with hardly any competition. The rest of the top runners had pulled out yesterday due to various mechanical reasons and pulled out.

"We have been running by and far in the top three positions in the last five rallys, and were confident that we would do well. We are happy with the win", said Lohith Urs, who won the rally on debut in a Cedia 2000 N+ car. Lohith & co-driver Chandramouli, clocked a penalty of I hour 15 minutes and 18 seconds in the two day rally. Team MRF's Arjun Rao Aroor & co-driver Satish Rajagopal who were almost 2 minutes behind Lohith, finished second overall and first in the 1600 N+ cl;ass, driving a Ford Fiesta.

The Popular Rally of Kerala 2008 that flagged off today morning had to cancel one of the Special Stages today, due to technical issues and ran only 2 of the scheduled 3 stages.

Biju Antony & Uday Kumar, of Kochi, won the 1600 cc class, followed by Roopesh Kholay & Prajual Pai, and Sanket Shanbhag & Ramesh Shanbhag of Team Winspeed. In fact, the Shanbhags were running third overall yesterday and were holding the same position until the final stage of the rally, where they went off the road and lost time.

The 1400 cc class saw a new winner in Bonnie Thomas from Thodupuzha co-driven by Adhiraj Bhardhan,. Sujay & Bharath and Francis & Royce finished 2nd and 3rd respectively. In the Rally Star Cup, Den Thimmaiah & Dinesh finished on top, followed by Vikram Devadasan & Anoop Kumar, and Kaushik Shinde & Sulaiman Shaikh. The Gypsy Class was won by Sandeep Sharma & Rashid Raza, follwed by Surenda Babu & Nayeen, and Sanjay Agarwal & Elias Paarel.

The Kerala Auto Sports Club organized Popular Rally of Kerala 2008, ran about 400 odd kilometers, of which about 100 kms were competitive distance and the rest traversing transport distance. The next round would run in Coimbatore in October.

RESULTS:

OVERALL:

1. Team MRF Limited : Lohith Urs & Chandramouli : 1:15: 18
2. Team MRF Limited : Arjun Rao & Satish Rajagopal : 1: 17: 10
3. Bonnie Thomas & Adhiraj Bharadhan : 1:21:41

1600 cc:

1. Biju Antony & Uday Kumar : 1:21:52
2. Roopesh Kholay & Prajual Pai : 1:24:36
3. Team Winspeed : Sanket Shanbhag & Ramesh Shanbhag : 1:32:50

1400cc:

1. Bonnie Thomas & Adhiraj Bhardhan : 1:21:41
2. Sujay & Bharath : 1:24:00
3. Francis . K.J. & Royce : 1:24:46

Rally Star Cup:

1:Den Thimmiah & Dinesh : 1:22:06
2.Vikram Devadasan & Anoop Kumar: 1:23:42
3. Kaushik Shinde & Sulaiman Shaikh : 1: 25:21

Gypsy Class:

1. Sandeep Sharma & Rashid Raza :1: 25:00
2. Surendra Babu & Nayeen : 1: 27:15
3. Sanjay Agarwal & Elias Paarel : 1:30: 46

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