Mysore, June 14, 2008 : Team Red Rooster's lead driver Vikram Mathias and co-driver PVS Murthy consolidated a huge lead over the 8 seconds overnight advantage to finish Day 2 of the Sidvin Rally of Karnataka 2008 with a huge 1minute 57 seconds lead over second placed team mate Amittrajit Ghosh & co-driver Ashwin Naik. "We had a trouble free run. The route had everything in it. Jumps, bumps, fast corners, slow corners, rough and smooth terrain. It was like many rallys rolled into one as far as the terrain went", said a smiling Vikram after the Special Stages were run and finished " The event was very professionally organized and the marshalling was of high quality. For a first time organization, it is brilliant", he continued. It was a great drive for 22 year old Amittrajit Ghosh & Ashwin Naik, who made up time on Lohith and finished the day at second place, putting the Team Red Rooster in a commanding position.

For Lohith Urs, the main challenger to Vikram, it was a sad day. "Our gear box broke in the last but one stage of the day and we had to quit. In fact, there was a problem with the engine from yesterday, and we were just nursing the car to finish the event for points", said Lohith .V.Urs. If the car gets ready, he might start tomorrow morning according to the Super Rally format, to gain leg points for the National Championship.

The father-son duo Sanket Shanbag and Ramesh Shanbag of Team Winspeed drove a great rally, to finish third overall and first in the 1600 cc category, at the end of the day. Arjun Surya & Ravi Venkatesh are running second in the class, followed by Biju Antony & Prince Antony in third. But Ramesh & Sanket have a huge lead of over 4 minutes and should enjoy a cool drive tomorrow.

Deepak Chinnappa, at 21 years, the youngest driver on the Indian Rally circuit, proved his driving mettle, finishing 4th overall and on top of the Rally Star Cup (RSC) category. "I had my exams on the recee day, and got a waiver from driving the reconnaissance. This was a big disadvantage and I had to drive the first run of the three stages carefully, and better my timings in the second run", said the Oxford College Engineering student from Bangalore. The son of rally legend C.K.Chinnappa has to again use the first run of the stages tomorrow to learn the stages, and go all out in the second run, because all the stages are run in the opposite direction tomorrow.Vikram Devadasen & Raymond, are placed 2nd in the RSC 4 seconds slower than Deepak, Vishal Dharam & Mukund.B.V. are placed 3rd.

Rally Star Cup leader and overall 4th placed Deepak Chinnappa and Sri Karunya after Day 2 of the Sidvin Rally of Karnataka 2008

In the 1400 cc category S.Sujay and S.M. Bharath lead the charge, followed by Team Winspeed Mazdayar Vatcha & Vinayaka, who are 4 seconds behind, and J.M.Manju & Jeevarathinam who are one second behind Mazdayar. Team Winspeed- G.S.Joshi & co-driver G.M.Srikanth, former 1400 cc and RSC National Champion, pulled out with mechanical problems.

The Gypsy Cup category saw former 1400 cc National Champion Sanjay Agarwal & co-driver Shiva Prakash in the lead, followed by Dhiraj Doipode & Pramod Raman, and Surendra Babu & Sangeeth Samuel.

34 of the 43 starters finished the second day of the Sidin Rally of Karnataka 2008. Most of the 9 retirements were due to mechanical problems, particularly in the second stage of the day, save one car that went off the route into the canal.

The second day of the Sidvin Rally of Karnataka 2008 organized by Prosports, Bangalore was flagged off from the Golden Landmark Resorts at 9.30 a.m. today morning and finished the day around 5 p.m. Tomorrow, the rally drivers will have an early start at 7.00 a.m. and run the three stages in the reverse direction twice, and end the day, at the resort at 1.45 p.m. By then they would have completed 111 kms of competing Special Stage distance, and 308 kms of traversing Transport distance, to total 419 kms of the Sidvin Rally of Karnataka 2008. This will be followed by the Champagne showering ceremony at 3.30 p.m. and the post-event winners Press Conference at 4.15 p.m. A gala prize distribution function would follow at 7 p.m.

Sanket Shanbag & Ramersh Shanbag, of Team Winspeed, leaders in
the 1600 cc class and 3rd overall after Day 2 of the Sidvin Rally of
Karnataka 2008.