Coimbatore : June 20, 2009 :

The Rally of Coimbatore sponsored by MAK Lubricants from Bharat Petroleum is all set for flag off tomorrow (21st June 2009) at 0800 hrs from Kethanur Service Park, Coimbatore. The first round of the MAK FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship for 2 wheelers will see cream of 30 rally riders from Coimbatore, Erode, Bangalore, Coorg, Hosur, Mysore, Secunderabad, fighting it out astride their bikes from Yamaha, TVS and Hero Honda.

Today, the recce (reconnaissance) started at 0800 hrs and all 30 competitors were taken on a convoy thru the two special stages. After the recce, Venu Ramesh Kumar, from Coimbatore, the reigning National Champion in the unmodified class (Group D) upto 130 cc said " This year also I am on my Yamaha YBX bike. The stages are really superb. I notice a few changes in the stages compared to that of last year, this year is definitely better. I really look forward to my start tomorrow". The same was echoed by M.S. Ravindra from TVS Racing who was the runner up in the modified class (Group B) 165 cc who is riding his TVS Apache RTR "Yes, the stages are really smooth this year. The recce went well and on time. I am all set for some great rallying tomorrow" . Chetan Ganapathy the 2008 National Champion in the 260 cc from Coorg agreed that the stages are very good this year. I really like the Textool stage. I am just going for the pre-event scrutiny and I am on my Hero Honda Karizma this year too.

The organizers (Coimbatore Auto Sports Club), clarified that the stages are the same as last year but last year the bike rally was run after the car rally, obviously there had been some damages to the stages. This year, the bike rally is run before the car rally which is scheduled next week ; the bikers are the first to go on these stages this year.

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