{image-naren kumar_14062008.jpg news.oneindia.in}Antalya, Turkey, Jun 14: Continuing their good show in the rally of Turkey, Team Sidvin India driver Naren Kumar drove a steady race that saw him gaining places up the order right from the first competitive section without taking undue risk in the production car series of the World Rally Championship.

Following to the team strategy to perfection, the team's conservative thinking of finishing the race paid rich dividends. After the second re-run of the SS7 Kumluca 2, the Coimbatore based driver moved into a highly creditable 11th place in the PWRC category and 25th overall. In this stage he gained the maximum number of three places, which was the most till that point in the rally. At the start of the first competitive stage Perge 121 cars came under the starters flag in PWRC. In the 22.3 km stage Naren moved up one place to move into 15th position taming the terrain and hot conditions.

However, on the fifth stage of the day Perge 2 his steering mount came off, but he did an outstanding job to keep the car on the road and not only that he gained one place in to move into 12th place.

He drove almost half of the 22.4 km long stage with the steering moving up and down. Without service, he and his co-driver Nicky Beech fixed the problem to go in to the re-run of Myra stage, where he lost one place, but roared back to gain three places in the SS7.

Meanwhile, front-runners Toshi Aria and Nasser Al-Attiyah packed up due to mechanical problems before the completion of the day.

Team Sidvin India's Principal Mohan Nagrajan was satisfied with the day's race so far and said, ''It has been a good day so far. He (Naren) did a tremendous job after the steering mount came lose.

''We are keeping our fingers crossed. It's a long day and a though day, after seeing bigger names biting dust, I think we are in a good position,'' he added.

UNI