Team MRF's Lohit Urs regains title after two years

Chandigarh, Nov 5 (UNI) Lohit Urs and co-driver Moosa Sherief emerged overall winners in the Power Pine Forest Rally, the fifth and penultimate round of the Motorsports Association of India's Indian National Rally Championship, which concluded at the Kala Gram grounds here today.

Trailing overnight leader Sunny Sidhu of Team JK Tyre by 40 seconds, Urs never lifted his foot of the peddle and pushed his Baleno hard through the 15.75 km Fagla stage that was run thrice on Sunday. Urs finished the rally in a total time of 2:24: 44 seconds to end a two-year drought and win the third overall INRC title of his career.

The last time Urs won an overall title was in 2004 in Chandigarh.

Team JK Tyre took the next two places, with Sunny Sidhu finishing second in 2::24:39 and Vikram Mathias ending his barren streak, coming third in 2::24:52.

The rally also threw up the first National champion in the Gypsy Cup category, with the father-son duo of Ramesh Shanbhag and Sanket Shanbhag opening an unassailable lead ahead of the concluding round. Even a second-placed finish would have been to seal the title for the Shanbhag's but leader Suresh Rana turned turtle in the day's second stage and the going thereafter was smooth for the champions.

The final day's action began with Karandeep Singh going out of the rally in the first stage itself after the lower arm of his car broke. Karandeep still leads with 34 points, while Gauravsingh Gill is second with 31. Urs has tied with Naren Kumar for third spot with 29 points and Sidhu is lying in fifth place with 26.

Following are the provisional results; Overall category: Lohit Urs/Moosa Sherief (Team MRF, Baleno) 2:24.27; Sunny Sidhu/Vivek Anandan (Team JK Tyre, Baleno) 2:24.39; Vikram Mathias/Nikhil Pail (Team JK Tyre, Baleno) 2:24.52; Prithvin Rajan/P V S Murthy (Team MRF, Baleno) 2:31.14; Sanket Shanbhag/Ramesh Shanbhag (Gypsy) 2:31.49.

1400cc: Anil Wadia/Anmol Rampal (Esteem) 2:46.15; Arindam Ghosh/Sourabh (Esteem) 3:01.28.

Rally Star Cup: Amanpreet Ahluwalia/Manoj Shadija (Esteem) 2:33.14; Rajesh Gadakh/Paritosh Kohok 2:36.56; Nibi Sayed/Noufel Sayed 2:44.29.

Gypsy Cup: Sanket Shanbhag/Ramesh Shanbhag 2:31.49; Capt A S Brar/Capt. D Saraswat 2:35.39; Maj Rajesh Powar/Capt Rohit Nayak 2:37.58.

UNI XC HS DH RN2034