Rally of Bangalore: Kadur takes INRC title as Ghosh wins, Abhilash is IRC champion

Despite having finished fourth in class and sixth overall in the final rally of the season, Team Yokohoma's Karna Kadur (co-driver Nikhil Pai) driving the Volkswagen Polo claimed the 2016 INRC title.

Consistent results and finishes over the season was instrumental in Kadur's championship win in the Group N car beating favourites Mahindra XUV handsomely.

Meanwhile, the Kolkata-born Ghosh (co-driver Ashwin Naik) took K1000 Rally win having a trouble-free run across the six stages, winning them all to register a time of 51m40.2s in his XUV 500.

Having run second for much part of the rally, Mahindra's Sunny Sidhu (co-driver Srinivas Murthy) was forced to retire in the 16.40km, SS5.

Sidhu's retirement pushed Phalguna Urs (co-driver Chandramouli CM) in the Volkswagen Polo to second, Phalguna ending up 1m57.1s behind Ghosh.

With the fourth INRC entrant also retiring, the INRC 2000 class winner Rahul Kanthraj (co-driver Vivek Bhatt) driving the Mitsubishi Cedia was classified third overall.

Kanthraj had a close fight with Bopaiah K.M (co-driver Gagan Karumbaiah) throughout the rally, but managed to edge out the Volkswagen Polo driver by a mere 5.3s in the end.

Fresh from his Asia Pacific Rally Championship rally win, Gaurav Gill's (co-driver Musa Sherif) day came to an early end after mechanical issues hit its Mahindra Adventure car.

Meanwhile, INRC 2000 class front runners Dr Bikku Babu (co-driver Milen George Cherian) and Dean Mascarenhas (co-driver Shanmuga SN) too suffered DNFs in SS1 and SS4 respectively.

Abilash dominant in IRC

Abhilash P.G, Srikant Gowda G.M, 3A PGA Motor Sports Mitsubishi EVO

Photo by: Anand Philar

In the IRC class, Abhilash (co-driver Srikant Gowda) led the pack all-through in his Mitsubishi Evo to win not only the K1000 Rally but also the 2016 IRC title.

Snap Racing's Mohammed Kasim (co-driver Sanath G) finished 2m44.6s behind Abhilash in the Cedia, having over two minutes buffer on third placed Ritesh Guttedar (co-driver Sheraz Ahmed) in the Volkswagen Polo.

Meanwhile in the FMSCI Cup, Sridhar Urs (co-driver Roopesh BC) took victory in the Honda City with Krishnakant Yadav (co-driver Sagar M) second in the Maruti Baleno and Ganapathy SC (co-driver Venu Ramesh Kumar) third, also in a Baleno.