Samuel, Nataraj keep toppers Tanveer, Rajendra behind

There were smiles on the faces of the riders as almost all of them had a positive and satisfactory event.

For the first time, they had an opportunity to go flat out as the course helped them to try out their machines to the fullest of their capacity.

While Stage 1 was technical, Stage 2 was too fast to handle. The stage, after a span of two decades, was in the menu for the 4th round of the MRF Mogrip FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship for 2wheelers (INRC). Organsied by KMSC, the K1000 Rally had about 64kms of stage distance from two stages which were run twice.

Samuel Jacob from Petronas TVS Racing spun a surprise by keeping his teammates and championship leaders behind him with close-to-minute lead. He dominated three out of four stages and with a total time of 47min 33.455sec, he was the winner of the MRF Mogrip K1000 Rally, the fourth round of the MRF Mogrip FMSCI INRC held around Gubbi about 120 km from Bengaluru.

Privateer makes his way to the top three for the first time this season. It was none other than, Nataraj R, his ex- teammate, now rallying for VM Sports Foundation. With a 52-sec difference Nataraj settled for second. He was also the fastest in Stage 2. The championship leader, Abdul Wahid Tanveer from Petronas TVS Racing, finished third with a further difference of 3 sec.

Defending champion Rajendra RE, also from Petronas TVS Racing, with a further difference of 56 sec finished fourth. Imran Pasha was another 1min 11sec behind in fifth. While the three Hero Motosports team riders T Arun, Yuva Kumar and Karan Kumar finished in sixth, seventh and eighth positions respectively.

T Arun was 8-sec behind to settle for sixth and Yuva Kumar from Hero Motosports was further 44sec adrift and his teammate Karan was 1min 18sec further down for 8th. Sachin D from Petronas TVS Racing finished ninth with a further difference of 9 sec which included 10-sec Liaison penalty. Pavan BK from VM Sports Foundation finished 10th.