Clean Sweep

Gaurav Gill made it four wins out of four to win his fifth INRC title

- Nitin Jacob

THE 2017 MRF INDIAN NATIONAL Rally Championship (INRC) had a six-round schedule that, for the first time in ages, went all across the country. All six rallies were to run on dirt, with the only tarmac rally that usually runs in Nashik being skipped for the year. Defending national champions Karna Kadur (Nikhil Pai) of Arka Motorsport in their INRC 2-spec Polo seemed confident about taking the fight to APRC champion Gaurav Gill (Musa Sherif) in his upgraded Team Mahindra Adventure XUV 500. Arjun Rao (Satish Rajgopal) in the only R2-spec Polo, hoping for better reliability and better results. The experienced Rahul Kanthraj (Vivek Bhatt) would be piloting the second Arka Motorsport entry in a Mitsubishi Cedia also prepared to INRC 2 spec. In the INRC 3 category the VW Polo would be the car to watch again this year, barring any new car that may enter during the year. Dean Mascarenhas (Shruptha Padival) would be the ones to watch.

At round 1 in Coimbatore, Gill cruised to a dominant win, with Kadur finishing second, almost a minute and a half behind, cementing the dominance of India’s best rally driver. Amittrajit Ghosh (Ashwin Naik) finished third, even as Dean tried his best to claim the final spot on the overall podium, but lost a chunk of time with some car trouble. Kadur managed to comfortably win the INRC 2 category, while Dean won the INRC 3 category.