INDIA in F1

Tag: Lohitt Urs

  • Lohith Urs leads Team MRF 1-2 at Popular Rally

    Lohith Urs leads Team MRF 1-2 at Popular Rally

    By George Francis

    Kochi, 14 Sept 2008: Team MRF Limited finished the Popular Rally of Kerala 2008, taking the top two spots comfortably. After capitalising on the overnight lead, ‘Team Reds’ were placed on the top two steps of the podium, with hardly any competition with Lohith Urs and co-driver Chandramouli winning the Popular Rally, the third round of the Indian National Rally Championship 2008 here on Sunday. Teammates Arjun Rao Aroor and navigator Satish Rajagopal came second while most of the rest of the top runners had pulled out on Saturday due to various mechanical reasons. Lohith Urs made his debut in a Cedia.

    “We have been running by and far in the top three positions in the last five rallies, and we are confident that we would do well. We are happy with the win,” said Lohith Urs, who won the rally on debut in a Cedia 2000 N+ car. Lohith and co-driver Chandramouli, clocked a penalty of I hour 15 minutes and 18 seconds in the two-day rally. Team MRF’s Arjun Rao Aroor and co-driver Satish Rajagopal who were almost 2 minutes behind Lohith, finished second overall and first in the 1600 N+ class, driving a Ford Fiesta.

    The Popular Rally of Kerala 2008 that was flagged off on Saturday morning had to cancel one of the Special Stages due to technical issues and ran only 2 of the scheduled 3 stages.

    Biju Antony and co-driver Uday Kumar, of Kochi, won the 1600cc class, followed by Roopesh Kholay and navigator Prajval Pai and Sanket Shanbhag and Ramesh Shanbhag of Team Winspeed in third. In fact, the Shanbhags were running third overall on Saturday and were holding the same position until the final stage of the rally, where they went off the road and lost time to concede the second place.

    Lohith Urs and co-driver Chandramouli pose with trophies at the podium ceremony after winning the Popular Rally on Sunday. Photo by George Francis
    Lohith Urs and co-driver Chandramouli pose with trophies at the podium ceremony after winning the Popular Rally on Sunday. Photo by George Francis

    The 1400cc class saw a new winner in Bonnie Thomas from Thodupuzha co-driven by Adhiraj Bhardhan. Sujay and Bharath pair finished second while Francis and Royce came 3rd.

    In the Rally Star Cup, Den Thimmaiah and Dinesh finished on top followed by Vikram Devadasan and Anoop Kumar in second. Kaushik Shinde and Sulaiman Shaikh came third.

    The Gypsy Class was won by Sandeep Sharma and Rashid Raza beating Surenda Babu and Nayeen to second place. Experienced pair of Sanjay Agarwal and Elias Paarel came third.

    The Kerala Auto Sports Club (KASC) organised Popular Rally of Kerala 2008, which ran 400-odd kilometers, of which about 100-kms were competitive stage distance and the rest traversing transport distance. The next round of the MAI INRC would run in Coimbatore in October.

    Provisional unaudited Results:

    OVERALL: 1.Lohith Urs & Chandramouli (Team MRF Limited) 1hour, 15min, 18sec; 2. Arjun Rao & Satish Rajagopal (Team MRF Limited) (1: 17: 10); 3. Bonnie Thomas & Adhiraj  Bharadhan (1:21:41); 4. Biju Antony & Uday Kumar (1:21:52); 5. Den Thimmiah & Dinesh (1:22:06);

    2000cc: 1.Lohith Urs & Chandramouli (Team MRF Limited) 1hour, 15min, 18sec;

    1600 cc: 1. Biju Antony & Uday Kumar (1:21:52); 2. Roopesh Kholay & Prajual Pai (1:24:36); 3. Sanket Shanbhag & Ramesh Shanbhag (Team Winspeed) (1:32:50).

    1400cc: 1. Bonnie Thomas & Adhiraj Bhardhan (1:21:41); 2. Sujay & Bharath (1:24:00); 3. Francis KJ & Royce (1:24:46).

    Rally Star Cup: 1. Den Thimmiah & Dinesh (1:22:06); 2. Vikram Devadasan & Anoop Kumar (1:23:42); 3. Kaushik Shinde & Sulaiman Shaikh (1: 25:21).

    Gypsy Class: 1. Sandeep Sharma & Rashid Raza (1: 25:00); 2. Surendra Babu &  Nayeen (1: 27:15); 3. Sanjay Agarwal & Elias Paarel (1:30: 46).

    ends

  • Lohit Urs-Musa Sherif conquer Power Pine Forest Rally in Chandigarh

    Chandigarh, 5 Nov 2006: The City Beautiful turned to be a hunting ground forMysore rally starLohit Urs as he paired with co-driver Musa Sherif to win the overall honours in the Power Pine Forest Rally, the fifth and penultimate round of the Motorsports Association of India (MAI) Indian National Rally Championship (INRC), which concluded at the Kala Gram grounds here on Sunday.

    Lohit, who won the overall title here in 2004, returned to embrace victory once again to stop the barren run after his 2004 win, and it was Chandigarh once again which provided him with the win and the third overall victory of his career. The Special Stages in 2004 were in a different region.

    Despite trailing overnight leader Sunny Sidhu of Team JK Tyre by 40 seconds, Urs never lifted his foot, off the peddle and pushed his Baleno all 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. Yes, he never lifted his foot, even when a dog ran on to his path, in the last stage of the day, but he swished to the side, brushing the dog’s tail and corrected the line in a jiffy with a expert’s touch and was back on the track.

    Lohitt Urs and Musa Sherif (right) celebrate after winning the Pine Forest Rally.
    Lohitt Urs and Musa Sherif (right) celebrate after winning the Pine Forest Rally.*

    Team JK Tyre’s Sunny Sidhu finished second in 2::24:39 and Vikram Mathias, also sporting the yellow colours, ended his barren streak, taking third in a time of 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 good enough to seal the title for the Shanbhags but leader Suresh Rana turned turtle in the day’s second stage and that was enough for the father-son duo to clinch the issue with a round to spare.

    The final day saw home hero, Karandeep Singh, suffer casualty in the very first stage as the lower arm of his car broke down. Along with Jaidas Menon as co-driver, Karandeep still leads with 34 points, while Gaurav Singh Gill is second with 31 points in their bag. Urs has tied with Naren Kumar for third spot with 29 points and Sidhu is lying in fifth place with 26.

    Provisional unaudited results

    Overall category: 1. Lohit Urs/ Musa Sherif (Team MRF, Baleno) (2hours, 24min, 27sec); 2. Sunny Sidhu/ Vivek Anandan (Team JK Tyre, Baleno) (2:24.39); 3. Vikram Mathias/ Nikhil Pail (Team JK Tyre, Baleno) (2:24.52); 4. Prithvin Rajan/ PVS Murthy (Team MRF, Baleno) (2:31.14); 5. Sanket Shanbhag/ Ramesh Shanbhag (Gypsy) (2:31.49).

    1400cc: 1. Anil Wadia/ Anmol Rampal (Esteem) (2:46.15); 2. Arindam Ghosh/ Sourabh (Esteem) (3:01.28).

    Rally Star Cup: 1.  Amanpreet Ahluwalia/ Manoj Shadija (Esteem) (2:33.14); 2. Rajesh Gadakh/ Paritosh Kohok (2:36.56); 3. Nibi Sayed/ Noufel Sayed (2:44.29).

    Gypsy Cup: 1. Sanket Shanbhag/ Ramesh Shanbhag (2:31.49); 2. Capt AS Brar/ Capt D Saraswat (2:35.39); 3. Maj Rajesh Powar/ Capt Rohit Nayak (2:37.58).

    Note:* Photo updated manually on 5 June 2020, courtesy Musa Sherif archives.