INDIA in F1

Tag: PVS Murthy

  • Jason-Srinivasa Murthy, Chandan-Musa shine at RAAT Thailand Rally Championship Round 2

    Jason-Srinivasa Murthy, Chandan-Musa shine at RAAT Thailand Rally Championship Round 2

    Lopburi (Thailand), 26 May 2025: Indian rally driver Jason Saldanha and co-driver PVS Murthy clinched the RC2.1 class victory while Chandan Manchegowda and experienced co-driver Musa Sherif took a podium in RC2.2 class, in the second round of the RAAT Thailand Rally Championship, held in the picturesque Khok Samrong district of Lopburi on Sunday.

    This event marked Chandan’s international rally debut, a significant milestone in his burgeoning motorsport career.

    Piloting a Suzuki Swift Sport for Team Insight & Ally, the duo showcased exceptional skill and coordination, clocking a total time of 1 hour, 7 minutes, and 58 seconds. Their performance not only secured them the top spot in their Super 2500/1500 Turbo RC2.1 class but also earned them an impressive second place overall, finishing only behind the RC1 class winners, Mana Pornsiricherd and Kittisak Klinchan of the Fast Forward Sport team, who drove a powerful factory-developed Toyota CHR.

    In another notable performance, the Indian duo of Chandan Manchegowda of Bengaluru and veteran co-driver Musa Sherif from Kasargod, representing Gen-R Rally Sport, secured third place in the RC2.2 (Super 2000) class, completing the rally in 1 hour, 26 minutes, and 20 seconds, and finishing 14th overall.

    This victory adds to Saldanha’s growing list of achievements in the international rally scene. Earlier this year, he, alongside co-driver Thimmu Uddapanda, won the first round of the RAAT Thailand Rally Championship in Nakhon Ratchasima, marking their second consecutive victory in the series. The duo also made history in April 2023 by becoming the first Indians to win a title in their class in the Thailand Rally Nationals.

    Back on home soil, Saldanha has demonstrated consistent performance in the Indian National Rally Championship (INRC). Notably, he secured a second-place overall finish and clinched first place in the INRC 2 class at the Blueband K1000 Rally in December 2024. His commendable performances at the Blueband Rally of Hyderabad and the Robusta Rally further underscore his prowess and dedication to the sport.

    Musa Sherif, a stalwart in Indian rallying, boasts over three decades of experience, with more than 300 rallies under his belt, including 69 international events. A eight-time INRC champion, Sherif has been instrumental in mentoring emerging talents like Chandan, guiding them through the rigors of international competition.

    With these commendable performances, Indian rally teams continue to make their mark on the international stage, showcasing skill, determination, and the spirit of competition. The next round of the RAAT Thailand Rally Championship is scheduled to take place in Sa Kaeo, Thesaban Mueang, from July 18 to 20.

    Provisional Results (Round 2):

    Overall 2WD winner: 1. Jason Deepak Saldanha – P.V. Srinivas Murthy;

    RC2.1 (Super 2500/1500 Turbo): 1. Jason Deepak Saldanha – P.V. Srinivas Murthy (Team Insight & Ally – Suzuki Swift Sport) 1hr,07min, 58sec; 2. Natthapon Angrittanont – Ittipon Simaraks (Toyota Gazoo Racing Thailand – Toyota Yaris Cross) 1:20.17;

    RC2.2 (Super 2000): 1. Surarat Prapussorn – Thadakorn Prapussorn (Gen-R Rally Sport – Toyota Yaris) 1:13.34; 2. Visarut Lorkham – Yuttachai Poomploy (Suzuki Ciaz) 1:20.47; 3. Chandan Manchegowda – Musa Sherif (Gen-R Rally Sport – Toyota Yaris) 1:26.20; 14th place overall;

  • Vikram Mathias, PVS Murthy notch up a win in Nashik, after 3 DNFs

    Nashik, 1 Nov 2009: Reigning National champion Vikram Mathias, of Red Rooster Racing, finally found his wonted form after three rounds of retirements to notch up a thumping win along with navigator PV Srinivasa Murthy in the Rally of Nashik, the fourth round of the Indian National Rally Championship here on Sunday.

    The 34-year old from Karnataka clocked 1 hour, 23 minutes and 12 seconds to open his account and seasoned Arjun Balu with Mathias’ former navigator, Sujith Kumar BS as his co-driver, was 1min 50 seconds behind. But the Team MRF duo were able to take the second spot as teammates Lohitt Urs and co-driver Srikanth Gowda, who were running second, were forced to retire in between. Arjun Rao Aroor and co-driver Satish Rajagopal, also of Team MRF, came in third, way behind.

    In the 1600cc, it was DDL Sports team of Joseph C Jos and co-driver Royce Kizhakoodan who bagged their second win of the season and finished ahead of table toppers in the class Sujay Suresh and co-driver Varun Satyanarayan, who won the season opener in Kolkata. Jos and Kizhakoodan earlier won the K1000, the second round in Bangalore.

    Rahul Kanthraj and co-driver Vivek Bhatt, could only finish third and lost some crucial points as they were second in the Championship standings. Vikram Devadasen and co-driver Nikhil Pai also took a second win of the season in the 1400cc class. The 34-year old Devadasen had won the class in K1000 at Bangalore.

    Talented 21-year old debutant Karna Kadur along with co-driver Somonita Ghosh, of Red Rooster Racing, who were leading overnight, preserved their lead and won the Rally Star Cup while Sandeep Sharma and co-driver Anmol Rampal of Team Thunderbolt bagged the Gypsy Cup win.

    Final provisional results: Overall: 2000cc: 1. Vikram Mathias/ PVS Murthy (Red Rooster Racing, 1hour, 23mins, 12secs); 2. Arjun Balu/ Sujith Kumar BS (Team MRF, 1:25:02); 3. Arjun Rao Aroor/ Satish Rajagopal (Team MRF, 1:26:39).

    1600cc (Maruti Baleno): 1. Joseph C Jos/ Royce Kizhakoodan (DDL Sports, 1:30:19); 2. Sujay Suresh/ Varun Satyanarayan (1:31:11); 3. Rahul Kanthraj/ Vivek Bhatt (1:32:39).

    1400cc (MPFI Esteem): 1. Vikram Devadasen/ Nikhil Pai (1:30:43); 2. Byram Godrej/ Raymond Desouza (1:32:41); 3. Shailendar Hegde/ Sheraz Ahmed (1:34:25).

    Rally Star Cup (Carbureted Esteem): 1. Karna Kadur/ Somonita Ghosh (RRR, 1:32:05); 2. Balram CG/ Raghuram CG (1:37:30); 3. Phalguna Urs/ Anoop Kumar (1:37:30).

    Gypsy Cup: 1. Sandeep Sharma/ Anmol Rampal (Team Thunderbolt, 1:35:29); 2. Kushwant Randhawa/ Vinay Shekar (1:37:27); 3. Akash Agarwal/ Pradeep Mhasar (1:39:12).

  • Vikram Mathias, PVS Murthy crowned INRC Champions

    Coorg, 30 Nov 2008: Karnataka duo Vikram Mathias and co-driver PV Srinivasa Murthy of Red Rooster Racing team won the overall title and were crowned the champions of the Indian National Racing Championship (INRC) for 2008 with a round to spare here on Sunday. Thus, Vikram Mathias bagged his second National title. He won the crown for the first time in 2004 with Sujith Kumar BS as his co-driver. It was the maiden title for Murthy.

    Rally de Coorg, the fifth and penultimate round of the INRC took off for the second leg on Sunday with the 20 competitors starting from Gandhi Maidan at 7 am to show case their talent and driving skills in the three stages which were run in reverse direction today.

    Vikram Mathias and PVS Murthy took the overall honours with steady performance and were trailed by another Karnataka pair Girijashankar Joshy and co-driver Prajval Pai, of Team Winspeed, who notched up an impressive overall second beside winning their class, the 1600cc.

    Sujay and co-driver SM Bharath won the 1400cc class beating Hyderabad’s Mazdayar Vatcha and co-driver Vinayak Nanada to take the second place in the 1400cc class.

    Local star Den Thimmaiah, the brother of international hockey star Len Aiyappa, had Ravindra as his co-driver and the duo performed admirably to claim Overall fourth place and in the process also won the Rally Star Cup (RSC). 

    Shafeeque and co-driver George Varghese also overtook the overnight second-placed teams of Raghuram CG and co-driver Balram CG and third-placed team of Byram Godrej and navigator Anjay Kapadia to clinch the second position in the RSC Class.


    Experienced pair of Sanjay Agarwal and co-driver Elias Paarel notched up a facile win in their class to win the Gypsy Cup while J Aravind and co-driver Varun came second.

    Provisional Results after Day 2:

    Overall: 1. Vikram Mathias/ PVS Murthy (Red Rooster Racing) (1hour, 41min, 41sec); 2. Girijashanker Joshy/ Prajval Pai (Team Winspeed) (1:48:10); 3. S Sujay/ SM Bharth (1:51:03); 4. Den Thimmaiah/ Ravindra (1:51:39); 5. Mazdayar Vatcha/ Vinayak Nanda (1:52:06).

    1600cc class: 1. Girijashanker Joshy /Prajval Pai (1:48:10).

    1400cc class: 1. S Sujay/ SM Bharath (1:51:03); 2. Mazdayar Vatcha/ Vinayak Nandalike  (1:52:06); 3. JM Manju/ Jeevarathinam (1:59:30).

    Rally Star Cup: 1. Den Thimmaiah/ Ravindra (1:51:39); 2. Shafeeq-ur-Rehman/ Geroge Varghese (1:53:09); 3. Raghuram CG/ Balram CG (1:53:40).

    Gypsy Class: 1. Sanjay Agarwal/ Elias Paarel (1:59:11); 2. J Aravin/ Varun (2:00:38); 3.
    Venkatesh/ Lakshmikant (2:5:17).

    ends

  • Vikram Mathias, PVS Murthy inch closer to title winning Mill & Monsoon Rally

    Coimbatore, 19 October 2008: Team Red Rooster Racing’s Vikram Mathias along with co-driver PVS Murthy notched up a comfortable win in the IMG Mill and Monsoon Rally, the fifth round of the Indian National Rally Championship (INRC), here Sunday.

    Driving a Mitsubishi Lancer Cedia, Mathias and Murthy earlier won the two rounds at Mysore and Bangalore.

    Mathias had no competition, after team-mate Amittrajit Ghosh (co-driver Ashwin Naik), also in a Cedia, dropped out with gearbox problems on Saturday and had the luxury of driving at his own pace to clinch the overall title with ease.

    The victory, meant that Mathias is virtually assured of the National title, his fourth in eight years. By picking up the full complement of 16 points here, Mathias has taken his tally to 47.

    “Since I had a comfortable lead overnight, I eased off a bit as my focus was on to finish the event and pick up championship points. Also, we had to be careful in view of the slushy conditions following overnight rains,” said Mathias who finished over seven minutes ahead of second-placed Girijashankar Joshy (co-driver Prajwal Pai) who was in a Maruti Baleno.

    Overnight rains had rendered some sections of the two Special Stages that were run twice, slushy and treacherous, but only two of the Leg-2 starters failed to finish the course.

    For Joshy, it was a huge relief to win in his class (1600cc) after a string of non-finishes this season. Driving sensibly, Joshy, representing Team Winspeed, eventually completed the course three minutes ahead of his nearest rival and championship leader in the class, Sanket Shanbhag (co-driver Ramesh Shanbhag).

    The Rally Star Cup witnessed some close competition before Shailendra Hegde (co-driver Sheraz Ahmed) chalked up his second success of the season in this class, sparing over two minutes to Byram Godrej.

    In the Gypsy class, Sanjay Agarwal (co-driver Elias Paarel), who was lying third overnight, pulled out all stops and finished second behind Sandeep Sharma (co-driver Rashid Raza), pushing J Aravind to third.

    Provisional (unaudited) classification:

    Overall: 1. Vikram Mathias/PVS Murthy (Red Rooster Racing, Cedia N+) (1hr, 41mins, 15secs); 2. Girijashankar Joshy/Prajal Pai (Team Winspeed, Maruti Baleno) (1:48:41); 3. Sanket Shanbhag/Ramesh Shanbhag (Team Winspeed, Maruti Baleno) (1:52:23).

    1600cc: 1. Girijashankar Joshy/ Prajwal Pai (1:48:41); 2. S Shanbhag/R Shanbhag (1:52:53); 3. Yogeshwar Singh Gill/Khushwant Randhawa (1:55:14).

    1400cc: 1. JM Manju/Jeevarathinam (1:54:26); 2. Saurabh Chaudhari/Uday Kumar (1:55:14); 3. S Sujay/SM Bharath 3 (1:55:24).

    Rally Star Cup: 1. Shailendra Hegde/Sheraz Ahmed (1:53:02); 2. Byram Godrej/George Varghese (1:54:49); 3. Deepak Paul Chinnappa/M Chandrasekar 3 (1:54:52).

    Gypsy: 1. Sandeep Sharma/Rashid Raza (1:54:30); 2. Sanjay Agarwal/Elias Paarel (1:55:38); 3. J. Aravind/Pramod Raman 3 (1:57:14).

  • Vikram Mathias-Murthy begin season with a win

    Mysore, 15 June 2008: Team Red Rooster’s two 2000cc N+ Cedia cars with Vikram Mathias and co-driver PVS Murthy and Amittrajit Ghosh and co-driver Ashwin Naik behind the wheels finished a commanding 1-2 position in the Sidvin Rally of Karnataka 2008, the first round of the MAI Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) on here Sunday.

    The 32-year-old former National Champion, Vikram, and the racing and rallying champion 22-year old Amittrajit Ghosh, drove the final day with many a problem but held on to the overnight lead and finished on top.

    “Just the very first stage of the day was run, we noticed that the fuel railing had come off and the fuel was leaking. It was a bit scary, whether the fuel will hold until two more stages. So we ‘crawled’ through the second stage and in the third stage tied the rail up and drove hard and finished the first run. Once we sorted out the problem in Service, we were back to our regular place and won the rally with ease,” said a beaming Vikram Mathias at the post-event Winners Press Conference.” The american civil rights movements was a long legal battle and struggle which reminds us of our strong legal system that can help anybody that feels that something unfair has happened against them.

    From Left: PVS Murthy & Vikram Mathias (winners) and Amittrajit Ghosh and Ashwin Naik (Overall 2nd) after the rally. Photo by George Francis

    “We are happy that we were able finish 1-2 but it would have been better if the Reds were there, for the competition would have been higher,” he added.

    Amittrajit, who is drivinmg a 2000 N+ class for the first time, thanked Vikram, Leelakrishnan, and Naren Kumar for all the training and tips that he received from them. Team owner of Red Rooster Racing, Dinesh Reddy said:  “We certainly are happy with the results. It would have been better if we had more competition. Our boys have been training and practicing well and the cars were definitely well prepared.”

    When queried why they are in the sport, Dinesh said: “It is basically the passion. But we are eventually looking at producing a National Champion and give the sport and the drivers in India what they really deserve.”  The very unfortunate exit of the day was Team Winspeed Sanket and co-driver Ramesh Shanbag, who went off the route as they slid into a canal, hardly 7 kilometers before the finish of the stages. They were running third overall and first in the 1600cc class.

    The Rally Star Cup (RSC) Class, saw Shailendra Hegde and navigator Sheraz Ahmed finish first and third overall. The duo who came into the lead after a results correction late yesterday night, drove a clean rally to win the RSC Class. “It was the J Anand suspension that made the difference,” said Shailendra, “I have driven the earlier rallys on Konies and have found the suspension not suitable to our terrain. The J Anand suspensions definitely put us ahead of the 1400cc cars also, and so we were able to finish third overall. J Anand Suspensions, are suspensions manufactured by ace tuner J Anand, and named after him. Vikram Devadasen and Raymond finished second and Byram Godrej and co-driver Anjay Kapadia finished third in RSC.

    The 1600cc class had a winner in Arjun Surya and navigator Ravi Venkatesh, who were in their debut rally. “We are obviously thrilled with our win. But we knew that Ramesh and Sanket had a 4-minute lead, and there was no way we could catch him. We just wanted to finish our debut rally and we are happy that we have won it on debut,” they said.

    The 1400cc class was won by Samarth KV and co-driver Praakhyat Shirole, who also led after the results were finalised late yesterday night. “We had a very clean run. Absolutely no problem with the cars, and enjoyed every moment of it,” they said. JM Manju and co-driver Jeevarathinam finished second, followed by S.Sujay and SM Bharath.

    The Gypsy class was won by veteran Rally driver Sanjay Agarwal and co-driver Shiva Prakash. Consolidating on their overnight lead, the Bangalore duo won the class with élan. “I was driving a gypsy after 13 years, and I enjoyed every bit of the rally. It was simply awesome,” said Sanjay, who is known as ‘Tiger in rally circles. “I have sat with him both in a 1400cc car and in a Gypsy now and I think that he is a much better Gypsy driver,” opined Shiva. “We expected the North Indian Rally drivers Sandeep Sharma and Suresh Rana and Sunny Sidhu to be here. Then the competition would have been more fun,” he commented.

    The third and final day of the Sidvin Rally of Karnataka 2008, flagged off at 7 am from the Golden Landmark Resorts on Sunday morning, and did the three special stages in the Malavalli area, 50 km from Mysore, twice in the  reverse direction. All 34 cars started the day and 25 finished the rally in full. Most of the 9 drop-outs suffered mechanical problems, except for the Shanbags who went into the canal. The rally ended around 2 pm having completed 111 kms of competing Special Stage distance, and 308 kms of traversing Transport distance, to total 419 kms of the Sidvin Rally of Karnataka 2008. This was followed by the Champagne showering ceremony at 3.30 pm and the post-event winners Press Conference at 4.15 pm. A glittering prize distribution function awaited at 7 pm that would bring the rally to a close.

    The Prosports-run event, had Sidvin Core Tech as the title sponsor, Golden Landmark Hotels as the hospitality partner and co-sponsor, SLN Properties and Mitsubishi distributors, Hindustan Motors Limited as associate sponsors. Sanjeevini, the NGO, who handles highway accidents with their ambulances, helped out with their trauma ambulances.

    Provisional Unaudited Results:

    Overall: 1. Vikram Mathias / PVS Murthy (Team Red Rooster Racing) (1hour 33min, 5sec); 2. Amittrajit Ghosh /Ashwin Naik (Team Red Rooster Racing) (1:38:36); 3. Shailendra Hedge / Sheraz Ahmed (1::44:19).

    2000 N+ Class: 1. Vikram Mathias /PVS Murthy (Team Red Rooster Racing) (1::33:05);
    2. Amittrajit Ghosh /Ashwin Naik (Team Red Rooster Racing) (1::38:36).

    1600cc class; 1. Arjun Surya /Ravi Venkatesh (1::47:33);

    1400cc class: 1. Samarth KV /Prakhyat Shirole (1::44:55); 2. JM Manju /Jeevarathinam (1::47:19); 3. S Sujay and S M Bharath (1::48:36).

    Rally Star Cup: 1. Shailendra Hedge /Sheraz Ahmed (1::44:19); 2. Vikram Devadasen /Raymond (1:45:41); 3. Byram Godrej /Anjay Kapadia (1::46:51).

    Gypsy Class: 1. Sanjay Agarwal /Shiva Prakash (1::50:30); 2. Dhiraj Doipode /Pramod Raman (2::00:51).