INDIA in F1

Tag: Ram Kumar

  • Naren Kumar, Ram Kumar duo put Red Rooster on top in home town

    By David Bodapati

    Coimbatore, 8 August 2010: Veteran war-horse and local pride Naren Kumar of Red Rooster Racing clinched the Speed Rally of Coimbatore, the second round of the Speed Indian National Rally Championship after he thrilled the spectators at the Super Special Stage with controlled aggression at the Ganga Naidu Charities Trust ground here on Sunday.

    With Ram Kumar navigating in the Mitsubishi Lancer Cedia, the Coimbatore duo turned the tide for Red Rooster Racing with a facile win. Teammates Vikram Mathias and co-driver PV Srinivas Murthy finishing second, ahead of Team MRF’s Arjun Balu (Sujith Kumar BS). However, it was Team MRF’s Lohit Urs (Srikanth Gowda) who stole the limelight in the two-lap 1.3km Super Special Stage (SSS), the last special stage with a timing of 1 min 53 secs while defending national champion Gaurav Gill stalled his Cedia in the second lap but not before the few hundreds had a taste of his stunning drifts on the first lap. Gill crashed out in the first leg on Saturay but came back today gunning for the leg points in vain.

    Team Ovion Racing’s Sujay Suresh and co-driver Bharath SM in a Mitsubishi Lancer Cedia won the 2000cc N category while the other Ovion team Girija Shankar Joshy  and co-drier Chandramouli suffered bad luck with a flat tyre twice in the day. Vikram Devadasan (Shivaprakash) finished second ahead of Chethan Shivaram and Roopesh Kholay, who took advantage of mechanical problems faced by Sirish Chandran (Nikhil V Pai) of Overdrive.

    In 1600cc N category, Shailendar Hegde (Sheraz Ahmed) brought home their Maruthi Baleno for a victory over the Kerala pair of Vishal GA and Robinson R George. The other team from Kochi, Ranjith Gopinath and Dileep R came third.

    Dr Bikku Babu and co-driver Bonnie Thomas won the 1400cc class while Phalguna Urs (Anoop Kumar) took home the Rally Star Cup. The Army Adventure Club duo of Maj Amrinder Brar and Himanshu Pareek pushed back Shakti Bajaj (Dharmesh Singh) to the second place and won the Gypsy class comfortably.

    Provisional un-audited Classification:

    Overall: 1. Naren Kumar / Co-driver Ram Kumar, Red Rooster Racing, 1:35:58.3; 2. Vikram Mathias / PV Srinivasa Murthy, Red Rooster Racing, 1:36:32.7; 3. Arjun Balu/ Sujit Kumar BS, Team MRF, 1:39:27.4;

    Group 2000cc N+: 1. Naren Kumar / Co-driver Ram Kumar, Red Rooster Racing, 1:35:58.3; 2. Vikram Mathias / PV Srinivasa Murthy, Red Rooster Racing, 1:36:32.7; 3. Arjun Balu/ Sujit Kumar BS, Team MRF, 1:39:27.4;

    Group 2000cc N: 1. Sujay Suresh / Bharath SM, Ovion Racing, 1: 46: 53.9 ; 2. Vikram Devadasen/ Shivaprakash E, privateers (pvt), 1:51: 21.5; 3. Chethan Shivaram/ Roopesh Kholay, 1: 54: 47.2;

    Group 1600cc N: 1. Shailendar Hegde/ Sheraz Ahmed, pvt, 1: 52:32.7;

    2. Vishal GA/ Robinson R George, pvt, 1: 52: 55.9; 3. Ranjith Gopinath/ Dileep R, pvt, 1: 54: 55.7;

    Group 1400cc N: 1. Dr Bikku Babu/ Bonnie Thomas, pvt-Kerala, 1: 49:59.0; 2. Byram Godrej/ Anjay Kapadia, pvt, 1: 50: 18.6; 3. Monish L /Jeevarathinam J, 1:58:43.9;

    Group Rally Star Cup (RSC): 1. Phalguna Urs/ Anoop Kumar, pvt, 1: 52:25.1; 2. Harikesav N/Ashvin Nadig, pvt, 1: 53:38.3; 3. Venkatapathy MR/ Santtosh Kumar S, 1: 55:16.9; 

    Group Gypsy: 1. Maj Amarinder S Brar/ Himanshu Pareek, pvt – Army Adventure Wing
    1: 53:34.6; 2. Shakti Bajaj/ Dharmesh Singh, pvt- Army AW, 1: 56: 22.2; 3. Harpreet Singh Sidhu/ Sanjay B Gokhale, 1: 56: 54.5.

  • Leela-Farooq pip Naren-Ram by a second to win Orange Monsoon Rally

    Mumbai, 10 July 2001: Multiple champion N Leelakrishnan of Team MRF with his trusted navigator Farooq Ahmed calling the pace notes managed to eke out a stunning win with just a second to spare from teammates Naren Kumar and co-driver Ramkumar in the Orange Monsoon Rally, the third round of the Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) which concluded at the Regent Hotel here on Sunday.

    Leela managed a short lead of nine seconds by the end of Saturday in the first leg but Naren appeared to lose as he began the reverse leg from Mumbai to Nashik and lost another 8 seconds in the second stage of Leg 2. But not to give in so easily, the defending champion pulled out all the tricks and managed a 39-second lead in one stage, the second of the day to take the lead. But alas, he fell short by a second in the end in a thrilling finish to the rally as Leela, who hit a dog earlier, did a stunning run in the last stage covering the 18.03km of the stage in 14 minutes 14 seconds to Naren’s 14 minutes 37 seconds that clinched the issue.

    Vikram Mathias and co-driver Sujit Kumar kept the wife-and-husband team of Jagat and Anita Nanjappa at bay take the third place on the podium. Both are in MRF colours. However, Jagat and Anita, were ahead of another MRF team, Vijayant Choudhary with Musa Sherif as co-driver.

    In the Rally Star Cup, Kerala driver Jiby Maliakkal teamed up with Rohan Rego for Chettinad Sporting to win the class by nine seconds beating privateers Sorab Zorabian and Rayomard Kapadia to second place.

    Provisional Final Results:

    Overall: 1. N Leelakrishnan/Farooq Ahmed (Team MRF) (1hr, 33min 38sec); 2. Naren Kumar/ Ramkumar (Team MRF) (1:33.39); 3. Vikram Mathais/Sujit Kumar (Team MRF) (1:36.01); 4. Jagat Nanjappa/Anita Nanjappa (Team MRF) (1:36.30); 5. Vijayant Choudhary/Musa Sherif (Team MRF) (1:37.25); 6. Karandip Singh/ Jaidas Menon (Team MRF) (1:39:15).

    1401 to 1600cc Class: 1. N Leelakrishnan/Farooq Ahmed (Team MRF) (1:33.38); 2. Naren Kumar/ Ramkumar (Team MRF) (1:33.39); 3. Vijayant Choudhary/Musa Sherif (Team MRF) (1:37. 25);

    801cc to 1400cc Class: 1. Vikram Mathais/Sujit Kumar (Team MRF) (1:36.01); 2. Jagat Nanjappa/Anita Nanjappa (Team MRF) (1:36.30);

    Rally Star Cup: 1. Jiby Malaikkal/Rohan Rego (Chettinad Sporting) (1:40:28); 2. Sorab Zorabian/Rayomard Kapadia (privateer) (1:40:37); 3. Parvinder Sigh Saundh/ Paritosh Kohok (1:44.50); 4. V Shyamsunder/ PV Srinivas Murthy (1:45:11); 5. Anil Kumar KM/ K Amith Kumar (1:45:52); 6. Ashish Doshi/Bhavin Shah (privateer) 1:47:21.

    Editor’s Note: The report is manually migrated to support to the `INRC Winners: Hall of Fame’ article in April 2020 from archives.