INDIA in F1

Tag: Ramkumar

  • Naren Kumar wins sixth National title: INRC

    Panaji, Goa, 19 Nov 2006: Defending champion Naren Kumar of Coimbatore proved to be a tough nut to crack for his rivals winning Rallye de Goa to clinch his sixth National Championship here on Sunday. The MRF driver with trusted navigator Ramkumar comfortably won the WIAA Rallye De Goa 2006, the final round of the Motorsports Association of India’s (MAI) Indian National Rally Championship (INRC).

    Enjoying an overnight lead of 1 minute and 20 seconds over third-placed Karandeep Singh and Jaidas Menon, also of Team MRF, Naren followed a cautious approach to keep himself in the fray without pushing his machine too much and finished the eight special stages clocking 1hour, 11min, 24sec, a lead of 11 seconds over teammate Gaurav Gill and co-driver Farooq Ahmed (1:11.35).

    Another Team MRF’s driver Lohit Urs finished overall third in 1:13.04 while Karandeep Singh was fourth in 1:13.26.

    It was Girijashankar Joshy who won the 1400 cc category, riding high his big overnight lead and in the process bagged the National Championship in this category with Goa proving to be a good hunting ground.

    The Rally Star Cup was won by Rajesh Gadakh and co-driver Paritosh Kohok and they too bagged the National Championship in this class.

    Naren Kumar took his points’ tally to 45, thus clinching the National title once again. A visibly- pleased Naren said: “I am very happy to win this title. It is an incredible feeling to win the sixth title and I enjoyed this year’s campaign throughout as there were too many ups and downs and I am very satisfied with my win.”

    The champion was queried about his strategy going into the race. “I had to finish ahead of Karandeep in both the legs and hoped somebody would settle between me and him. That happened yesterday, after which it was a no contest,” Naren concluded.

    Provisional results:

    Overall: 1. Naren Kumar and D Ramkumar (Team JK Tyre, Cedia) 1:11.24; 2. Gaurav Gill and Farooq Ahmed (Team JK Tyre, Cedia) 1:11.35, 3. Lohit Urs and Musa Sherief (Team MRF, Baleno);

    1600 cc: 1. Lohit Urs and Musa Sherief (Team MRF, Baleno) 1:13.04; 2. Karandeep Singh and Jaidas Menon (Team MRF, Baleno) 1:13.26, 3.Arjun Balu and Kumar Ramaswamy (Team MRF, Fiesta) 1: 14.23.

    1400cc: 1. Girijashankar Joshy and Srikanth GM (Esteem) 1:15.26, 2. Shreshta Patil and Ramesh Kumar (Esteem) 1:19.55, 3.Domnic Prithvi and Chandrashekar M (Esteem) 1: 24.06.

    Rally Star Cup: 1. Rajesh Gadakh and Parithosh Kohok (Esteem) 1:19.11, 2. Abhijeet Pai and Prajval Pai (Esteem) 1:20.25, 3. Thirtha Patil and Jeevarathinam (Esteem) 1: 21.09.

    Gypsy Cup: 1. Suresh Rana and HS Bawa 1:22.54, 2. Khushwant Randhawa and Amandeep 1:24.34, 3. Suchi Thakur and Zuzer Rangwala 1:32.20.

  • Naren Kumar- Ramkumar win Bosch 31st K1000 Rally

    Bangalore, 14 Aug 2005: Four-time National champion Naren Kumar with talented navigator Ramkumar conquered the Mico Bosch 31st K1000 Rally, the 3rd round of the Indian National Rally Championship (INRC), which concluded here on Sunday.

    The duo now under the colours of Team JK Tyre stole the thunder once again leaving behind the disappointment of a disqualification in the previous Mysore round and proved their talent to take the overall top honours. The JK Team’s reentry into the national rally scene after a gap of over five years has rekindled considerable excitement bringing back the memories of big fights with the Reds in the late nineties.

    After trailing overnight by 13 seconds, Naren Kumar stepped up the gas going all out in aggressive fashion to overtake overnight leaders Karandeep Singh and Jaidas Menon of MRF, and won the rally with a comfotable margin of 17 seconds.

    (Results not available)

  • Team MRF’s Naren-Ram win second successive rally

    Nashik, 7 July 2002: Ace Coimbatore pair, VR Naren Kumar and co-driver D Ramkumar representing Team MRF notched up a facile win in the WIAA Taj Rally 2002, the second round of the MAI Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) here on Sunday. The 2000 champions have now back-toback wins following their triumph in the season opener at home in March.

    Organised by Western India Automobile Association (WIAA) under the aegis of National Federation, the Motorsports Association of India, the two-day rally favourites Naren and Ram clinch the issue once again to top the table in the National Championship.

    After taking a narrow two seconds lead overnight, the duo were expecting a tough fightback kfrom talented team-mates Arjun Balu and co-driver BS Sujith Kumar and raised the tempo despite the rains that made the stages slippery. In the process, Naren, increased the lead to a comfortable level in the very first stage and then eased off.

    “We decided to go flat out and opened a gap on Arjun with over 20 seconds lead. Then we eased off and nurtured the car to win the event”, said an elated Naren Kumar. However, he said any talk about the championship are `premature’ right now. “But two wins in the bag, is good to start,” the two-time National champion concluded.

    The current Asian Zone champions, Naren and Ram took part in the Asia Pacific Rally Championship also and have driven two rallys at Canberra and New Zealand and are expected to run two more rallies in Asia.

    Team MRF’s Karandip Singh with Bangalore navigator Jaidas Menon finished Overall third followed by National champion N Leelakrishnan and co-driver Farooq Ahmed in Overall fourth.

    Soharab Zorabian and co-driver Rio Kapadia won the Rally Star Cup category while Parvinder Saundh and co-driver Paritosh Kohok came second with Tirtha Patil and co-driver Ashwin Naik taking the third spot.

    Soharab who finished ahead of the more powerful 1400 cc cars, on Saturday, had a lead of 13 seconds over Parvinder Saundh (the only entrant from Nashik), and he managed a 31 seconds

    lead in the first stage on Sunday and three seconds in the second stage. Parvinder managed to gain a second in the last stage, and finished second in this category with co-driver (ex two-wheeler navigator National champion) Paritosh Kohok. Tirhta Patil (co-driver Ashwin Naik) finished third in the class.

    Jiby Maliakkal and co-driver Rohan Rego the reigning Rally Star Cup champions found the going very comfortable with Abhilash out of the reckoning and romped home with a huge lead, winning the 1400cc category. Jiby and Rohan finished a creditable Overall fifth also. Abhilash and co-driver Sangeeth Kumar came second with N Jayakumar and co-driver G Satish taking the third place in the 1400cc class.

    All drop-outs of the first leg except Ram Prashanth started today’s leg and finished the Leg. And twelve of the total 15 starters finished the rally in full.

    Final provisional results:

    Overall & 1600 cc: 1. VR Naren Kumar /D Ramkumar (Team MRF) (1hour, 18min, 42sec); 2. Arjun Balu /BS Sujith Kumar (Team MRF) (1:19:09); 3. Karandip Singh /Jaidas Menon (Team MRF) (1:20:21); 4. N Leelakrishnan /Farooq Ahmed (Team MRF) (1:19:35).

    1400cc class: 1. Jiby Maliakkal /Rohan Rego (1:28:54); 2. PG Abhilash /Sangeeth Kumar (1:34:30); 3. N Jayakumar /G Satish (1:34:50).

    Rally Star Cup: 1. Soharab Zorabian /Rio Kapadia (1:25:44); 2. Parvinder Saundh /Paritosh Kohok (1:26:31); 3. Tirtha Patil /Ashwin Naik (1:27:51); 4. N Arun Rahul /Harsha Thaminar (1:31:19); 5. Karthikeyan R /SB Rajkumar (1:31:20).

  • Naren Kumar, Ramkumar begin season with a win; Reds sweep top-six spots

    Coimbatore, 31 March 2002: Strong contenders and local stars VR Naren Kumar and navigator D Ramkumar of Team MRF led a sweep of all the top-six places by the `Reds’, topping the stage times on the outskirts of the city, in the Servo Mill & Monsoon Rally, 2002, the opening round of the Motorsports Association of India’s (MAI) Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) here on Sunday.

    Naren and Ram, the defending Asian Zone Rally Champions, had an overnight lead of 12 seconds over teammates Sagar Muthappa and Sandeep S Rao from Bangalore. But the narrow lead proved to be too short as Sagar attacked the stages right from the word `go’ and in the very first stages not only made up the 12 seconds, but managed to take a lead of 40 seconds and to add to the complications for Naren, his Honda City suffered technical problems. But Naren carefully guarded his second place till then. And after the Service break after Stage 2, took care of the struts, Naren and Ram, had no other way but go all-out to bridge the gap, if had to eye a victory. “We were a bit worried but judging the pace of others, we decided to attack and go all-out. The struts were worrying us, but after the Service stop, we took off,” said Naren.

    In the last three stages, Naren was fastest and garnered enough time on Muthappa and by the end of the five stages of the day, he not only bridged the gap but took a minute and four seconds lead.

    “We had something loose at the rear and the car was not handling well. By the time we could set it, we lost time to Naren. But it is still a good beginning for the season and we hope for a good year,” said Muthappa.

    Team MRF’s Karandip Singh and co-driver Jaidas Menon took the third place on the podium, a further 56 seconds behind Muthapopa. Former multiple-National champions N Leelakrishnan and co-driver Farooq Ahmed came fourth behind Karandip.

    Talented Karnataka duo of Vikram Mathias and BS Sujith Kumar were Overall fifth clocking 2hours, 16min and 37seconds, but importantly they won their class, the 1400cc category. Vijyant Chaudhry and Moosa Sherif finished 6th overall.

    “We were pushing hard to see whether we can match the 1600cc machines but gave up mid-way as we were keen not to win our class and avoid problems to the car,” said Mathias. They comfortably beat the Kerala duo of PG Abhilash and Sangeet Kumar, who were supported jontly by JK Tyres, Maruti Motorsport and Chettinad Sport.

    But it was the day Team Chettinad, as their pair of Jiby Maliakkal and Rohan Rego, the Rally Star Cup champions last year, bounced back after an incident in Stage 3 where thier car turned turtle, and with a stunning effort they took the final place on the podium in the 1400cc class.

    It was Q-Wait Oil’s Kerala duo of Dr Bikku Babu and Bonnie Thomas, who built on their Saturday’s lead and won the Rally Star Cup nurturing their car mixing caution with aggression. “We did have pressure yesterday, but today we went for a win making sure to bring the car home,” said Bikku Babu.

    Shamsundar V and PV Srinivasa Murthy of Team Blue Lines, who were sixth overnight in their class took the third place despite two punctures and rued missed chances of taking the second. But others were not so lucky. The Rally Star Cup, overnight leaders Lohitt V Urs and Bopanna MK pulled out due to technical problems and others to follow suit were Phillipos Matthai and Bhopesh Gadotra, who had suspension issues, and Arjun Rao Aroor and Dunstan JM D’Silva who could not finish due to mechanical problems.

    Of the 19 cars that started on Sunday, only 16 finished the rally. The second round will be at Nashik on June 15 & 16.

    Provisional results:

    Overall and Upto 1600cc: 1. VR Naren Kumar /D Ramkumar (Team MRF) (2hours, 13min, 13sec); 2. Sagar Muthappa /Sandeep S Rao (Team MRF) (2:14:17); 3. Karandip Singh /Jaidas Menon (Team MRF) (2:15:13); 4. N Leelakrishnan /Farooq Ahmed (Team MRF) (2:16:15).

    Upto 1400cc: 1. Vikram Mathias /BS Sujith Kumar (Team MRF) (2:16:37); 2. PG Abhilash / Sangeet Kumar (Team JK, Maruti, Chettinad) (2:21:43); 3. Jiby Maliakkal /Rohan Rego (Team Chettinad Sporting) (2:26:17); 4. Along Aier and Vikishe Shome (pvt) (2:30:09).

    Rally Star Cup: 1. Dr Bikku Babu /Bonnie Thomas (Team Q-Wait Oil) (2:27:12); 2. Manju JM/ Sudharshan Gowda M (pvt) (2:30:52); 3. Shamsundar V/ PV Srinivasa Murthy (Team Blue Lines) (2:33:11); 4. Thirtha S Patil /Lohit Anand (pvt) (2:34:37).

  • Naren-Ram conquer Old Anchor Rally de Goa

    Goa, 9 Sept 2001: Defending champions VR Naren Kumar and co-driver D Ramkumar kept their overnight lead in tact and continued their good run to take the Overall honours in the Old Anchor Rally de Goa, the fifth leg of the Motorsports Association of India (MAI)’s Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) here on Sunday.

    Ace Coimbatore duo, who were leading by 13 seconds ahead of teammates Sagar Muthappa and Sandeep S Rao on Saturday while another MRF outfit Karandip Singh and co-driver Jaidas Menon, who won the K-1000 rally in the previous round in Bangalore were trailing in the third place. However, on Sunday while Sagar Muthappa and Sandeep Rao retained their second place on the podium Leelakrishnan and Farooq Ahmed, who were trailing in the fifth place on Saturday, made up quite some time and finished a creditable third notching up valuable championship points and retained their lead in the National Championship with 41 points.

    With Vikram Mathias and co-driver Sujith Kumar, who finished fourth today, running second on the National table with 32 points in the overall class, Leela and Farooq are well on their way to another National title with only three rallies remaining. Mathias and Sujith, however, were leading their class in the 1400cc Championship table with 58 points with husband-wife duo Jagat and Anita Nanjappa breathing down their neck with 51 points.

    Favourites Leela and Farooq, to their shock, found that their rear shock-absorbers were mounted wrongly after a service break and that cost them time as they were penalised 20 seconds for two minutes Service Park delay on Saturday.

    On Sunday, K1000 winners Karandip and Jaidas lost the front wheel of their Baleno and could not keep their Overall third position and slipped to fifth place in their class, the 1600cc. Another MRF outfit, Vijaynt Chowdhry with Musa Sherif as navigator pulled out after an off-road excursion with a suspension problem.

    The Rally Star Cup was won by Jiby Maliakkal and navigator Rohan Rego who took a comfortable lead of over one minute against Ashish P Doshi and co-driver Bhavin Shah on Saturday itself. On Sunday, they increased the lead for a facile win which perched them on top of the leader board in the Rally Cup Championship standings with 59 points. The Mysore-Coorg combo of Lohith Urs and MK Bopanna who were running third in the class on Saturday retained their podium place after running three more stages on Sunday, with the last two conducted in the reverse direction.

    The rally had a transport section of 70-km to Neturlim before the 30-km first Special Stage was run at Padi. The second Special Stage was a shorter one 12.5km long and was run between Padi and Barcem. After a service break, the same stage was run as SS3. The parc ferme was at the Old Anchor Resort, the sponsor.

    Provisional Results:

    Overall: 1. VR Naren Kumar/ D Ramkumar (Team MRF) (1hour, 13minutes, 08seconds); 2. Sagar Muthappa/ Sandeep S Rao (Team MRF) (1:14:07); 3. N Leelakrishnan/ Farooq Ahmed (Team MRF) (1:16:04); 4. Vikram Mathias/ BS Sujith Kumar (Team MRF) (1:16:47); 5. Arjun Balu/ K Ramaswamy Kumar (Team MRF) (1:17:13).

    1401 to 1600cc Class: 1. VR Naren Kumar/ D Ramkumar (Team MRF) (1:13:08); 2. Sagar Muthappa/ Sandeep S Rao (Team MRF) (1:14:07); 3. N Leelakrishnan/ Farooq Ahmed (Team MRF) (1:16:04); 4. Arjun Balu/ K Ramaswamy Kumar (Team MRF) (1:17:13); 5. Karandip Singh/ Jaidas Menon (Team MRF) (1:22:23).

    801 to 1400cc Class: 1. Vikram Mathias/ BS Sujith Kumar (Team MRF) (1:16:47); 2. Jagat Nanjappa/ Anita Nanjappa (Team MRF) (1:17:34); 3. Philippos Matthai/ Sudarshan Gowda (1:21:51).

    Rally Star Cup: 1. Jiby Maliakkal/ Rohan Rego (1:22:49); 2. Ashish P Doshi/ Bhavin J Shah (1:25:06); 3. Lohith V Urs/ MK Bopanna (1:26:26); 4. JM Manju/ K Prasad (1:28:14); 5. NK Ramesh/ Ashok Ponnappa (1:29:55); 6. Zubin P Nariman and Mazdyar Vatcha (1:31:06); 7. Thirtha S Patil/ Amit Anand (1:31:11).

  • Naren-Ram win Asia Zone; Leela-Farooq clinch INRC Overall win

    Coimbatore, 1 April 2001: Double National champion Naren Kumar and co-driver D Ramkumar of Team MRF won the Asia Zone round this time around while multiple former champion and N Leelakrishnan and co-driver Farooq Ahmed, also of Team MRF, won the Overall honours in the opening round of Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) in the Servo Mill and Monsoon rally, which ran simultaneously with the Asia Zone round, here on Sunday.

    Once again the rally saw stiff rivalry between Karamjit Singh of Malaysia and Naren Kumar, but it was the Indian who came out trumps this time driving his Honda Civic to victory displaying his skills while Karamjit in his Proton Satria with Jagdev Singh as co-driver, had to settle for a second for JK Tyre, after running 432 km of rally distance where the special stages consisted of 146.2km. There were 10 gravel Special Stages run in the Servo Mill and Monsoon Rally under the aegis of Motorsports Association of India (MAI).

    Naren, had a comfortable lead of over 80 seconds and another Indian pair of Hari Singh and GS Mann, came third after their problems in the second leg ruined chances of any better performance.

    MRF’s Naren and co-driver Ram Kumar, had a 16-second lead overnight, Naren gained another 15 seconds on the very first stage on Sunday to take the sting out of the competition and thereafter, managed a steady pace. He did ease off in the rough second stage to preserve the car and despite losing the lead he made in the first stage he managed to keep the lead with an aggressive drive in the third stage, to win the rally.

    Hari Singh and GS Mann, the reigning champions from Chandigarh, suffered flat tyres twice in two different stages and lost time. They had to be content with a third place as changing tyres put them completely out of a rally win.

    In the National Championship class of 1600cc, it was N Leelakrishnan, five-time former national champion, who stole the limelight. While Team MRF’s, husband and wife pair of Jagat and Anita Nanjappa won the 1400cc title, Lohitt V Urs and co-driver MK Bopanna lifted the Rally Star Cup. Jagat Nanjappa, a legend in two-wheeler racing with 9 National riders’ titles, overcame a young field of drivers to win his maiden title in a four-wheeler class.

    Provisional Final placings:

    Asia Zone: 1. Naren Kumar /Ram Kumar (India, MRF); 2. Karamjit Singh /Jagdev Singh (Malaysia, J K Tyre); 3. Hari Singh / Gurinder Singh (India).

    National Rally championship: 1600cc: 1. N Leelakrishnan /Farooq Ahmed (Team MRF).

    1400cc Class: 1. Jagat /Anita Nanjappa (Team MRF).

    Rally Star Cup: 1. Lohit Urs /MK Bopanna.