Coffee Day India Rally Headed To Chikkamagaluru

The Coffee Day India Rally, a three day event which will be started off with Gaurav Gill along with his co-driver Glenn Macneall headlining a combined grid of 50 rally-bred cars. The rally is being organised by the Motorsports Club of Chikkamagaluru and will also be hosting the sixth and the concluding round of the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) along with the fourth round of the MRF FMSCI Indian Rally Championship. There are 10 crews in the international championship and 40 in the national championship. The APRC will cover a total distance of 519 kilometres with 17 special stages, spanning 225.6Km, whereas the national championship cars will cover 305km with 102km of special stages.

The rallies will be kicked off in early morning, on December 3, as the ceremonial start from the town of Chikkamagaluru was already done on Friday, late evening. The rally’s Super Special Stage will start from Amber Valley School grounds on Saturday and will head to the estates of Coffee Day Global. So, be there if you want to witness the action and want to spend a high octane weekend.

The conditions are mostly dry as the area hasn’t experienced rains in a while, which will make it more difficult for the competitors as the track is going to be dusty.  

Ace rally driver Gaurav Gill, who has already sealed the 2016 APRC title with maximum point and wins will aim to register a historic sixth consecutive win this season. Historic because, the win will make him the only driver to have won all the rounds in the championship, which has produced several world champions. 

Commenting on his expectations from the rally, he said: “Though I have already taken the title this year, I still want to finish the season on a high with a win here in my home country in front of my family and friends.” 

The Delhi-based driver will be racing his MRF Skoda Fabia R5 alongside his teammate and German champion Fabian Kreim (co-driver Christian Frank). The latter will be involved in a tight battle for the second spot with Cusco Racing’s Michael Young (co-driver Malcolm Read) in his Subaru Impreza WRX STI. 

Also, adding to the excitement will be the FMSCI Indian Rally Championship, where Team Mahindra’s Amittrajit Ghosh (co-driver Ashwin Naik) will go into a tough fight with Mangaluru’s Arjun Rao Aroor (with his co-driver Satish Rajagopal) who's driving a Volkswagen Polo R2. Reason being, Ghosh is leading the category with only one point, and both have won equal number of rounds previously.

Further down the rally tree is the INRC 2000 class where Karna Kadur (co-pilot Nikhil Pai) holds a lead of just three points over Bikku Babu (co-pilot Milen George). In the FMSCI Cup category, Jacob KJ (co-pilot Manoj Manmohan) is leading comfortably with three previous wins.

Meanwhile, the IRC class will witness PG Abhilash (co-pilot Srikanth Gowda) in his 2-wheel drive Cedia, leading the category. He had won two previous rounds out of three.