Hari Singh leads all

CHENNAI, JULY 11: For all the high expectations following the overnight placings at the end of the first leg, the concluding session of t...

CHENNAI, JULY 11: For all the high expectations following the overnight placings at the end of the first leg, the concluding session of the South India Rally here on Sunday proved to be an in-house contest with JK Tyre sweeping the Overall and Group positions even as Team MRF mulled over the jinx of never having a good result at this event.

As per pre-audit results, last year’s winner Hari Singh and co-driver Gurinder Singh Mann of JK Tyre took Overall and Group `A’ (modified) titles ahead of team-mates from Malaysia, Karamjit Singh and Jagdev Singh following a thrilling fight. Hari, with two stages left, was ahead by just two seconds but turned in two blistering drives in the 17th and 18th stages to clinch the issue.

In many ways, the day belonged to the Yellows who enjoyed one of their best outings in recent times as Manik Raikhy and Ponnuswamy Vivekanandan took the honours in Group `N’ with some breathtaking driving, especially on the treachrous canal stage where one error would be the last.

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Incontrast, for MRF, it was a tale of breakdowns and hard luck stories. Overnight leader, Naren Kumar/Ramkumar, packed up early in the day with mechanical problems and the 1998 Group `N’ National champion Sagar Muthappa and Sandeep Rao followed suit soon after with similar complaints.

Provisional, pre-audit results

OVERALL: Hari Singh/GS Mann (JK Tyre) 1 (1 hour, 46 mins, 51 secs); Karamjit Singh/Jagdev Singh (JK Tyre) 2 (1:47.12); Arjun Balu/KR Kumar (MRF) 3 (1:48.11); Manik Raikhy/P Vivekanandan (JK) 4 (1:49.45); N Leelakrishnan/Farooq Ahmed (MRF) 5 (1:50.33); Vijayant Choudhary/MK Chander (MRF) 6 (1:50.41); Jagat/Anita Nanjappa (MRF) 7 (1:52.15); Navaz Bhathena/Sherin Balachandran (Chettinand Sporting) 8 (1:56.25); Umakanth Alva/Sunil Shetty (Pvt) 9 (2:03.20).

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