Rao, Rajagopal reign supreme

CHIKMAGALUR: Arjun Rao and co-driver Satish Rajagopal took top honours in both INRC overall and 1600cc categories in the Coffee Day Rally, the fifth and final round of the FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship, on Saturday.
Two of the three Special Stages scheduled to be run on Saturday were completed while the third was cancelled after Malaysia's former world champion Karamjit Singh (co-driver Jagdev Singh) crashed his VW Polo R2, blocking the route.
For the Mangalore-Bangalore combination of Rao and Rajagopal, it was touch and go with their Volkswagen Polo as they ran the two stages with a bent steering ball-joint, but survived to win the title in the overall and 1600cc categories.
"We had to drive very carefully due to the bent steering ball-joint which we couldn't repair due to lack of time. We somehow managed to finish the two stages and the third was cancelled after Karamjit crashed.
Of course, I am extremely happy to win both overall and 1600cc titles here. I thank Volkswagen for their support and the MRF tyres (ZM2) that I used were just fantastic. There was no damage to the tyres despite the rough terrain," said the 30-year old Rao, who ended the season second behind the absent Amittrajit Ghosh in the overall championship.