PANAJI: Goa’s ace rally driver and defending champion (INRC 4) Vaibhav Marathe fought back in FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship Round 2 with a second-place finish in Itanagar-Arunachal Pradesh on Sunday.
The 36-year-old Team Yokohama driver was unlucky not to finish in the Round 1 as he suffered from an engine gasket problem in the Rally of Arunachal. Vaibhav, who has Suhan MK from Virajpet as co-driver, put that disappointment behind him and bounced back on the tarmac surface with the first-runnersup position.
Vaibhav, who has kept Goa’s flag flying in the premier national rally circuit and was the Sports Journalists Association of Goa-Geno ‘Best Sportsman of 2019’, is a strong contender to defend his INRC4 category title but needs to make consistent progress with his Honda City in the third round in Coimbatore-Tamil Nadu (Jan 9-10) and the finale in Bengaluru on January 30-31 2021, where the surface is split between gravel and dirt.
