PANAJI: With just one kilometre distance to cover in the final stage of the final day of FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship 2021 – ‘Rally of Coimbatore’, INRC4 defending champion Vaibhav Marathe suffered a cruel blow that robbed the Goan motorsport star of victory in the Round 1 on Sunday.
Vaibhav Marathe along with co-driver Dr. Dinesh S (Shimoga) were leading the INRC4 category when in the fourth stage of the day and eighth stage of the ‘Rally of Coimbatore’, their Honda City car suffered an electrical problem that resurfaced on the seccond consecutive day, to hurt the team’s prospect. The setback meant that Vaibhav, who had undoubtedly been the best driver in his category at the opening round of the much-delayed 2021 season, ended with a ‘Did Not Finish’ tag against the privateer’s name.
Having finished in the first place at the end of first four stages, Vaibhav notched up impressive timings – 00:15:49.600, 00:16:28.000 and 00:16:08.400 in SS05, SS06 and SS07 special stages. But calamity struck in the final stage and his team were left on the leader board with no points in their tally in the three-round season. The second round will be staged in Bengaluru from March 11-13 while the season will draw to a close after the third and final round in Chennai from March 25-27.
Meanwhile, Mujeeb Rahaman / Ravindra Kumar, who had finished second behind Vaibhav/Dinesh yesterday; emerged the Round 1 winners. Deepak Chandra / Kenith Harsha finished second while P.Ananth Kumar / G.M. Manjunath came in third.
Meanwhile, Aditya Thakur / Virender Kashyap of INRC3 proved to be the surprise package of the overall competition, taking the top position.
