Karna Kadur takes a slender lead

Karna Kadur leads FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship with Arka Motorsports dominating at South India Rally.

Reigning National champion Karna Kadur of Bengaluru set the early pace and took a slender lead in the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC), promoted by Vamcy Merla, after two loops of the short Super Special Stage which kick-started the Indu Chandhok Memorial 48th South India Rally at the Madras International Circuit, here on Friday.

Kadur, representing Arka Motorsports with veteran Musa Sherif (Kasargod) in the co-driver’s seat, not only topped the chart in the APRC (Asia Cup) segment, but also led the field in the Blueband FMSCI National Rally Championship Round-1, sparing half-a-second to teammate Mangaluru’s Jason Saldanha (co-driver P.V. Srinivasa Murthy of Bengaluru).

Former National champion Amittrajit Ghosh (Ashwin Naik) finished the day in third spot behind Kadur and Saldanha in both APRC and the National championship to complete a 1-2-3 for Arka Motorsports at the end of first day.

Provisional results (winners only, leg-1, section-1): FIA APRC/ Overall: Karna Kadur & Musa Sherif (Arka Motorsports) 2m, 50.9s); INRC 1: Kadur & Sherif; INRC 2: Jason Saldanha & P. V. Srinivasa Murthy (Arka Motorsports) 02:51.4; INRC 3: Seshank Jamwal & Raghu (Pvt.) 02:56.2; INRC 3T (turbo): Jeet Jhabhak & V. Sekar (Pvt.) 03:00.0.

Women: INRC: Anushriya Gulati & Karan Aukta (Arka Motorsports) 03:02.6.

FMSCI Gypsy Challenge: Akash Sundar & Arjun Dheerendra (03:19.7).

FMSCI Classic Challenge: Siddhartha Santhosh & Sawan Satyanarayan (Pvt.) 03:14.8.