JK Tyre's Gaurav Gill and Aniruddha clinch FIA APRC Asia Rally Cup

Karna Kadur and Nikhil Pai duo suffers casualty in the slushy last stage, lose third place

India's Gaurav Gill supported by JK Tyre along with his new co-driver Aniruddha Rangnekar, clinched the Asia Rally Cup the second qualifying round of the FIA-Asia Pacific Rally Championship which was concurrently run with the 46th South India Rally, the first round of the Blueband Sports FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) organised by MMSC at the Madras International Circuit, that concluded in Irungattukottai on Sunday.

Two of the four Special Stages of the final day were called off following heavy overnight rains which rendered the MIC Track water-logged and virtually unmotorable.

The Delhi-based 41-year-old Gill, who partnered with co-driver Rangnekar for the first time in his career, was in a Subaru Impreza, and pulled all the tricks in his book and dished out a strategic driver that left the Thailand duo of Mana Pornsiricherd and co-driver Thanyaphat Meenil, trail by a mile. The only foreign driver-pair, representing the Toyota Rally Team finished second as they lost a huge lead to Gill on Saturday in the rain-hit Aavisa stage and could not catch up with the three-time APRC winner. Behind them, another Indian pair Amittrajit Ghosh, an ERC winner in his class, and long-time co-driver Ashwin Naik moved up a spot to third when Karna Kadur and Nikhil Pai were forced to retire after stalling in the day's last Stage which was subsequently cancelled.

Intermittent rains were witnessed from the start. The first Super Special Stage (SSS) was totally dry and dusty but rains had a different plan for the second run. It started drizzling once the APRC lineup began their run and as time went on, it was a gradual transition from no dust to slushy track.