Tanveer halts Rajendra, wins Rally of Chikmagalur

Team Petronas TVS Racing sweeps Overall top-4 places

Former National champion Abdul Wahid Tanveer made the MRF Rally of Chikmagalur, the Round 2 of the MRF Mogrip fmsci National Rally Championship 2023 which was flagged off from 7Heaven Resort on the ChikkamagaluruTarikeri road recently.

Promoted by God Speed and organised by the Motor Sports Club of Chikmagalur with 115 participants in fray, the 60-km Special Stage was as usual, on time-start and finish event. Both the stages passed through the Coffee estates. The first stage named Vasanth Cool was of 8.5-km long and the second, Thippenahalli was 6.5kms. Each stage was run four times.

Tanveer led a top-four finish for the Team Petronas TVS Racing. He had a huge lead of 1min 27sec over defending champion Rajendra RE. Imran Pasha riding in 260cc Group B class managed to finish on the Overall podium in third position with 2min 40sec difference.

Sachin D with a further 16sec behind and missed the podium. Arun T from Hero Motosports in his first season for the team finished fifth with a further difference of 8sec. His teammate Yuva Kumar with a further 7-sec difference came sixth. Nataraj R, now supported by VM Sports Foundation, finished seventh. Sanjay Somashekar, Aman Pawde and Sinan Francis finished in eighth, ninth and tenth positions, respectively.

Super Bike Pro-Expert Group A: Abdul Wahid Tanveer from Mysuru had to wait for over a season to finish on top as his teammate Rajendra RE from Shivamogga was dominant the last season. But here, Tanveer took command over the rally right from the start and managed to have an edge over the reigning National champion in seven of the eight stages. Rajendra reeling under his hand recovery was further penalised with 1min 10sec penalty for two jump starts. With a difference of 1min 27sec Tanveer managed to win the rally.