Ghosh wins in Nashik as Gill and Musa are crowned Star of Nashik

Team OD Updated: May 07, 2014, 05:00 PM IST

Mahindra Super XUV500

Windmills in the background, a narrow strip of tarmac with valleys on both sides, and a great stillness in the air. Then the large shape of the white and orange SuperXUV blasts through the fog, throwing up a few stones here and there, leaving the hills reverberating with the roar of that loud diesel motor. When the official timings are checked at the end of the first Special Stage on the Saturday, the results show that Gaurav Gill and Musa Sheriff are leading the rally in that very SuperXUV, displaying extremely good form for Mahindra Adventure's Rally team. Good form that they manage to continue all through the rally, ending up the fastest of all cars when the rally comes to a close.

Of course, this is good enough to win them top spot in the SUV category of the Indian National Rally Championship and also ensure they are handed the trophies for the Star of Nashik category. Finishing second in the SUVNRC were Mahindra Adventure's Lohit Urs and Bonny Thomas, who overcame mechanical trouble to finish in that position. The third SuperXUV, piloted by Sunny Siddhu, didn't finish the rally. All in all, it wasn't a bad result for the team in their second ever attempt at the Indian National Rally Championship.

Winning the Nashik Rally, however, was someone who'd managed to win the first round of the championship the South India Rally too. Amittrajit Ghosh and Ashwin Naik took their Mitsubishi Cedia to first place overall in the INRC, proving along the way that the Cedia that has dominated the rallying scene in India for nearly as long as a decade still has plenty of fight left in it. The Cedia, however, wasn't the only one proving a thing or two. Vikram Mathias, back in a rally car after two and a half years, got behind the wheel of a Cedia as well and took to the stages at Nashik. Despite the fact that he wasn't the quickest at the Super Special Stage, Mathias quickly got up to speed in the rally and finished second overall. Finishing third was the resurgent Arjun Rao Aroor (co-driven by Satish Rajagopal) in a Volkswagen Polo. The podium indicated that Aroor's luck, after his previous rather lackluster campaign back in 2011, was finally changing. Indeed, Aroor is hoping to continue this form till the very end of the season too.

The Nashik rally 2013 winners

Of course, another point of interest at the Nashik Rally specifically was the IRC category that features imported cars that are homologated according to the FIA Group N spec, or features foreign drivers piloting Indian cars. There were two entries in this category, one being Sumit Panjabi in a Cedia and the other in the form of Karamjit Singh (co-driven by Jagdev Singh) contesting in a Volkswagen Polo. Given that Karamjit Singh is the Flying Sikh, and given that he's won the Production World Rally Championship in the past, there was simply no stopping him from stamping his authority all over the category. Rally fans will also be glad to know that Singh is very likely to compete in the entire 2013 season of the INRC.

The rally-spec Mitsubishi Cedia