Nashik: Unpredicted rain put drivers including experienced JK Tyre-sponsored Karamjit Singh in a fix and lined up an interesting finish in the INRC (Round- 2) Rally of Maharashtra 2013, Nashik on Sunday.
After six stages on Saturday, the Malaysian champion did well to climb up the ladder and stay saddled in No 2 position. The final day on the morrow has three stages lined up.
Malaysian champion Karamjit (co-driver Jagdev Singh) trailed Gaurav Gill by 1 minute and 13 seconds after posting 59 minutes 19.0 seconds for the seven stages, including the (Super Special Stage) that was run in and around Dadasaheb Phalke Smarak on Friday.
“It was a difficult day today. The car is extremely good and much better than Proton I drive back home. But rain made it extremely difficult in the Beta stage as we had wrong tyres on the car as weather forecast was dry, but conditions changed suddenly after the stage began.
Karamjit was the third driver to start the stage behind Amrittrajit Ghosh and Gaurav Gill and that stage proved to be vital in slippery conditions with water flowing on the tarmac and making it difficult for all drivers.
Four cars went out of competition on this stage and in total nine cars crashed during the day, including that of Adithya S and navigator Prithviraj AC whose VW Polo went down the cliff five feet on a plateau. There was a 30-40 feet valley but Adithya controlled the Polo and survived a possible major crash.
Karamjit too had some scary moments in his VW Polo, but the former Production Car World Champion used his all experience to get through to the tricky conditions in one piece.
“It was scary at some points. I had 2-3 near misses in the rain. I just decided to complete the stage without much damage and I guess I managed to do that,” said Karamjit.
“I hope Sunday will be a different day and we will be able to complete the three stages in dry conditions,” he added.
RESULTS (After Day 2)
OVEARALL: 1- Gaurav Gill (58 minutes 6 seconds); 2- Karamjit Singh (59 min 18s); 3- Amit Rajit Ghosh (1 hour 1s)
INRC OVERALL: 1- Amit Rajit Ghosh (1hr 1s); 2- Arjun Rao Arur (1 hr 10s); 3- Vikram Mathias (1 hr 20s).