Team Herald
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QUEPEM: Veteran rallyist Jagat Nanjappa (co-driver Chetan Changappa) from Coorg climbed up to the numero uno spot on the leader board with 1261 points out of 1700 in the Day 4 at ISUZU RFC India 2018, in Quepem, on Thursday.
Defending RFC India Champion Gurmeet Virdi (co-driver Kirpal Singh Tung) from Chandigarh climbed up two spots to claim the second position with 1199 points. Sanbir Singh Dhaliwal (co-driver Gurpartap Singh Sandhu) from Chandigarh, who was till now at the top of the score board, moved down to the third spot with 1087 points.
Malaysian driver Mervyn Lim (co-driver Alex Tan) and Chow Ujjal Namshum (co-driver Ingpeng Mein) from Arunachal Pradesh were at the fourth and fifth positions at the end of Day 4 with 1064 and 1054 points respectively.
Jagat Nanjappa, who is representing Coorg’s V5 Offroaders, said, “We rolled-down in the first stage that we attempted today and ended up with a DNF. In the second stage, we faced technical issues with the 4WD setting of our vehicle. But then we pushed ourselves a little extra to make up for the lost points. Thankfully, things took a positive turn and the rest of the day went well for us.”
Gurmeet Virdi of Gerrari Offroaders Chandigarh, who has finally claimed a spot in the top three in Season 5 of RFC India, said, “I had some luck riding by my side today as I managed to perform well in most of the Stages. I had zero DNFs and my timings were also good. The strategy ahead would be to complete all the stages and try to be one of the fastest vehicles, if not the fastest.”
RFC India debutant Chow Ujjal Namshum of Arunachal Pradesh’s Team MOCA, who started the competition at the third position but then slid down the ranking order, managed to climb one spot up to make a place for himself in the top 5 at the end of Day 4. He said, “As soon as the day ended yesterday, I knew that I was going to drop ranks. It had a lot to do with the rain-gods as well as my luck. I did all the stages, but I was a little slower.” He added, “The competition still has a couple of more days to go. I have been driving safe and slow till now in order to ensure that I preserve my vehicle till the end. However, I plan to start taking more risks from tomorrow onwards.”
