Philippos Matthai, of Team Speedsport, claimed a stunning victory in the INRC2 class and finished ahead of many higher-spec cars in the Rally of Coimbatore, the third round of the Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) 2023 for four-wheelers.
Matthai finished Overall second, even as Aroor Arjun Rao continued his winning spree in the top Overall class, annexing the Rally of Coimbatore, which concluded here at the Kethanur Windmill farms on Sunday.
Team Mandovi Racing’s Aroor Arjun Rao with co-driver Satish Rajagopal put in a consistent performance to notch up his third Overall victory in as many rounds and retained his Championship lead while Philippos Matthai and co-driver PV Srinivasa Murthy, in a Volkswagen Polo prepared by Leelakrishnan of Arka Motorsports, powered to the top of the podium winning INRC2 and beat all the other top-spec INRC cars except that of Arjun Rao in the Overall standings.
In the last round in Arunachal Pradesh, Philippos finished second in INRC2 and came Overall 5th after a forgettable first round in the South India Rally where he was forced to pull out within 2 km of the finish due to mechanical problems while leading second Overall.
“With a calculated strategy we garnered as many points as possible in the previous two rallies and our consistent and steady performance helped as we are back on the top in our class. I am very happy and with three more rallies to go, our target is to win the championship,” the 39-year four-time National champion in different motorsports disciplines said.
A lawyer by education and car-builder and rally driver by passion, Philippos is remembered for driving the medical chase car at the F1 Grands Prix races held at Buddh International Circuit in 2012 and 2013.
Talented Chandigarh driver Jahaan Singh Gill (SK Prasad) won the INRC3 class while Ruthuparna Vivek (A. Kousgi) claimed the INRC4 category.
Provisional unaudited Results:
Overall: 1. Aroor Arjun Rao, Mangaluru/Satish Rajagopal, Bengaluru (Mandovi Racing) 1:53:48.4; 2. Philippos Matthai, Delhi/PVS Murthy, Bengaluru (Arka Motorsports) 1: 54:20.0; 3. Amittrajit Ghosh, Kolkata/Ashwin Naik, Mangaluru (Arka Motorsports) 1:54:31.1;
INRC: 1. Aroor Arjun Rao/Satish Rajagopal, 1:53:48.4; 2. Amittrajit Ghosh/Ashwin Naik 1:54:31.1. 3. Rahul Kanthraj/Vivek Y Bhatt 1:55:39.1;
INRC2: 1. Philippos Matthai/PVS Murthy 1: 54:20.0; 2. Fabid Ahmer/Sanath G 1:54:37.7; 3. Dr Bikku Babu/Milen George 1:55.00.3;
INRC3: 1. Jahan Singh Gill/Suraj Keshav Prasad 1:55:37.6; 2. Jason Saldanha/Thimmu Uddapanda, 1:55:45.3; 3. Daraious Shroff/Shahid Salman 1:57:04.5.
INRC4: 1. Ruthuparna Vivek/Athreya Kousgi 2: 03:10.5; 2. Shirole H Prakhyat/Bharath SM 2:06:32.6; 3. Prajwal HM/Vinay SM 2:12:40.6.
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