Gaurav Gill, returning to rallying after a year’s break, showed no rustiness as he topped the time sheets in the 49th South India Rally, which commenced at the Madras International Circuit here on Friday.

The three-day event is also the second round of the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship and Round-1 of the FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship.

The 44-year-old Gill, a three-time APRC champion and winner of seven National titles, clocked a combined time of two minutes, 51.5 seconds for the two loops of 1.45 kms dirt Super Special Stage. He piloted a Volkswagen Polo to finish 5.1 seconds ahead of arch-rival Karna Kadur in the APRC segment with Jason Saldanha in third place.

Gill, with the experienced Srikanth Gowda as co-driver for the first time, gave a near-flawless exhibition of pace, precision and car control and looked to be in a good space going into Saturday’s Special Stages.

Arun Y. Mavaji and Arvind Dheerendra topped the INRC 2 and INRC 3 classes, respectively, while Tarushi Vikram was the fastest in the Ladies class and also in the Junior INRC category.

Provisional results (Leg-1, Section-1): Asia-Pacific Rally Championship: 1. Gaurav Gill & Srikanth Gowda (02mins, 51.5secs); 2. Karna Kadur & Kumar Ramaswamy (02:56.6); 3. Jason Saldanha & P.V. Srinivasa Murthy (02:58.3).

Indian National Rally Championship: INRC Overall: 1. Gill & Gowda (02:51.5); 2. Ritesh Rai & Phalguna Raghavendra (02:55.6); 3. Kadur & Ramaswamy (02:56.6)

INRC 2: 1. Arjun Y. Mavaji & Jeevarathinam J. (03:09.5); 2. Ritesh Guttedar & M. Suraj (03:10.3); 3. Rakshith Iyer & Chandrashekar (03:18.2).

INRC 3: 1. Arvind Dheerendra & Shahid Salman (03:01.5); 2. Ashwin Pulagiri & Raghunath Swaminathan (03:01.9); 3. Tarushi Vikram & Athreya Kousgi (03:05.6).

INRC 3T: 1. Vikash Balachandran & Chiranth Jain (02:59.6); 2. K.C. Adith & C.A. Avinash (03:09.7); 3. Sidhartha Santosh & Sawan Sathyanarayan (03:11.9).

Ladies: 1. Tarushi Vikram & Athreya Kousgi (03:05.6); 2. Athira Murali & Arun Chakkalakkal (03:05.9); 3. Shivani Pruthvi & Vinay Padmashali (03:09.4).

Junior INRC: 1. Tarushi & Athreya (03:05.6); 2. Hoshmand Elavia & Venu Ramesh Kumar (03:14.0).

It is a season of hope for the country’s top two drivers, Gaurav Gill and Karna Kadur, as the duo go head-to-head in the 49th South India Rally, which commences here on Friday at the Madras International Circuit.

The event, organised by the Madras Motor Sports Club and which has attracted 35 entries including six female competitors, doubles up as the second round of the FIA Asia-Pacific Rally Championship and the opening round of the FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship.

The entry lists contain two husband-and-wife teams from abroad. Spain’s Edgar Vigo Lopez and Fatima Ameneiro Teijeiro have entered for the APRC, while the Singapore tandem of Raghuvaran Veerappan and Amanda Chew is competing in both APRC and INRC.

Gill, a five-time National champion, will have the experienced Srikanth Gowda as his co-driver, while Kadur teams up with veteran Kumar Ramaswamy representing Arka Motorsports. Both will be piloting the Volkswagen Polo, and have also entered the APRC.

Incidentally, Gill has confirmed for three APRC rounds, two (Indonesia and China) of which will be in a WRC 2-spec Skoda Fabia, while Kadur has not entered the championship, but is doing a one-off round here.

The three-day itinerary starts with a ceremonial flag-off on Friday afternoon, followed by two loops of the 1.45 kms long Super Special Stage. The action shifts to the Special Stages over the following two days while the Rally concludes on Sunday afternoon. In all, the competitors will negotiate 129.32 kms of competitive Special Stages.