Coimbatore, September 20, 2026: Dean Macarenhas and Gagan Karumbaiah turned a deficit of just over nine seconds into victory at the Blueband Sports Rally of Coimbatore, Round 2 of the FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) 2026. They finished 23.482 seconds ahead of Karna Kadur and Musa Sherif.
Jason Saldanha and Srinivas Murthy P V completed the podium, 1:30.623 behind the winners. Kadur, Sherif, Saldanha and Murthy all drive for ARKA Motorsports. The rally was held on 19 and 20 September and had 64 cars and 128 competitors on the entry list, as reported in our Round 2 preview.
Eight stage runs on gravel
The crews faced eight stage runs and 110.80 km of competitive distance, almost entirely on gravel. Saturday’s loop had Black Thunder (13.50 km) and S.M. Agro (14.20 km), each run twice. On Sunday the same roads came back in reverse as S.M. Agro (R) and Black Thunder (R).
Kadur, a former National champion, ended Saturday at the head of the field. Fabid Ahmer and Milen George were 5.6 seconds behind him. Macarenhas and Karumbaiah were third, just over nine seconds adrift.
Macarenhas takes over on Sunday
On S.M. Agro (R), Macarenhas took nearly nine seconds from Kadur and moved past Ahmer. The gap to the leader came down to 0.148 seconds. On Black Thunder (R) he took more than 14 seconds in a single run. He crossed the line in 1:36:19.777, and Kadur was second in 1:36:43.259.
Macarenhas said: “Karna and Musa set a really strong pace on Saturday, so we knew we had to stay patient and keep chipping away. Being nine seconds down overnight wasn’t a bad place to be, because there was a lot of road left. On Sunday we found our rhythm, and once we got going on Black Thunder (R) we just kept pushing. It was a proper fight with a great competitor, and I’m delighted to take the win in Round 2.”
Co-driver Karumbaiah added: “Pace notes were everything this weekend, especially on Sunday when the gaps were so small. Dean trusted every call, and that made all the difference. Beating a crew as experienced as Karna and Musa is never easy, and we’re looking forward to the rest of the championship.”
Naveen Puligilla and Santhosh Thomas of Duran Racing were fourth. Aditya Thakur of Chettinad Sporting and Philiposs Matthai of Duran Racing followed, as the top two in INRC 2. Harkrishan Wadia was seventh, and Anushriya Gulati of ARKA Motorsports, the INRC 3T winner, was eighth.
Class results
| Class | Winners | Second | Third |
|---|---|---|---|
| INRC | Dean Macarenhas / Gagan Karumbaiah (1:36:19.777) | Karna Kadur / Musa Sherif (ARKA Motorsports), 23.482 seconds behind | Jason Saldanha / Srinivas Murthy P V (ARKA Motorsports) |
| INRC 2 | Aditya Thakur / Virendar Kashyap, Chettinad Sporting (1:38:27.655) | Philiposs Matthai / Harish K N (Duran Racing), 35.241 seconds behind | Ritesh M. Guttedar / Suraj M (AART Motorsport) |
| INRC 3T | Anushriya Gulati / Karan Aukta, ARKA Motorsports (1:39:23.810) | Arjun Rajiv / Chandra Mouli (Chettinad Sporting), 1:10.487 behind | Adith K C / Avinash C A (ARKA Motorsports) |
| INRC 3 | Venunath V / Sanath G, Chettinad Sporting (1:40:36.798) | Abishek Gowda T C / Mahesh Nandi (ARKA Motorsports), 50.606 seconds behind | Jenu Johnson / Lenin Joseph (AART Motorsport) |
| JINRC | Tarushi Vikram / Athreya Kousgi, Chettinad Sporting (1:42:25.254) | Hoshmand Elavia / Venu Rameshkumar V (R-Tech Motorsports) | |
| INRC Women | Tarushi Vikram / Athreya Kousgi, Chettinad Sporting | Shivani Pruthvi / Vinay Manjunath (R-Tech Motorsports), 0.207 seconds behind | Phoebe Dale / Shahid Salman (Chettinad Sporting) |
| FMSCI Gypsy Challenge | Chetan Chengappa / Sujith Chengappa (1:48:13.310) | Sanjay Agarwal / Dinky Varghese, 16.472 seconds behind | Kariappa Mekerira / Abhinav Ganapathy (Kodava Racing) |
| FMSCI Classic Challenge | Lavan Poonacha M.P / Ruthwick B.H, Kodava Racing (1:47:36.097) | Sreejesh M P / Anusha N S (Alpha Rallying) | |
| FMSCI Masters Cup | Pradeep Ravi / Thimmanna Uppapanda, ARKA Motorsports (1:44:06.373) | Dinesh Kumar T / Lohith J M (Chettinad Sporting), 2:01.932 behind | Balakrishna J / Bopanna Nelammakkada |
Retirements
Ahmer and George were on the podium after seven stages, about 16 seconds behind Kadur and roughly 50 seconds clear of the eventual third-placed crew, when the final stage ended their rally.
Rahul Kochar / Ravindra Kumar and Neil Nain / Chirag Thakur went out on SS7. Raguvaran Veerappan and Amanda Jia Ying Chew of Chettinad Sporting, the rally’s overseas entry from Singapore, had cut almost 54 seconds from their opening-stage time by SS4 before stopping on SS6. Ashwin Pugalagiri P / Raghuram Saminathan of R-Tech Motorsports and Aneeshnath S / Amitha Aneesh retired on SS5, the first stage of Sunday.
The next rally on the calendar is the Robusta Rally in Kodagu (Coorg), from November 20 to 22.
