Chandigarh-based Karandip Singh (co-driver Jaidas Menon) of Team MRF finally broke a jinx and notched his first triumph in nearly two years as he finished first overall in the Movva Rally de Bangalore, a round of the MAI Indian National Rally Championship, on Sunday.

Driving a Honda City V-Tec, Karandip, whose last success in a National Championship event was in 2001 when he won the Karnataka-1000, saw off a late challenge from reigning National champion and team-mate V R Naren Kumar (co-driver D Ramkumar) to emerge a convincing winner.

"It certainly is a nice feeling, and I am happy that I finally broke my jinx by winning here. It has been a frustrating season, as I could not capitalise on winning positions at Chikmagalur, Nashik and Chandigarh rallies. Today, I was not very comfortable on the first two Special Stages, but thereafter, I stepped up the pace," said the modest Karandip, the National champion in Group N (unmodified) class back in 2000.

Meanwhile, Naren Kumar confirmed his third National Championship title by finishing third behind Karandip and Arjun Balu (co-driver Kumar Ramaswamy), also of Team MRF.

The third place finish was sufficient for the 29-year old from Coimbatore to clinch the National title with a tally of 68 points with just one more round of the INRC to be gone through in Pune (December 5-7). He has aggregated 68 points to Balu's 47 and Karandip's 44. The maximum number of points on offer in an INRC event is 16 (10 for win and three each for the two legs).

"It is a great relief to have the National championship race behind me. And I now look forward to a more relaxed approach for the final round at Pune next month. Yes, it certainly is a great feeling, but I would have loved to have clinched the championship by winning here in Bangalore rather than finish third," said Naren.

Trailing by 53 seconds overnight to Karandip, Naren stepped up the pace today and made up 58 seconds before suffering a puncture on the penultimate Special Stage that cost him about 20 seconds as he slid from second to third position.

Though Naren had finished fifth on Saturday at the end of Leg One, he was elevated to second spot after team-mates N Leelakrishnan (Farooq Ahmed), Balu and Vikram Mathias (Sujith Kumar) conceded road penalty of 20 seconds apiece.

Meanwhile, in a strange turn of events, the 1400cc class saw none of the three contenders finishing the event, but picking up Leg points. Under the circumstances, Lohit V Urs (co-driver M K Bopanna) and Rahul Kantharaj (co-driver Vivek Bhat) found themselves on level terms with 44 points apiece while the third contender, Karthikeyan R (co-driver Sathish G), also could not complete the event due to mechanical failure, and remained on 38 points.

Ranjit Ballal and co-driver Shanmuga SN, who had won the Rally Star Cup category, were subsequently excluded following post-event scrutiny.

Classifications (after Leg 2):

INRC 1600cc: Team MRF (Karandip Singh/Jaidas Menon) 1 (1 hr, 29 mins, 13 secs); Team MRF (Arjun Balu/Kumar Ramaswamy) 2 (1:29:50); Team MRF (V R Naren Kumar/D Ramkumar) 3 (1:30:10); Team MRF (N Leelakrishnan/Farooq Ahmed) 4 (1:30:25); Team MRF (Vikram Mathias/Sujith Kumar) 5 (1:30:34); Jiby Maliakkal/Nikhil Pai 6 (1:32:24).

INRC 1400cc: No finishers.

Rally Star Cup: Ram Prashanth/Thiru Murthy 1 (1:30:51); Prithveen Rajan/PVS Murthi 2 (1:32:30); Arun Kumar/Lohit Anand 3 (1:33:0); Arjun Rao Aroor/Ashwin Naik 4 (1:35:08); Anitha Kholay/Rashmi Bopanna 5 (1:50:52).