Time to feel proud if you are a Mahindra XUV500 owner, as Mahindra Adventure’s cheetah inspired Super XUV500 won the top three positions at the 40th edition of the K 1000 rally, the 5th round of the Indian Rally Championship (IRC) 2014, thus sealing the overall title in this premier national rallying series. The team has already won three of the four rounds of the IRC – the Rally of Maharashtra, Rally of Coimbatore and Rally De Bengal. This victory ensured that Team Mahindra Adventure closed its overall title position in the championship and the Super XUV500 created history by becoming the first ever diesel SUV to win the Indian Rally Championship.
The highlights of Team Mahindra Adventure’s triumph was the spectacular performance of the Super XUV500 driven by current APRC champion Gaurav Gill (co-driver Musa Sheriff), who won the rally, followed by the current Desert Storm Champion Sunny Sidhu (co-driver PVS Murthy) and the reigning Indian Rally Champion, Amittrajit Ghosh (co-driver Ashwin Naik) who came in third overall. The competition was fierce but the rally prepared XUV500 along with its drivers, proved its mettle. With the coveted top three positions, Team Mahindra Adventure has swept the IRC title this year.
Speaking on the occasion, Vivek Nayer, Chief Marketing Officer, Automotive Division, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. said, “This unprecedented victory by Mahindra SUVs is yet another testimony of the tough and rugged DNA of Mahindra vehicles. Having already won the top positions in three of the four rounds of the Indian Rally Championship, our emphatic win at the prestigious ‘K 1000 Rally 2014’, has sealed our position for the overall title of IRC. The fact that all the three top positions were secured by Team Mahindra make this win even more special. Time and again our SUVs are proving their mettle on rough terrain against the competition and we will continue to do so during the rest of the IRC season as well.”
In its 40th edition, the K 1000 Rally is the oldest running rally in the country and the 3rd oldest rally in the world. The KMSC started it in 1959 and has always had a strong team of people running various events for the past 64 years, encompassing Racing (Agram circuit and Kolar Classics), Autocross, Motocross, Supercross, Hill Climbs, Drag meets and of course Rallies. The K 1000 rally was called so because it started as a TSD Rally and run over a distance of 1600 kms, across 3 states. This year, the rally ran three stages: Alpha stage – 12.75 kms, Beta stage – 14.95 kms and India Mines stage – 9.55 kms.