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Reigning seven-times National champion and Arjuna Award winner Gaurav Gill of New Delhi will be the favourite at the Rally of Coimbatore, which starts here on Friday.

Ranged behind the 40-year old three-times FIA Asia Pacific Rally champion are a clutch of young guns like Karna Kadur (Bengaluru), Fabid Ahmer (Palakkad) and Dean Mascarenhas (Mangaluru), besides a sprinkling of seasoned campaigners such as 2019 National champion Chetan Shivram (Bengaluru), Amittrajit Ghosh (Kolkata), Arjun Rao (Mangaluru) and Rahul Kanthraj (Bengaluru), with proven track records.

A record 57 entries have been received for the Rally of Coimbatore which doubles up as the first round of the FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship 2021, commencing here on Friday, with a ceremonial flag-off followed by two days of competition, the organisers, Coimbatore Auto Sports Club, said.

The championship is a spillover from last year due to the pandemic and will now comprise three rounds -- Rally of Coimbatore (Feb 25-27), Karnataka-1000, Bengaluru (March 11-13), and the South India Rally, Chennai, (March 25-27) -- promoted directly by The Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India, the governing body for the sport in the country.

FMSCI president Akbar Ebrahim said: "It was a challenging year due to the pandemic, and the Federation has taken it upon itself to promote the 2021 edition of our flagship championship."

"The large number of entries is a testimony to the enduring enthusiasm of the competitors to whom the Federation offers heartfelt thanks. The FMSCI is also indebted to MRF Tyres who have come on board as the Associate Sponsor, thus enabling us to conduct a three-round championship. It will be our continuing efforts to offer a bigger and better INRC 2022," Ebrahim was quoted as saying in a release.

In a major departure from the past, the organisers have moved the event out of the iconic windmill farms in Kethanur, about 30 Kms from Coimbatore, to a fresh location just off the L & T bypass road on the western side of the city and with a much smoother terrain. The two physical Special Stages will be run four times -- twice in the forward direction on Saturday and twice in the reverse direction on Sunday. The total rally distance is 203.33 Kms of which 120 Kms is the competitive section.

As per the format, there are five National championship categories -- INRC, INRC-2, INRC-3, INRC-4 and Junior INRC (up to 26 years of age and not having won any event in any category) with vehicles regulated by various specifications. Bringing up the rear are the stand-alone FMSCI Gypsy Challenge and the FMSCI SUV Challenge, neither eligible for INRC classification.