Ghosh-Naik Indian duo, wins European Rally Championship.

Mangaluru: The Indian duo, Amitrrajit Ghosh of Kolkata and Ashwin Naik from Mangaluru have won the Federation of Internationale de l’automobile (FIA) organised European Rally Championship ERC 3 at Athens in Greece. This is the first time that the Indian rally duo has won the coveted European Rally Championship.

Ashwin Naik and Amittrajit Ghosh told that this was the first time that any Indian team has made it to the top slot. The winners were sponsored by Ramakrishna Race Performance Management of Kolkata and by Pana- the Mangaluru based Educational conglomerate. Ghosh-Naik drove a Ford Fiesta R2.

The victory has taken the European rallyists and the FIA by surprise. Through this victory Amit-Ashwin duo have just raised the benchmark at the international rally scenario for Indian drivers.

Chairman of the Pana educational group of Mangaluru  Dr. Prasad Hegde congratulated the duo and said that the Amit-Ashwin team have brought laurels to the country and Pana group is extremely happy with the results. This was the first time a Mangaluru based organisation has sponsored an international event.

The debut victorious indian duo were leading in their class right from the day one of the three day rally that passed through some torturous terrain in this class of the international rally. Ace driving by Ghosh and experience navigation by his co-driver Ashwin Naik made sure during the last leg on Sunday that the victory was theirs.

“We both drove with safety at top of our mind which gave us confidence right from the word go. We just had to bring the car to the ramp in one piece which we did with great aplomb,” read the message sent from Athens by the victors.