Naren Kumar finishes eighth in second leg of Asia-Pacific rally

CHENNAI: India's Naren Kumar could only finish eighth among eleven competitors in the second leg of the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship in Whangarei (New Zealand) on Saturday after his vehicle developed serious problems.

"The first leg of the rally was over and we encountered many problems.  First, we lost the fourth gear completely in the first loop of stage one itself, losing valuable time. Then, we had a broken wheel and lost 10 minutes there," Naren said from the rally venue.

"We are looking to finish as high as possible in the second leg on Sunday in order to gain some leg points to move up the ladder as much as possible," he said.

Without a fourth gear, Naren Kumar and his navigator, Dorairaj Ramkumar, lost nine minutes to their nearest rivals Ikemachi Samy Vivek (Subaru Impreza WRX) at the end of stage two.

The Indians managed to catch up with their nearest rivals to an extent in the next stage but met one of their worst possible problems as one of the wheels broke mid-way in the fourth stage.

However, Naren returned the third best time in the fourth stage as defending champion and Aussie duo of Cody Crocker (Ben Atkinson) in their Subaru Impreza WRX never looked back before completing the rally in a total time of 1:39.20.9 seconds, leading in all the eight stages.

The Indian duo were 18 min 24.6 secs behind the Aussies.