Bangalore, Aug 23 - Arjun Balu kept his wits about him to safely negotiate the two-km long Spectator Special Stage and clinch the Overall honours in the Karnataka-1000 Rally, the second round of the Speed-Indian National Rally Championship, here Sunday and led Team MRF to a clean sweep.

Though the 34-year old Coimbatore-based Balu was neither the quickest nor the most spectacular, he nursed the ailing Mitsubishi Lancer Cedia (N+ class) to the finish line (with co-driver Sujith Kumar) to maintain the overnight position at the top of the leaderboard and post his first success in four years.

'I am pleased with my performance though I had to deal with some problems with my Cedia. Today, I decided not to push since I had a good lead overnight,' said Balu, the five times National runner-up whose undoubted driving talent and finesse make him one of country's top Rally drivers.

'For some reason, luck hasn't been on my side in the past few years. It had nothing to do with my not being on pace. On many occasions, I was within sight of victory only to lose. So, this time around, I was determined to hold my position and once I was in front, I decided to drive sensibly,' he added.

However, Balu appeared visually quicker when he took India cricket captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni for a lap of the track. Dhoni then presented the trophy to Balu and Sujith Kumar before being whisked away.

In second spot was Gaurav Gill (co-driver Moosa Sherif) who sent the pulses racing with a great drive today and was the quickest of the 36 starters.