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JK RACING

Double for Arya, Ruhaan and Anish MRF INRC 2W

TANVEER new National Champ RECORD 5TH TITLE FOR

AISHWARYA PISSAY MRF 4W RACING

Double win for Chirag, Arjun & Cheran

SPRINT NATL’S

SACHIN FASTEST RIDER PLUS

ROTAX NATIONALS: KYLE, RUHAAN AND ADITYA CHAMPS VALLEY RUN: HEMANT MUDDAPPA ONCE AGAIN ON TOP XPERIENCE: MAHINDRA XUV 300 ADVENTURE: GOA CYCLING SPRINT: ON DAY 1,YUVA KUMAR FROM HERO MOTOSPORTS FINISHES ON TOP DRC NATURE DRIVE: HUGE RESPONSE

EDITORIAL / IMPRINT

IMPRINT Editor S. Ashok Kumar Tiwari

Hi, Our New Look. AUTO TRACK is on a new track...

es, the third wave started hindering the sport once again! COVID’s comeback has put too many sporting events on hold. While a couple of big events were cancelled due to the wrong reasons, COVID19 has thrown the motorsports fraternity into a jinx, once again. To add to it, the popular K1000 rally is postponed for the fourth time this season. This time it is due to travel restrictions and week-end curfew in Bengaluru, despite having all necessary permissions ready. The organsiers along with the Rally Commission took this decision to keep the competitors and the fraternity safe. A few more JK Tyre Regularity Run National rounds, as well as the final round of JK Tyre National Racing Championship have been postponed. The hardest hit is the much-awaited MRF Supercross, the spectator sport, which had to be postponed keeping in mind the safety of the riders. Rotax Max Karting Nationals, MRF MoGrip Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) for 2W and Sprint Nationals were completed before the third wave. The rising Covid cases and the resultant travel restrictions by different states, it needs to be seen how the INRC for 4W takes off before the extended deadline for 2021 events. After the first round by Coimbatore Auto Sports Club in February, the final two rounds are expected to be completed in March as back-to-back rounds. The South India Rally to be run by Madras Motorsports Club will also host the Asia Pacific Rally Championship. As of now, two championships are yet to take-off, the MRF Supercross and the INRC for 4W. To overcome week-end curfews, all INRC dates are from Tuesday to Thursday, as announced by fmsci. The Government has not halted nor decided to stop any sporting activity, and that is a very positive sign. Some road racing events were completed going on with caution but since rallies pass through villages, and attract many onlookers and crowds, a decision was taken to postpone K1000. Now that new dates are announced, hope things would fall in place and the Nationals would be completed on time before March 31.

S. ASHOK KUMAR TIWARI Editor M: +91-9845296190 autotrack.editor@gmail.com

Concept and Design: S. Ashok Kumar Tiwari Staff Photographers: Nirav Mehta Prakash Rawat, Noor Director / Correspondent: Roopa A. Tiwari General Manager Circulation & Sr. Correspondent: S. Nithyanand Correspondent: K. Manjunath Ghanshyam A Tiwari Spl. Correspondent: David Bodapati Western Region: autotrack.west@gmail.com Mob 09757176958 Northern Region: autotrack.north@gmail.com Mob 09871765886 Editorial Office: Auto Track 7/3-1, Lalitha Engineering Building, Subbanna Garden Main Road, Vijayanagar, Bangalore-40 autotrack.editor@gmail.com www.autotrack.ind.in For Subscription, contact: 9845296190 For Advertisement, E: ashok.autotrack@gmail.com The Publisher makes every effort to ensure that the magazine’s contents are accurate. However, he accepts no responsibility of any effects arising therefrom. Printed at Raj Hans Enterprises, Rajajinagar Industrial Town, Bangalore-560044. Published by S.Ashok Kumar Tiwari At # 7/3-1, Lalitha Engineering Building, Subbanna Garden Main Road, Vijayanagar, Bangalore - 560040

VOLUME 15, ISSUE 2 O1 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022

CONTENTS

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022

34 06

50 14 JK Racing: 06 MRF Rally of Nashik 2W: 10 Rally of Coimbatore 2W: 14

24 22

18 12

DRC adventure: 18 Rotax Karting - Finals: 24

Cycling in Goa: 35

MRF 4W Racing: 26

Trail attack: 42 Drag Valley Run: 46

50 40

Sprint Goa: 50 XUV 700: 58 Gumball: 60

46 08

39 30

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NEW DELHI

The Vizag round was really not a good beginning for INRC. Yes, I do agree. But it is still not clear what went wrong. Whatever is the reason, it is not good for the sport. This kind of situation has happened for the first time. I am referring to the "hide and seek". All were in a dilemma except the Promoter, who was confident till the last minute with various options and execution plans. As far as our knowledge goes, the local ACP issued a checklist in return to the letter submitted for permission and bandobast on 1st December, for conducting the INRC first round. Thereafter, it was informed that the permission cannot be granted in view of non compliance of conditions given in their earlier proceedings and also clarification was sought by Police on certain other issues. The NOC form MVI, NOC from related Government department regarding inspection of road with movement of at least two

rally cars was requested. Police also sought amendment and approval of maximum speed limit, remitting of bandobast charges, barricading arrangement details, crowd control methods and event running time. All these were required to be submitted for considering the application. While the recommendation letter from the respective department was submitted along with the Demand Draft to the Commissioner of Police according to the Promoter, the visit by the honourable Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh Jagan Mohan Reddy to the city was cited as the last-minute hurdle. The participants were asked to stay back, for rescheduling the rally by two days, but it too was in vain. The rally was called off as the Federation w e r e n o t convinced with the reasons given by the Promoter. Auto Track

will carry a detailed report and the cause and the mystery behind this embarrassing moment. Did the Government protocol suggest cancellation? No not at all, the government as of now have not touched sports but the general guidelines does apply for the sports also. The racing and other closed-invitation activities have been running as per the guidelines set up by the Governments. But motorsport has gone one step ahead. Taking a responsible decision, the federation itself postponed the rally as a precaution since the event and people involved move

around in a vast geography. Let's support this decision as responsible citizens of this country. Things will deﬁnitely improve and get back to normal. It was a long wait for us, as we miss the Supercross rounds. It is already two years now! Yes, we all were excited and were eager to witness the event. But this pandemic has its own say. However, there is nothing to worry as we do not need to wait for long. Experts expect the peak to come by the end of January, thus an early closure looks likely. Since this sport attracts high number of spectators, it is more exposed to the virus, than other events. Let us look forward for e a r l y rounds, as soon as the government relaxes the rules. Everyone is looking forward for the season to begin.

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RALLY

could only manage 126 points and had to be satisfied with the first runner-up spot. Sharath Kumar with 45 points was third. TVS Racing riders swept the Scooter class winning the top three places for one more year. After seeing a privateer dent their supremacy last year, the Hosur-based factory team once again took over the grip on the scooter class with their Ntorq brand ruling the roost. Karthik with 122 points was the champion followed by Shamim Khan with 113 points as first runner-up and Syed Asif Ali with 98 points as second runner-up. The Ladies class is synonymous with Aishwarya Pissay. The 2019

NATIONALS

Tanveer in action

Record 5 for Aishwarya; Tanveer new National Champ New faces among 2W Rally National champions in 2021

anveer from TVS Racing leads the way, even as Aishwarya retains championship for the fifth time in a row, and wins the 2021 title with an all-win record and a round to spare in the 6-round GodSpeed Racing MRF MoGrip fmsci National Rally Championship for 2-wheelers 2021 which concluded at Nashik in December. The Super Bike Pro-Expert Group A class wholly belonged to TVS Racing riders. The champion in this class was Abdul Wahid Tanveer with 122 points. Rajendra RE with 100 points was first runner-up while Nataraj R with 63 points took the second runner-up spot. In the Super Bike Expert Group A class, Asad Khan from Chikkamagaluru with 94 points was the champion followed by Jatin Jain from Nagpur in second place with 87 points. Sarath Mohan with 75 points came third in the final tally. The Super Sport 130 Group B class was won by Kerala

youngster Ajin Abraham with 100 points. Chalass K Bose with 61 points was first runner-up and Nitesh G Poojari from Mangaluru became second runner-up with 48 points. In the Super Sport 165 Group B, Pavan BK with 136 points was the champion. He clinched the issue a round to spare and his nearest rival Sasi Kumar K, who came second in the championship could garner only 86 points. Abrar Pasha with 43 points finished as second runner-up. The Super Sport 260 Group B class was dominated by TVS Racing riders. Samuel Jacob with 143 points was crowned the champion. Imran Pasha J with 112 points had to be content with the first runner-up spot while Sachin D with 93 points came third. In the Super Sport 400 Group B class, Sajeesh Reghunathan became the champoin with 133 points beating experienced Venu Ramesh Kumar, who is still throwing a spanner around and teaching the youngsters a class

or two. The Coimbatore-based Rider Representative and the senior-most rider on the tracks bagged 112 points to become ﬁrst runner-up and way behind with 58 points, Sravan Kumar Kuttoor stood third. The Super Sport 500 Group B class was dominated by Bengalurians. Mohammed Zaheer with 129 points became the champion pipping Naresh VS, who gave a tough ﬁght but

World Cup Baja champion was in her elements winning all the rounds and TVS Racing prodigy won the title with a round to spare. It was youngster Tanika Shanbhag from Satara with 108 points who gave a semblance of a ﬁght despite an injury she sustained in the second round and carried it bravely till the end. She was ﬁrst runner-up and Apoorva B with 42 points came third in the championship.

Aishwarya Pissay in action JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022 autotrack.ind.in 05

RACING

NATIONALS

LGB Formula 4 winner Arya Singh in lead

Double for Arya Singh, Ruhaan and Anish th

Despite rains 24 JK Tyre Racing National provides thrills and chills PHOTO BY: SHAHJAHAN

he weather gods played hide and seek in the penultimate round of the 24th JK Tyre-FMSCI National

Racing Championship in Coimbatore recently. Heavy rains halted the session for a couple of hours on Saturday but

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then the wet track condition made the races in the LGB Formula 4 & JK Tyre Novice Cup category even more exciting.

As the drivers and riders geared up to take to the track, came the rain and halted the proceedings for over an hour. But the race

COIMBATORE with a time of 31:42.851. Raghul Rangasamy from MSport was a second slower to finish in second position while Ashwin Datta from Dark Don Racing with a further 4-second difference was third. On Sunday, Amir Sayed (Ahura Racing) notched up his second race win this season. The youngster from Kottayam took the lead in a first corner and quite smartly defended Mohamed Ryan and championship leader Vishnu Prasad (both MSport) during the first few laps. But once he broke free, there was no turning back. He further took control to take the top honours with a total time of 20:15.250. Vishnu was seven seconds slower to finish in second position. TS Diljith from Dark Don Racing was further s lower by five s econds to complete the podium. The final race of the day, which turned out to be a thriller, was dominated by the Dark Don Racing drivers and it was Arya all the way. It was a sweet double for him. Arya Singh clocked 23:09.491 while Sandeep Kumar finished a second behind in second. TS Diljith was 150th of a second behind him in third.

JK Tyre Novice Cup race winners

LGB Formula 4 race winners JK Tyre Novice Cup race winners

JK Tyre Novice Cup Ruhaan Alva in action

officials went ahead and complete the race for the cars in the intermittent rains. Formula LGB4 It continued to rain but the Formula LGB4 drivers, the experienced of the lot, were given the task to handle the conditions. The race was run under the safety car and yellow flag for the first four laps but Arya Singh of Dark Don Racing did a much better job to bring home his car to win the first race JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022 autotrack.ind.in 07

RACING

NATIONALS

Formula 4 race one winners

JK Tyre Novice Cup There was something to cheer for Guwahati's Jaden R Pariat of MSport on Saturday despite the downpour. He has been fighting hard to upset the calculation of his teammate and table topper Ruhaan Alva for the last two rounds. And, he finally managed to find his place on the top step of the podium but, this time around, it came the easy way out. Ruhaan hit the finish line ahead of Jaden but the former was awarded a 10-second time penalty for crossing the white line at the pit exit. It proved too costly for Ruhaan at the end. But the Bengaluru lad shot back to win the next two races in style on Sunday. Race 1, Jaden R Pariat from MSport with a total time of 24:43.808 was the winner

beating Gaurav Kochar from Momentum Motorsport by 500th of a second. Neym Rizvi from MSport was closer to a second slower to complete the podium. Ruhaan the leader of the class missed the podium as he was penalised with 10 seconds. Race 2, was nothing new as Ruhaan Alva dominated the class with a timing of 16:12.199 while his teammate Jaden finished second, over 300th of a second behind. Neym took a further 400th of a second more to finish third. Race 3 was the final race of the class. Ruhaan was on top again as he managed to extend his lead by over 12 seconds to beat Adheet Parashar from Hasten Performance to second. Jaden finished third with a further difference of 300th of a second. JK Tyre presents Royal Enfield

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JK Tyre Continental Cup Race one winners

COIMBATORE

Winner JK Tyre Continental Cup Anish D shetty

Arya Singh

Continental GT Cup Due to heavy rains, the two wheeler races were pushed to Sunday. Anish D Shetty proved his superiority winning both the races. The Hubballi rider clocked 13:30.381 to finish on top followed by Anfal Akdhar from Thrissur in second position with three-seconds difference. Meka Vidhuraj from Hyderabad was third, another 300th of a second behind second. It wasn't easy though for the Hubballi rider, particularly in Race 2. Allwin Xavier threatened to take him on in the final stretch. But Anish, a champion driver as he is, withstood the pressure to take the chequered flag in a photo finish. Allwin Xavier finished second and Anfal Akdhar was third two more seconds behind.

Raivat Dhar

LGB Formula 4 Ashwin Dutta in action

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022 autotrack.ind.in 09

RALLY

NATIONALS

Consolation win for Rajendra Tanveer content with second, with an eye on Overall title PHOTO BY: PRAKASH RAWAT

ajendra RE from TVS Racing claimed his fourth Overall topposition this season in Rally of Nashik, the sixth and ﬁnal round of the God Speed MRF MoGrip fmsci National Rally Championship - 2W 2021 held near Green Heritage Resort on the outskirts of Nashik in December. But a second place was enough for Tanveer to clinch the Overall Championship for 2021. The 13-km stage with broken tarmac and loose gravel with some dirt patches running along the backwaters of the reservoir were part of the rally. The stage was run four times cumulating into 52-km of Special Stage distance. Rajendra RE from Shivamogga,

riding a TVS RTR450, representing TVS Racing proved his worth yet again in the overall result as well as winning his class. With a difference of over33 seconds he managed to overcome his two null rounds of DNF (Did Not Finish) this season. Despite zero points in those two rounds, he kept the overall title options alive till the last moment as he was running second behind his teammate Abdul Wahid Tanveer from Mysuru. But in the end the win in the ﬁnal round here was not sufﬁcient to rise to the top. He had to settle as runner-up in the championship. On the other hand, Tanveer who began the championship without testing the bike, managed to rise the steady graph throughout and managed

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to win the 2021 championship as he held on to second position in this round. He performed admirably and displayed his race craft to ward off the challenge from another former champion and teammate, Nataraj R by 1min 30sec difference in the final round. Nataraj R became the third TVS Racing rider to be on the podium. With top six positions belonging to the team, defending champion Samuel Jacob with further 31 seconds difference was fourth and Sachin D finished fifth with a further deficit of 10 seconds. Imran Pasha from Mysuru became the sixth TVS Racing rider to finish in that order with a further difference of another 31 seconds. In the Super Bike Pro-Expert

Group A class, Rajendra RE dominated and won all the four stages with a total time of 35min 47sec. Abdul Wahid Tanveer came second and Nataraj ﬁnished third. The Super Bike Expert Group A class had two Nagpur riders Jatin Jain and Aman Pawde. Jatin with a total time of 40.26 was the winner followed by Aman in second position with a 42-sec difference. In the Super Sport 130 Group B class had only two participants in this class. Muzaffar Ali from Bhopal with a total time of 48.45 was the winner and the second participant Prashanth from Bengaluru did not take the start. The Super Sport 165 Group B class saw Pavan BK from Bengaluru win in 42min followed

R6, NASHIK Overall winners of Rally of Nashik

Scooter class winners

Ladies class winners

by Raj Bharath, also from Bengaluru, who came home 6min 49sec behind. In Super Sport 260 Group B class, the podium belonged to TVS Racing riders. Samuel Jacob was dominant right from the start as he was fastest in the class in all the stages with a total time of 38.23. Sachin D was slower by 10-sec and settled for second position. Imran Pasha J with further 32-sec difference completed the podium. V Trinesh from Bengaluru was fourth taking another 3min 19sec to complete the course. In the Super Sport 400 Group B class, Sajeesh Reghunathan with a total time of 41.07 was the winner though he began his day by loosing lot of time in the very ﬁrst stage. But the Mangaluru rider managed to be the fastest in the class in the remaining

three stages and with a lead of over two seconds he won the round. He kept Russel Jossy from Navi Mumbai in second position. Russel was unable to keep up his Stage 1 momentum. Defending champion of this class, Venu Ramesh Kumar from Coimbatore was further behind by 2min 53sec and completed the podium and in the process. He ended up runner-up in the championship, too. Nilesh Y Thakare, a local from Nashik, took another 1min 18sec and settled for fourth position. Rider from Indore, Shivam Wani, finished fifth with a further deficit of 1min 45sec while Pavan Kumar Kuttoor from Hyderabad came sixth another 32 seconds behind. In the Super Sport 550 Group B class, Naresh VS from Bengaluru for the second time in a row ran

Naresh VS winner Super sport 550 Group B

Winners of Super sport 400 Group B

Winners of Super sport 165 Group B

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R6, NASHIK

RALLY

NATIONALS

Muzaffar Ali, Supersport 130 Group B winner

Sprint Championship, riding in 2W Rally championship for the first time, managed to be on the podium in third position with 12min 54sec difference. Vanessa R Joseph also from Pune with a further difference of 1min 11sec, that included 3min Liaison penalties, finished fourth. Riding for the first time in a rally by upgrading straight from street riding was another rider from Nashik. It was Dipika A Dusane

who finished fifth. In the Star of Maharashtra class, Aditya J Thakkar from Nashik followed his uncle's footsteps and won with a total time of 44min 09sec. He stood first followed by Ankit A Gajjar in second position who came 1min 42sec behind and Kaustubh Machhe who took another 2min 52 sec finished third. Harshal Kadbhane finished fourth with a further 2min 21sec difference .

Jatin Jain winner Super Bike Expert Group A Aishwarya Pissay winner Ladies class

out of luck and failed to win the championship. He clocked 42.12 to win the rally but fell short by a few points. Despite facing gearbox issues in the initial rounds of the season, he finished behind Zaheer in the championship. Mohammed Zaheer from Bengaluru the front-runner began this final round with points advantage. He had to just finish behind Naresh to claim the championship which he did as he finished second with a difference of 2min 14sec. Hitesh Ghadge from Pune completed the podium as he was slower by 1min 19sec. Santosh Sarkale from Nashik with a further 1min 37sec difference finished fourth. In the Scooter class, the podium was swept by TVS Racing riders. It was Karthik N who won by clocking a total time of 42.50. He looked a little shaky in the very first stage but managed to be on top in the remaining three stages. Shamim Khan was unable to keep up the first stage lead as

he consistently came third fastest and finished in second position with a difference of 10seconds while the third TVS Racing rider Syed Asif Ali who began the season in a recovery state after the injury, finished third. He lost a lot of time in the first stage and was unable to bridge it in despite being second fastest in the remaining three stages. Mumbaikar Venkatesh Shetty was further slower by 6min 37sec and finished fourth. Hiten Thakkar with further 1min9sec difference was fifth and Gaurav Pathare from Mumbai finished sixth. In the Ladies class, Aishwarya Pissay from TVS Racing proved to be the best for the sixth time this season. She swept all the rounds and was the champion for the fifth consecutive year. She won with a total time of 43.34. She managed to keep Tanika Shanbhag from Satara behind by 42 seconds. Deeksha Srivastava from Pune, who recently won the

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Pavan BK winner Super sport 165 Group B

Sajeesh Reghunathan winner Super sport 400 Group B

RALLY

NATIONALS

Comeback victory for Rajendra Aishwarya Pissay makes it three win in a row PHOTO BY: VIKRAM SUNDARAMOORTHY

t was a come-back victory for Rajendra RE from TVS Racing after two continuous set-backs, two DNFs (Did Not Finish) in rain-drenched rounds at Puttur and Chikkamagaluru. He won the four-stage rally with a total time of 53min 17sec and was the leader on one of the fastest stages of INRC held in Coimbatore, the Round 5 of the GodSpeed FMSCI MRF MoGrip National Rally Championship 2W 2021 in recently. The TVS Racing rider Rajendra RE from Shivamogga was the overall winner. He with a margin of 30 seconds managed to keep his teammate Abdul Wahid Tanveer from Mysuru in second position. While top six positions

were bagged by TVS Racing riders, Nataraj R with a further difference of 1min 39seconds completed the podium. Samuel Jacob the previous-round winner fell short by nine seconds to be on the podium and thus finished fourth. Imran Pasha was 40 seconds slower in fifth. Sachin D a further 1min 06sec behind was sixth while privateer Asad took another 42seconds to come seventh. In the Super Bike Pro-expert Group A class, Rajendra RE topped the first three stages to come out as a deserving winner and looked a bit slower than his teammate but was safe and steady enough to occupy the top slot with consistency rather than

14 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022

speed. Tanveer was running second right from the beginning but in the final stage managed to clip 11 seconds from the stage winner's time. But the lead was too huge that he could only cut down the difference to 30 seconds overall and had the consolation of being second fetching valuable championship points. Nataraj R secured third position. Right from the start he stayed in third and got the podium with a difference of 2min 09seconds to second position. Adnan Ahamed from Mangaluru was another 2min 48sec behind to finish fourth. Goutham Rao from Bengaluru who was struggling right from the first stage took

another 7min 44sec and finished fifth. In the Super Bike Expert Group A class, Privateer from Chikkamagaluru, Asad Khan with a total time of 58min 34seconds won the class. He consistently consolidated his lead right from the start and with a difference of 1min 46sec managed to keep Sinan from Kerala behind him in second position. Another former champion in his class, Jatin Jain from Nagpur was not at his best but managed to take third with a difference of 37 seconds. While the second Nagpurian, Aman Pawde except in the second stage was second fastest and was the fastest in the final stage. Since he lost close to

R5,COIMBATORE

Pavan BK winner Super sport 165 Group B

Ajin Abraham winner of Super sport 130 Group B

three minutes in the second stage, he had to settle for Overall fourth position. In the Super Sport 130 Group B class, the championship leader Ajin Abraham from Kottayam dominated the class right from the start and was the lone finisher in the class with a total time of 1hr 11min 54sec. He was the winner followed by Nitesh Poojary from Mangaluru who had to pull out in the third stage. Chalass K Bose from Kerala and Azeeb Muhammed from Kottayam, both had to pull out in the very first stage, hence this class ended up with three DNF's. The stages were treacherous after the overnight rains and the dictum, "you have to first finish, to finish first" became all the more true for riders who were all fighting against time and terrain rather than with their competitors and young Ajin excelled on the fateful day. The Super Sport 165cc Group B class was won by Pavan BK from Bengaluru. He had a hold on the class right from the start as he clocked a total time of 1hr 01min 39sec. The Kerala rider Pravith P was following the winner closely but lost time from the third stage onwards as there was no service in between. He still further lost around two minutes and with a total difference of 2min 43sec,

he finished second. Bharath L from Bengaluru with a further difference of 3min 6sec stood third. Hari Kumar from Trivandrum was further slower by 2min 36sec and stood fourth. Ahkhil Arumugam from Coimbatore and Binu John from Kerala were in fifth and sixth positions respectively. The Super Sport 260 Group B saw all the top-three slots dominated and won by the TVS Racing riders. Samuel Jacob was the fastest in all the four stages and won with a total time of 56min 05sec. Imran Pasha was running neck-and-neck and came second, 40-sec behind. Sachin D was further slower by a minute and six seconds and finished third. Privateer Trinesh V from Bengaluru riding a TVS RTR200 took another 4min 19sec to claim fourth position. Anand Jaya Krishnan and Mohammed Irshad both from Trivandrum, finished in fifth and sixth positions respectively. While Krishnan was a further 1min 34sec behind fourth placed rider, Irshad clocked 59min 35sec. In the Super Sport 400 Group B class, Sajeesh Reghunathan from Mangaluru won clocking fastest times in three of the four stages with a total time of 1hr 39sec. He beat Venu Ramesh Kumar to second place. Venu did

Samuel Jacob winner of Super sport 260 Group B

Sajeesh Reghunathan winner of Super sport 400 Group B

Overall winners JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022 autotrack.ind.in 15

R5, COIMBATORE

RALLY

NATIONALS

Syed Asif Ali winner of Scooter class

manage to clock the fastest time in Stage 2 but was unable to carry the pace forward and came behind the winner by 1min 08sec. Aakash Ithal from Puttur, who injured his wrist during reccee, managed to be on the podium finishing in third with a further difference of 2min 45sec. Manikandan from Coimbatore was moving closer to be on the podium in the later stages but finally missed the third place by 29sec and finished fourth. Jaideep Joshi also from Coimbatore was fifth taking another 3min 20sec to finish the course. Sravan Kumar from Hyderabad finished sixth with a further difference of 51sec. In the Super Sport 500 Group B class, Naresh VS from Bengaluru made a comeback after experiencing gearbox issue in the previous few rounds. He was fastest in all the stages and won with a total time of 1:02.10. The championship leader, Zaheer, also from Bengaluru was facing a threat from the winner as the championship lead was diminishing. Though Mohammed Zaheer had to fight it out till the last second to contain Naresh from extending the lead, he could not. Jeemon Antony from Ernakulam was a further 11seconds behind in third. Abhijeet Sarkar from Guwahati fourth taking another 6min 53sec. Shajeer Ismail from Kochi had to pull out in the final stage while former champion Samuel Abraham from Kerala

Naresh VS winner of Super sport 550 Group B

had to end his day in Stage 2. Sreekanth Komana from Kochi also had a DNF in the very first stage. In the Scooter class, the top three positions were bagged by TVS Racing riders. Syed Asif Ali had to face stiff competition from his teammate Shamim. Asif was fastest in the first three stages and looked a bit slower in the final stage but was way ahead on time sheets and won the crown with a total penalty of 01:03.46. Karthik Naidu after losing about 11 seconds in Stage 1, managed to come back in Stage 2 and kept himself at a striking distance but failed to win by 20 seconds and had to settle for second position. Shamim took 12 seconds more than the winner in the first stage which cost him dear. Though Shamim Khan consolidated in the last stage with fastest time, he ran out of luck with a 12-min Liaison penalty and slipped down to third despite being in second all along. Abijith Shetty a privateer from Bengaluru was running fourth all along but had to pull out in the final stage.

Asad Khan winner Super Bike Expert Group A

Aishwarya Pissay winner of Ladies class

Kali Mohan winner of Star of Tamil Nadu

In the Ladies class, there was no looking back for Aishwarya Pissay from TVS Racing this season. She won by clocking 01:04.11 while Tanika Shanbag from Satara ﬁnished in second position with a difference of 1min 34sec. Apoorva from Mangaluru with a difference of 5min 28sec came third.

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NATURE

D R I V E

Huge response for Desert Raiders Club’s Nature Drive The participants were a mix of professionals and amateurs PHOTO BY: MANN SINGH AND MEHTAB SINGH

he 57 vehicles took part in the fourth edition of Nature Drive organised by Desert Raiders Club held at Hanumangarh recently had a

challenging course and attractive environs. The ﬁrst edition began in 2017 with one night stay as over 18 vehicles were part of the event.

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Gradually the number increased with 26 vehicles for the second edition in 2019. The cultural activities were included from this edition. The third edition held in

2020 was a three-day and twonight event in which 40 vehicles took part. This year the obstacle was more systematic on dune bash the

HANUMANGARH track, which was more informative with buntings, markers and ﬂags. It looked like an upgraded ﬂag-ship event like the UDC. There were ups and downs, regular with curves, to break the momentum to understand the need of right RPM and, right gear-shift for a climb. There were approximately 13 climbs in this track of mild-toextreme heights. The participation was a mix of both professionals and amateurs. The amateurs were educated about the techniques of sand driving. The DRC marshals also assisted them to compete, by supporting in proper reduced air pressure, gear shift & rpm sequences, turning techniques, etc. Three attempts were given to each participant on each obstacle, then if not successful were bypassed for next obstacle. Well trained marshals like Gurpinder, Jaideep, Gursimranjit, Gagandeep, Bhanupartap and Narayan Balan, who have an off roading experience of over-ten years, were assisting the new comers in gear selection a n d m o d e application. All of them have partici

Flag off

-pated in various rallies and offroad competitions winning many a podium between them. They also worked as off-road instructors for brands like Ford, Mercedes , MG and Hero Motors. Once these marshals came into picture, it became easy for most participants to complete the course in the remaining two attempts. Simultaneously, the beginners took part in the recovery process of the vehicles and to put them back on track. It gave them ample opportunity to clear and manage and to learn skills to clear the obstacles. Also they were taught self recovery techniques on the sand. Tourism Department took

interest in this edition and provided support for the cultural programmes. Regular support of the local District Collector and Superintendent of Police was being seen from the very ﬁrst edition. It's one of a kind event in country where one can enjoy camping, drive, off-road on dunes, cultural, local food, adventure games and what not. There was a display of skill and obstacle-taking on capabilities by current RFC India champion Kabir Waraich. He was driving his new Rubicon and performed the entire track, very well, but breached on the longest climb and cleared that only in his second attempt.

Convoy heading towards the Dunes

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HANUMANGARH

NATURE

D R I V E

Rajasthani cultural dance

"Nature Drive 2021 by DRC has been a wonderful and heartwarming experience. I attended it for the ﬁrst time along with my club Gerrari Off-roaders, Chandigarh. My family and my Cousin Amandeep Singh's family from Ludhiana camped at the campsite in the desert. The Rajasthani food was a culinary delight. The puppet show and the Rajasthani folk music and dance were an icing on the cake. The off-road tracks made by DRC on beautiful sand dunes were fabulous," said Sachin Rai Vaid, an advocate, P&H High Court, Chandigarh. "The idea behind Nature Drive

was to gather the adventureloving people at one place. Our club chose my home town Hanumangarh for it and explored many hidden locations there to take them up on tourism map and the administration helped us in doing so. We hope to bring it as Adventure Fest in coming years," said Gurpinder Singh, President, Desert Raiders Club. “This is my fourth year for Nature Drive. The event is pieced-up every year with new add-ons and surprises. Driving off-road is a pleasure as we get a challenging track, perfect for us to test our skills in general, and especially

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Night camping site

on dunes. Hospitality is a class apart. I love these three days of pure fun,” said Aman Bedi (Xtreme Off-roaders) . This year's associates were Rajasthan Tourism, Uniglide

Lubricants, Decathlon, Rajvi Palace, Xtreme offroaders, Kaichy and Airmasterz. Day 1: The three-day event began from Rajvi Palace with tips on Road Safety by Trafﬁc Inspector Anil Chinda. Later, Superintendent of Police Ms Preeti Jain ﬂagged off the drive. The day break was at the campsite with Rajasthani Cultural Dance. Day 2: The second day started with a Convoy Drive, through villages, exploring the rural culture that leads to the 'dunebash' area. The day ended with cultural programmes organised by local artistes of Hanumangarh, which is known as the gateway to Rajasthan, from Punjab and Haryana. Day 3: Adventure games were hosted at the campsite. Everyone showed their love for the event on the Scribble Board, as this edition concluded after lunch break.

MANGALURU

INRRC

QUALIFYING

Anil Abbas, co-driver Sini win Techies Manjula-Lalitha beat Malayali vlogger Athira, who paired with Soumya

nil Abbas and Sini Anil with lowest penalties of 00:49 won the RRPM Adventure Regularity Run, a regional qualifying round of the JK Tyre fmsci Indian National Regularity Run Championship, held at Mangaluru recently. DR Kikram Jain and co-driver Shruptha Padiwal with a difference of six seconds came second while Anoop and Devkanth GM missed the second spot by a second. Akhil Nayak and Naushad KM were fourth with 14 seconds additional penalties. Dr Raghavndra Pidamale and Dr Muralidhara Rai logged another ﬁve-second penalty to stand ﬁfth. Akshay K Jain and Chiranth Jain were sixth taking another second more. The 60-km rally had 11 time controls (TC). In Class 2, Naushad KM along with Akhil Nayak with a 1min 13sec penalty came out

triumphant in the class followed by Akshay Jain and Chiranth Jain in second, with six-seconds difference. Lohith, along with Dilnith, with came third 35seconds behind. Sachin RK and Deepak NS ﬁnished fourth. In Class 3, techies lanky Manjula Gowda and co-driver petite Lalitha Gowda, specialists in

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Time-Speed-Distance (TSD) format won the Ladies class. Popular INRC driver Athira Murali from Kerala, along with navigator Soumya PN ﬁnished second, as they found out that TSD rallies are a completely different cup of tea. Rittaz CT along with Mohammed Sohail won Class 4 beating

Mohammed Jamsheed and Shabil Rahiman to second spot. Arjun Dheerendra and Rohith ﬁnished third. In Class 5, Dr Raghavendra Pidamale and Dr Muralidhara Rai won defeating another doctor combo Dr Adithya and Dr Ramya. Dr Anokha and Dr Sanjeev Murali ﬁnished third.

KARTING N AT I O N A L S

Aditya, Ruhaan and Suriya win Kyle Kumaran suffers a rare loss in Senior section PHOTO BY: SHAHJAHAN

ditya, Ruhaan and Suriya win their respective classes in the Round 4 of the MECO-fmsci NKC RMC 2021 held at Meco Kartopia in Bengaluru recently. Aditya and Ruhaan managed to hold on to their start position but Kyle slid one position to ﬁnish second, suffering a rare loss in his ﬁrst season.

Micro Max Aditya Suresh Kamat from Birel

Art India was on pole with Nikhilesh Raju in P2 and Anuj behind them. Aditya held on to the lead, right from the start, and won with a total time of 12:14.950. Anuj A from MSport, meanwhile, had moved into second position and ﬁnished four seconds behind the winner. Nikhilesh Raju from Birel Art India, who lost one position at the start, had to settle for third with a further difference of three

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seconds. Arafath Sheikh from MSport was less than a second behind in fourth. Vedha Vishnu settle for fifth position with another second deficit. Shrili Mistry from Erda's Racing finished sixth. JUNIOR MAX Ruhaan began on the pole followed by Ishaan Madesh and teammate Jaden R Pariat. Behind them were Raiden, Abhay, Akshat and Rohaan in the line-

up. Ruhaan got off to a good start in the 15-lap race and there was no looking back as he kept on increasing the lead. Rohaan Madesh, was in attacking mood and within the ﬁrst three laps, he managed to climb from seventh to third and settled behind his younger brother Ishaan. Ishaan managed to secure second position and, by this time Raiden Samervel lost one position. Akshat Misra also

R4, BENGALURU awarded 5-position penalty due to avoidable collusion and he slipped down to tenth position, though he crossed the flag in fifth place. Ruhaan Alva from MSport finished on top with a total time of 13:38.362. Ishaan Madesh from Peregrine Racing had closed down the gap by the end and was behind his neck from mid-race and with a less than a second difference settled for second. Elder brother Rohaan Madesh, also from Peregrine Racing, was about three seconds slower than Ishaan and managed to be on the podium. Akshat Misra from Rayo Racing was fourth with further less than two seconds deficit while Raiden Samervel with a gap of seven seconds finished in fifth. Raiden's teammate Veer Sheth finished sixth.

Micro Max winners

Junior Max winners

Senior Max

had gained one place as Anshul Sai was already in top six behind the lead group. Jaden after the crash lost places drastically from third and trailed in 8th position. Jaden slowly started moving up the order and was running sixth. By the end of 10th lap Jaden made a positive move and had occupied ﬁfth position. There on, the top-ﬁve competitors maintained the same positions till the last. But Jaden was

K Suriya Varathan from Coimbatore representing Peregrine Racing was the winner. Kyle Kumaran from Peregrine Racing was on the pole followed by K Suriya but mid way in the race Suriya managed to go past Kyle and thereon, there was no looking back. He had to just defend his position. A couple of times, Kyle managed to close the gap but was unsuccessful in his attempts to overtake. Before the final lap he made a move again but Suriya managed to defend well and keep his teammate behind him till the end. Kyle finished in second position with 0.600th of a second difference. MR Rishon from Birel Art India gained three positions and came third with a further difference of five seconds. Raaj Bakhru from Rayo Racing, who started from P3, lost one position and finished fourth half a second behind. Mihir Suman Avalakki from Birel Art India also slid one position and came fifth with another half second difference. Ameya Bafana from Rayo Racing started third and landed in sixth position with a further difference of seven seconds to his immediate higher kart.

Ruhaan Alva from Msport winner of Senior Max

Aditya Suresh Kamat from Birel Art India winner of Micro Max JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022 autotrack.ind.in 25

KARTING N AT I O N A L S

Ruhaan Alva from Msport winner of Junior class comp no. 27

Kyle Kumaran claims Sr. National title in style Ruhaan Alva is Junior champion; Aditya Kamat wins Cadet title PHOTO BY: SHAHJAHAN

yle Kumaran, Ruhaan Alva and Aditya Kamat topped Round 5 and the ﬁnal round of the MECO fmsci National Karting Championship for Rotax Max Class 2021 held at Meco Kartopia in Bengaluru recently. Senior class Kyle Kumaran from Peregrine Racing won the Senior class after playing a waiting game. MR Rishon was on the pole but was unable to capitalise on the advantage and held on to the lead till the last two laps but was unable to stop an advancing Kyle

beyond him. There was a pile up in the first lap for which Ameya was penalised by five seconds. After the incident, Kyle slid down to fourth in the very first lap and was behind Mihir Suman Avalakki from Birel Art India. After five laps of struggle in the midfield, he managed to go past him in the 12th lap and there on Kyle was unstoppable. In the very next lap, he even took on Divy Nandan from NK Racing and by the sixth lap he closed in on MR Rishon from Birel Art India. Two laps before the finish he passed Rishon and extended the lead by the end of the race to

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cross the chequered flag first. Rishon finished second with a difference of 0.300th of a second, Divy Nandan was penalised in the pre-finals for three reasons with three grid position penalties for bump-and- advantage and five-seconds penalties for causing red flag. Despite all the penalties he finished third. He was third right from the start till 14th lap and by the end of 12th lap he moved up to second spot but this was short lived as he slid to third and finished in the same position. Mihir Suman Avalakki, who started fifth, moved up to second

after the first-lap incident, and was comfortable till 14th lap. In the 12th lap, he slipped down to fourth position and finished in the same order. Ameya Bafana, who was fourth on the grid, was pushed back to 7th after the firstlap incident. In the very next lap, he gained one position and moved to sixth. In the 14th lap, he managed to go past Suriya and was running fifth and was successful in closing down on Mihir but was unable to overtake and finished fifth. Suriya Varathan who was third on the grid managed to finish sixth with a difference of over one second.

R5, BENGALURU

Winner of Micro Max Aditya Suresh Kamat from Birel Art India

Tarun M from Peregrine Racing had to pull out mid-way. Junior Max The Junior Max class was most action-packed event of the round. Ruhaan Alva from MSport was the winner after starting fifth on the grid. The day didn't go well for the Madesh brothers from Peregrine Racing, the top two starters on the grid. Ruhaan zoomed into the front line in the very first corner by passing all the four as he took an outer racing line. But was unable to hold on to it. Then, Veer Sheth from NK Racing Academy went past Ruhaan to lead the race. This went on till ninth lap, as Ruhaan was right behind, pushing him. In the eighth lap, Ruhaan managed to take the leap and regained his lost position. From there on, he was leading and finished with a clean victory. Veer Sheth who started eighth on the grid zoomed to third in the very first lap and there on there was no looking back. In the 12th lap, he took the lead but only for a lap and finished second with a difference of five seconds. Abhay M from Birel Art India

finished third after starting sixth. From the very first lap till tenth, he maintained the same position. He started making places from eighth lap, and eventually finished in third position. MSport karter Jaden R Pariat hailing from Guwahati was unable to finish in the order he started. He slid one position down to finish fourth. He was

sixth but Rohaan Madesh from Peregrine Racing, ahead of him, did not finish. And a ten-second penalty for Raiden Samervel, also ahead of him, ensured Jaden fourth position. Akshat Misra from Rayo Racing finished fifth with a difference of three seconds. Raiden Samervel ended up in sixth after being penalised for causing 'Red flag' and pushing out 'without

advantage'. Micro Max Aditya Suresh Kamat from Birel Art India won the race with a total time of 1:15.390 after starting fourth on the grid. In the first lap, he managed to put himself in the second spot and by the seventh lap, he managed to go past Anuj and held on the top position till the end. Vedha Vishnu was second on the grid but never got off to a good start. He was last in the first lap but managed to reach fourth position by ninth lap. However, he lost a place again in seventh lap, but slowly made places to reach second and held on to it till the finish. Shrili Mistry from Erda's Racing, who began last, was fourth by the end of the very first lap and moved up another place in the ninth. Though she reached second spot later on, she could not keep the position and finished third in the race behind Vedha Vishnu. Anuja A from MSport finished fourth. Arafath Sheikh from MSport began on pole but was unable to cash on it as he slipped to third in the first lap and sixth by ninth lap. In the final lap he managed to gain a position and finished fifth. Nikhilesh Raju from Birel Art India finish sixth.

Winner of Senior class Kyle Kumaran comp no. 70 from Peregrine Racing in the lead JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022 autotrack.ind.in 27

BENGALURU

KARTING

Shrili Mistry from Vadodara representing Erda's Racing in Micro Max class, Aashi Hanspal from Mumbai representing MSport in the Junior Max class and Bengaluru girl Vidyali Reddy from Kartkrew team in Senior Max class, were the Women in Motorsport (WIM), who were felicitated by Ms. Preeti Rabindra, mother of ace racing star Akhil Rabindra.

N AT I O N A L S

Kyle Kumaran received three

Special trophies for Karters

Kyle Kumaran bags Best Karter of the Year award

Ruhaan Alva and Aditya Kamat excel in lower classes

he five-round 2021 National Karting Championship concluded at Meco Kartopia in Bengaluru recently. In the Micro Max class it was Aditya Suresh Kamat from Bengaluru representing Birel Art India who became the National champion with 432 points with five top-ofthe-podium finishes. He was followed by Anuj A from Madurai representing MSport in second place with 414 points with two victories and two podium finishes as he garnered 406 points. Pune's Arafath Sheikh, much younger than the top-two, clinched the second runner-up spot, representing MSport. Junior Max Bengalurians dominated the Junior class. Ruhaan Alva from MSport was crowned the Junior National champion with six wins

and 430 points. Abhay M also from MSport with 404 points was runner-up and Rohaan Madesh from Peregrine Racing with three top ﬁnishes and 398 points slipped to 2nd runner-up spot after being in contention for the championship earlier on. Senior Max Trichy's Kyle Kumaran from Peregrine Racing with eight victories and 441 points dominated the season and was deservingly crowned the Senior National champion in Rotax Max class. His teammate Suriya Varthan from Coimbatore with one win and 408 points was runner-up while Mumbaikar Ameya Bafna from Rayo Racing with 408 points was second runner-up. Girls from all the three classes were awarded Special Trophies.

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Junior Max Champions

All three classes Champions

Micro Max Champions

special awards, the ﬁrst for Maximum number of Pole positions, second for Maximum number of Wins and third for the Best Driver of the Year. Best New-comer tag was bagged by Mumbai karter Raiden Samervel from Rayo Racing and the Akbar Ebrahim Most Improved Karter of the year was won by Anuj A from Madurai, who drove for MSport team as he showed good performance despite being the baby of the grid.

RACING

NATIONALS

Two wins for Chirag Ghorpade in MRF F1600 Double for Arjun Balu, Charen Chandran PHOTO BY: SHAHJAHAN

oimbatore veteran Arjun Balu from Race Concepts and Chirag Ghorpade, the schoolboy from Bengaluru, lit up the second round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Car Racing Championship 2021 with dominating performances in their respective categories on a rain-marred Sunday at the MMRT, near Chennai on Dec 12. The day's programme was delayed due to bursts of rains overnight and this morning, but the track dried up quickly later in

bright sunshine. The post-lunch session too was affected by sudden showers leading to some races being declared as “wet race”. Indian Touring cars In Race 1, Coimbatore veteran and defending champion Arjun Balu, at 47, and in his 29th racing season, was in imperious form easily winning the race from pole position with a timing of 15:19.312 while two Rayo Racing drivers from Hyderabad, Anindith Reddy with 27seconds difference and Jeet Jhabakh a

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further 8 seconds behind ﬁnished a distant second and third, respectively. In Race 2, Balu brought into play all his vast experience to complete a double in the class after starting from P3 in the reverse grid format in a “wet race” following a bout of heavy showers in the afternoon. Having won the ﬁrst race previous day, Balu, started behind two Rayo Racing polos of Anindith Reddy and Jeet Jhabakah and, played a waiting game before getting a jump on the two Hyderabad

drivers for another brilliant win with a total time of 17:00.312, Jeet was slower by nine seconds to ﬁnish second and his team mate Anindith was 200th of a second slower to settle for third position. “Honestly, I was quite surprised by the pace of the car (Honda City) and by the end of the ﬁrst lap, I was comfortably ahead. Thereafter, I decided to back off a bit and scaled down on my aggression. Yes, I am quite pleased with the performance,” Balu said after Race1.

R2, CHENNAI

Arjun Balu in action

Reflecting on his double and scoring his third win in four starts, Balu said: “A very special drive today. The odds were against me with two VW Polo cars in front and the conditions very tricky. But I had the confidence that I could pass both the cars and I thought I read the track conditions very well. Yes, a textbook drive it was.” MRF 1600 Teenagers, spearheaded by Bengaluru schoolboy Chirag Ghorpade, took the honours in Race 1 with a total time of 13:32.919. Ghorpade held off another 17-year old, Agra's Shahan Ali Mohsin, for his maiden win in this category with a margin of less than two seconds while 16-year Rishon Rajiv also from Bengaluru, was less than a second behind in third, in the eight-lap race. The trio was in a league of its own in a field that had quite a few experienced drivers. Local teenager Dillon Zachariah took the honours in the second race for his maiden win in this class with a total time of 16:37.47. Coimbatore boy Suriya Varathan missed the top slot with a difference of over 300th of

a second and had to settle for second position. Viswas Vijayaraj from Nellore was further 500th of a second slower to complete the podium. Chirag, who had won the first race on Saturday late in the evening, with light fast fading. He scored a lights-to-flag win to complete a double, in a race that was reduced to six laps from the scheduled eight with a total time of 10:37.473. Agra's Shahan Ali Mohsin, who finished second, was later docked a 10-second penalty for speeding in the pit lane which pushed him to sixth. The penalty moved Nellore's Viswas Vijayaraj to second place with eight seconds difference and Ashwin Datta from Chennai with a further time difference of 600th of a second finished third. “It was a tough race initially when Shahan caught up with me, but I realized that he was unable to narrow the gap any further and I managed to dictate the pace,” said Ghorpade who had earlier qualified for pole position. Indian Junior Touring Cars Bengaluru driver Varun Anekar representing Race Concepts won the race one with a timing of 16:04.162. Charen Chandran a privateer from Coimbatore was 21 seconds slower to finish in second spot while followed him in third position was Hatim Shabbir Jamnagarwala from

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022 autotrack.ind.in 31

RACING

NATIONALS

VW Polo Race two winners

Chennai representing Performance Racing another five seconds behind. Charen dominated the Race 2, as he with a margin of below-four seconds managed to hold on the top position. K Srinivas Teja from Chennai of Performance Racing was second followed by Hatim in third with a further difference of four seconds. LGB 1300 Pole-sitter Viswas Vijayaraj from Nellore representing DTS Racing emerged a facile winner in the first race that was marred by a red flag stoppage following a series of crashes, reducing it to just five laps. Viswas won with a total time of 11:14.406 beating his teammate Arya Singh from Kolkata to second position by over one-second. Localite Deepak Ravikumar from Momentum Motorsport with an additional five-seconds difference came third.

Seasoned Chennai driver Raghul Rangasamy from Quest Motorsport took the honours in the Race 2. He started from P5 and managed to win the race with a total time of 19:34.504. Bengaluru driver Tijil Rao from Momentum Motorsport finished second with a difference of two seconds while Viswas was slower by further four seconds to settle for third position. MRF Saloon cars Mumbai's Fahad Kutty from Red Line Racing and Coimbatore's A Bala Prasath from Quest Motorsport shared the top honours. Mumbai's Fahad Kutty completed a profitable weekend as he won two of the three races and finished on podium in the other in the MRF Saloon Cars category. Red Line Racing drivers dominated Race 1. Fahad with a fastest time of 17:08.849 was the

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R2, CHENNAI

Formula LGB 1300 Race two winners

winner, Jamie Shaw from Mumbai with 500th of a second difference was second and Chandresh Tolia from Mumbai was third, with a further difference of two seconds. The ten-lap Race 2 was won by the Quest Motorsport rider Balaprasath from Coimbatore with a total time of 21:17.190 while his teammate from Harayana Justin Singh with 700th of a second difference stood second. Fahad finished third another three seconds behind. Race 3 was shortened to four laps, as Fahad won with a total time of 12:11.978. Jamie finished second five-seconds later, as he was busy defending his second

place. He pipped Coimbatore's Jai Prashant Venkatesh from Red Line Racing, by 200th of a second. Super Stock In Race 1, Chennai's Deepak Ravi Kumar from Performance Racing clocked 16:09.974 to win the class. Bengaluru driver Rithvik Thomas from Race Concepts finished second with over two seconds difference. Another local lad RP Raja Rajan from Performance Racing finished third with over five seconds difference. Rithvik managed to stop Deepak from finishing on top with a difference of one second. Rithvik was the winner as Deepak finished second and Raja was third with 17 seconds difference.

VW Polo Race one winners

Volkswagen Polo Cup Salem's Sai Sanjay and Ritesh Rai (Chennai) won a race apiece in the category double-header after surviving tight finishes. Sai Sanjay finished his first run with a timing of 16:45.578 which put him on the top slot followed by Sandeep Kumar from Chennai in second spot with a difference of below one second. Sourav Bandyopadhyay from Thane finished in third position, a further seven-seconds behind. Ritesh Rai from Chennai won the second race by clocking a total time of 16:46.427 while Avik Anwar from Bangladesh lost the top slot by 600th of a second. Sandeep finished third with less than a second deficit. JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022 autotrack.ind.in 33

BAHRAIN

ROTAX FINALS

Kyle Kumaran

gets laurels for India in Karting Over 100 countries take part in Rotax Max Grand Finals

eregrine Racing's Kyle Aditya Kumaran made India proud winning the silver trophy at the Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals, the annual Karting competition for Rotax National champions from over 120 countries around the world, that concluded at Sakhir in Bahrain on December 19. The 18-year-old Kyle Kumaran, a native of Tiruchi, took part in the DD2 class and finished third in the pre-finals to qualify for the 36-grid 'Grand Finals' where he became the vice-champion and made sure of the Indian flag on the podium at the Bahrain International Karting Circuit, the venue that hosts F1. "Representing India has been one of our dreams and I am

thrilled and happy to achieve it. Seeing the Indian ﬂag on the podium is a proud moment and I will cherish forever. I am grateful for my teams Dojomoto and Peregrine Racing and to all my well-wishers and family, especially my biggest cheerleaders, mom and mad for dreaming along with me," said Kyle Kumaran. Peregrine team Principal Madesh Lakshman who facilitated Kumaran's participation in the Senior National championship where Kyle won a ticket to the Grand Finals, said: “Kyle is talented and his hard work and dedication brought laurels for India. We were expecting it and it is a dream come true for the ﬁrst

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karting medal at a world event.” Kyle races internationally with DojoMoto team and is assisted by Paul Caar and Anjum Shaikh along with his chief mechanic Shiju Thazha. Kyle Kumaran, racing with Peregrine team, became the 2021 FMSCI Senior National Rotax Karting Champion last month and made it to the threemember FMSCI India team. Kumaran finished the 21-lap Final race in third clocking 18minutes 41.392seconds and was promoted to second place after penalties were applied. Thus, Kumaran became the ViceChampion in the DD2 shifter class. Martun van Leeuwen of the Netherlands won the gold and Patriks Noels of Latvia came third behind the Indian. “Getting a silver at the Grand finals in a very competitive field is a fantastic achievement. Kyle Kumaran made India extremely proud. It is a moment to celebrate. I congratulate Kyle and his family," said Akbar Ebrahim, President of the Federation of Motor Sports Club (FMSCI), the governing body for Motorsport in India. Ebrahim was the brain behind introducing Rotax Max Karting Nationals in India in 2004. "This is the first time in the Indian history of Rotax Max that we are getting a vice-champion at the World stage," added Akbar, a former racing champion.

RIDE, GOA

CYCLING ADVENTURE

Explore Goa Recently, we had an opportunity to explore many new places in Goa TEXT: Dr. VISHWAS V. SAVKAR

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CYCLING ADVENTURE

s a group from Nasik, we engage in adventure activities whether it is cycling, trekking, mountain climbing, apart from travel and exploring new places across India. The country offers so much for the travel fraternity. We keep ourselves active at all times irrespective of weather conditions. A month ago friends of mine contacted me for a much delayed cycling expedition. Earlier, we were planning to go for the Youth Hostel Association of India (YHAI) tour off Jaisalmer. However, since it was already over booked, we chose Goa as a second option. It was a happy accident. If you think that Goa is meant for only sun, surf and its beautiful beaches, then you are wrong, it is much more than that. It offers not just beaches, leisure and places to chill out, but also many places for adventure lovers like

us. I was accompanied on this Goa trip by my colleagues from Nasik -- Sanjay Kulkarni, Shirke Dipak Ramchandra, Changdev Ghumare and Panditrav Dhondge (Doctor – please check the spelling of their names and correct). All of them, including me, are senior citizens and 60 plus and always active in doing a number of activities that keeps us ﬁt at all times. Last year also we wanted to go to Goa, but during training, I had a fall and got a few fractures on my collarbone and half a dozen ribs. So naturally, I could not make it then. For our trip to Goa organised by YHAI, I had to do spot registration, and luckily I could squeeze in. We were returned with a lifetime memory of visiting so many places in Goa, which many people have not explored so far. Here we are sharing with readers our experience and presenting a photo feature.

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RIDE, GOA

On arriving at Miramar Panaji, we were greeted by a very enthusiastic team of experts and volunteers of YHAI. We were given accommodation in the dormitories, handed overgeared cycles with safety headgear. We were given a strict timetable and advised to keep away from alcohol. We decided to follow all rules. Along with us, there were many riders from different parts of the country who participated. The same day we were taken for a short trial run. Going to bed early, we reported at 5.15am.

After tea and breakfast with packed lunch. Day one was rather an arduous temple route which we covered approximately 80 kms. Most of it was with multiple ups and downs. The ﬁrst one, we visited was Mangeshi. We had breakfast there. The second one was a relatively

unknown one but a pleasant surprise, the Vijaya Durga temple.

PEDAL POWER Temple Ride 67 kms Bridge Ride 48 kms Lake Ride 53 kms

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022 autotrack.ind.in 37

CYCLING ADVENTURE

RIDE, GOA any problem with our cycles. In our entire route of cycling, at every change of direction or point of confusion, a volunteer was always there to guide us to a proper route. Everyone was taking abundant safety precautions. Our next visit to the temple was Shri Devkikrishna temple at Marcel, Orgao, Goa. At end of the day, we returned to our hostel at about 4.20pm. All of us could complete this day one outing successfully. We came across many parts of Goa not seen before by many of us. We expressed our gratitude to the YHAI and its volunteers who took such extraordinary care of all of us to make this trip a memorable one for a long long time.

It was a beautiful temple with serene surroundings. Like most goa temples, one can stay and relax at nominal charges. Next in line was the Vishnu temple at Shri Shantadurga temple at Virdi. Our group was ably directed by our tour guide Mr Mithun with enthusiasm and energy and he was very helpful. Our chief mechanic, Mr Tiwari was always available to rectify

The author is a doctor and adventure lover. He is also Director of CATS Ecosystems Pvt. Ltd, Nasik. Dr Savkar will be sharing his adventure experience in the coming issues with Auto Track readers. He will talk about ﬁtness, travel tips and the preparation for adventure lovers.

UNKNOWN PLACES VISITED

The ancient tank of Saptakoteshwar. Temple of Vijayadurga. Temple of Sheshshayi vishnu. Temple of Shrikrushna and his mother Dewki. 38 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022

COIMBATORE

DIRT

In the Under-14 Girls section, Nivashini J won followed by Seema MA in second position. In the Under-16 class, Sruthi Devi won while in the under-18 class was claimed by Vaishnavi Madumitha S. The Above 25-years class for women was bagged by Monisha followed by Jothi Ramesh in second position and Mohana Priya in third. The under-14 years for Boys class was dominated by Dhanush Prasanth who finished in first position. Nanda Kishore finished second while Aadhil came third.

CYCLING

Vibin, Niranjan, Dhanush, Pranesh excel; Shruthika, Ashwika, Prakalya, Sruthi shine among girls

any youngsters turned up for the Western Valley MTBXCO challenge, a specially-made up-hill and down-hill track of 3.1 km at the foothills of Western Ghats in Kovaipudur. For this edition, the route has been designed in such a way that it's equivalent to the MTB Nationals. In Under-14 class, Dhanush Prasanth of Benagluru clocked 21:26:14 to win the 2-lap race. In Under-16, R Alen Rovan of Coimbatore notched up his 4th consecutive win with a time of 37:51:21 over three laps. In Men 18 to 23 category, K Vijay of Coimbatore won with a time of 1:02:53:16 for the 6-laps distance while Above-40 Men class, Usha Kannan of Coimbatore win with each clocking 1:00:32:40 over 4 laps.

Under-8 years In the Boys class, U Vibin won beating Karshin while Krishan finished third. In the Girls class, Shruthika S defeated Rakshitha G to win the class while Nivya Krishna RS came third. Under-10 years Niranjan Devarajan won the class, relegating Abinav G to second. Sachin Dev finished third. In the Girls class, Ashwika M won over Lakshana PV, who had to be content with a second place. Shruthika came third to complete the podium. Under-12 years In the Boys U-12 class, Pranesh S triumphed beating Raghavendra M while Adithyaa completed the podium in third. In the Girls class, Prakalya M dominated the class while Nivya SK finished second and Anushka came third.

39 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022

CYCLING DIRT TRACK

Alen Rovan won the under-16 boys class while Anirud Jagadhish finished second and Shenbagaraj completed the podium by finishing third. In the Under-18 for boys' class, Dharsan S came first followed by Tamilselvan in second position while Ashif Ahamad finished third. In 18 to 23 years class for Boys, Vijay K was the winner. Arshadul Islam was second and Aswin Kumar finished third. In 23 to 40 years class for boys, Kadhirvel S was the winner followed by Guru Bharathi in second and Chinnapparaj in third. The 40+ plus category was bagged by Usha Kannan and Venu Ramesh Kumar secured second position and Udhaya Kumar finished third.

4O autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022

Abhi S Nath bags Rider of the Day honours Fazeela wins Ladies class in the Coimbatore Autocross event bhi S Nath is the Best Rider of the Day in the autocross held in Coimbatore along with cycling recently while Fazeela U won the Ladies class.

Bengaluru in second position. Kathiroli S from Pooluvapatti completed the podium in third place. Kishore V from Perundurai came fourth and Dhanush M from Coimbatore ﬁnished ﬁfth.

Kids class The Under-10 years class, was bagged by Nandan Das from Bengaluru followed by Nivya Krishna RS from Coimbatore. In the Under-15 years class, Alen Rovan R from Coimbatore was the winner followed by Savion Sabu from

Ladies class Fazeela U from Kerala won the Ladies class followed by three girls from Coimbatore. ME Harini came second, Sandhiya D managed to clinch the last spot on the podium but their compatriot Vishnupriya V had to be content

COIMBATORE

with fourth. Bowthika R from Namakkal came ﬁfth.

occupied by local boys. Winner Jagath Saravanavel pushed M Sanjeev Kumar to second and Kishore K to third. Shuhaib V from Pattambi and localite Nirmal Kumar V finished in fourth and fifth positions respectively. Anandh A won the Veteran class which was dominated by Coimbatoreans. Sivaji D finished in second position and V Venu Ramesh Kumar was third. Prince finished in fourth and Patteeswaran V from Pollachi settled in fifth position. Coimbatore rider Varun Kumar V won the four-stroke class. Arun T from Karnataka was second. Abhi S Nath from Thrissur finished third while Karan M

from Coimbatore was fourth and Arshad M from Shornur was fifth. The Pro-Expert 1 class was won by Varun Kumar V from Coimbatore. Arun T from Karnataka was second and Abhi S Nath from Thrissur finished third. Ganesh Kumar from Coimbatore came fourth and Eldhose Benny from Thrissur was fifth. Jagadeesh Kumar K from Coimbatore was the winner of Pro Expert 2 class. Abhi S Nath from Thrissur was second. Akbar B from Coimbatore came third. Saravanakumar K from Coimbatore was fourth and Muzain Shaik from Hassan finished fifth.

Shailesh Kumar T won the beginners class followed by Sharan B and Arfaz, who completed the last two places on the podium in that order. Nithyan L was fourth and Arshad M finished fifth. The Novice class belonged to Karan M, who beat Shailesh Kumar T to second. Nithyan L finished third and Yogesh P was fourth followed by Arfaz in fifth. The Intermediate class was bagged by Varun Kumar V from Coimbatore. Shailesh Kumar T, also from Coimbatore, finished second. Yogesh P from Bengaluru came third while Akbar B from Coimbatore was fourth and Karthikeyan S from Pollachi finished fifth. In the Xpulse Open class, the top-three positions were JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022 autotrack.ind.in 41

DIRT TRAIL

PRADEEP REDDY clinches Xpulse class

he second edition of Big Rock Dirt Park Trail Attack 2021 was successfully completed at Kolar recently with bikers have a gala time once again and competition

was close in many classes.

Class One - Xpulse Riding an Xpulse, Pradeep Reddy won Class 1, despite losing over a minute in the ﬁrst lap, but he

42 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022

dominated the proceedings later in the remaining two laps, to clinch the issue in 39min, 18.460sec. Amrutha Prasad, who began well clocking the fastest time in Lap 1 and took a

handsome lead of over a minute but lost ground from second lap onwards to lose to Reddy. Even in the second lap he lead the race, but lost about a minute in the third lap and ﬁnished second

KOLAR second-placed Prasad in the final two laps, he had to make do with the third place on the podium. It was a similar story with Muhammed Irfan who lost the podium place due a slow first lap. He clocked a better timing than Kousthuba in second and third laps but fell short of 30 seconds and settled for fourth position. Ashwin Raju with another 40 seconds difference finished fifth. Karan Drisyha was another eight seconds behind to secure sixth position. Nithin David Thomas was seventh while Yuvraj K finished eighth followed by Abhishek Jagan and Akshay D in ninth and tenth positions respectively.

Class 2 - Himalayan Benson, maintained a steady and consistent pace, before accelerating in the last lap to emerge winner in the Himalayan class. He clocked 42:22.355. Gaurav Heranjal came second another minute and ﬁve seconds behind. After trailing the leader by a big margin, Heranjal made time in the ﬁnal two laps but that was too less and too late to beat Benson. Mohammad Hashique, started aggressively and clocked the fastest time in Lap 1 and took

clocking 39:56.708. Kousthuba M, who took another 44 seconds to complete the three laps, came third. He lost too much time in the ﬁrst lap and despite being quicker than the JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022 autotrack.ind.in 43

DIRT TRAIL

a lead of over a minute on the top two but lost a crucial time of over two minutes in the second lap. He made a valiant attempt to gain back the lost time in the remaining two laps but was unsuccessful and finished third. Zouhan, too began well with the second fastest time in the first lap but he lost time in the second and third laps. But in the final lap he displayed blistering pace and clocked the best lap time but that could fetch him only the fourth position as he lost the podium by two seconds. Kunal Lohia was another 38 seconds behind in fifth. Bopana Nanjaa with a further difference of 1min 34sec finished sixth.

Class 3 - KTM Nihal won the KTM class as he began well clocking the fastest time in the first lap and managed to turn the advantage into a win with a total time of 41:30.023. Albin lost a lot of time in the first lap but managed to be the fastest in Lap 2. However, he was not able to overtake Nihal who defended his lead and Alhin finished second with a gap of four seconds. Aditya Rajesh posted an average time in first lap but lost considerable amount of time in the second lap before revering to clock the best lap-time in third lap. However, he was behind by 48 seconds and finished third. Nithin CH despite clocking the fastest time in Lap 2 and 3, was unable to climb up the ladder as the deficit during Lap 1 proved too costly. He ended up fourth one minute and three seconds behind the podium finishers. Ajeya Patil finished fifth as Karan Mohan settled for sixth.

Super Bikes Raijith Cherian riding a BMW-R1200GS won with a total time of 42:39.975. He managed to pull this 44 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022

KOLAR

Ranganathan

Nitin V Antony

with a further deficit of 54 seconds. Nithin V Antony clocked 46:17.368 to settle for fourth position as Shashank Vasuki riding a Desert Sled was further behind by 2min 31sec to finish fifth. Ajay Rao was sixth.

Media class

Siraj

win with a consistent show and pushed a bit more in third lap to clock the fastest time. Palaksha S, riding a Triumph, was second by clocking 43.51.713. He was

also the fastest in Lap 1, 2 and 3, but lost time in the other lap to ﬁnish second with 1min 12sec difference. Nikhil Das, also on a Triumph Tiger, ﬁnished third

Joe Abhilash won the Media race, riding a RE Himalayan, in 43:5.187. Kunal, also on a Himalayan, was fastest in the second and third laps but fell short by seven seconds and had to be content with a second position. Stephen Neil, riding an Xpulse, ﬁnished third with a further difference of 1min 52sec while Karan Ramgopal, also on an Xpulse, ﬁnished fourth with a timing of 57:57.476.

Ashwin Raju

Mohammed Irfan Class 1 , 4th JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022 autotrack.ind.in 45

DRAG VALLEY RUN

Hemanth Muddappa breaks Indian quarter-mile record

TEXT BY: BODAPATI DAVID

Ninth edition of The Valley Run, popular as TVR was a grand success, once

ultiple National Drag Racing champion Hemanth Muddappa of Mantra Racing notched up another feather in his cap with a National record in the above 600cc unrestricted open foreign bikes category in the mega FMSCI-licensed Drag event, the 9th edition of The Valley Run (TVR) organised for twowheelers and four-wheelers by Elite Octane that attracted a record over 500 entries at the Amby Valley airstrip in Lonavala (Maharashtra) on December 7. Biren Pithawalla driving a J Nissan GT-R was fastest in four wheelers. The event attracted over 300 vehicles and was a huge success for one more year and was held under strict COVID19 protocol. The record for the quarter mile was conﬁrmed by the two-wheeler drag National commission chairman Mr Pratap Jayaram. “Yes, it is an FMSCI recognised event and he holds the record now for all the circuits,” conﬁrmed Pratap Jayaram, chairman, FMSCI Drag

Commission, to Auto Track. The 31-year Coorgi based in Bengaluru, beat the National record for this category held by Andhra Pradesh's Satyanarayan Raju record of 9.522sec set last year at the same event and track. Mumbai's Atharva Achrekar on a Kawasaki zx10R won the 851 to 1050cc in 10.083sec beating Avinash Y, who clocked 10.155. Iqbal Sheikh won the third position in a time of 10.182 in a grid of 34 bikes. But in the 1050cc to 1650cc event, current National champion Hemanth Muddappa took his second gold clocking 9.684 to become the only rider to dip under 10-sec mark. His reaction time was 0.430. He beat Vignesh Purushotham who timed 10.035 to second and Hafiz Ulla Khan finished third in 10.235, slower by one-fifth of a second. All three from Bengaluru swept the top three places on a Suzuki Hayabusa in a grid of 17 bikes. Later, Hemanth Muddappa also won the Ribbon Event, the Foreign Open Unrestricted class for bikes above 551cc

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class, zooming to the gold in 9.508 as he stripped off a good one-10th of a second from his last year's gold time of 9.677seconds, which is considered a mountain in drag racing. The ﬁtness freak astride his black Suzuki Hayabusa built by Mantra Racing beat a host of riders and the quarter mile record that stood in the name of Andhra racer Raju. Iqbal Sheikh of Mumbai ﬁnished second in 9.829 while Vaibhav Mhatre came third in 10.038, 0.200 of a second slower than second placed rider. Both were also riding a Suzuki GSXR. In the other 2 wheeler classes, Prashanth riding a Yamaha RX clocked 12.954 to win the upto 165cc two stroke class. Aiyaz clocked 13.123 to be in second position and Syed Nayeem came third in a time of 13.401. The Above 350cc 2-stroke class too saw plenty of competition. Attaulla Baig clocked 11.910 for the gold followed by Anthoni Raj A, who had the slowest reaction time among the lot in the class as he posted 0.027sec while clocking 12.635 for his second

place. Shahrukh was 0.300th behind in third. In the 4-Stroke upto 165cc class, Mustafa Siraj Khan clocked 14.265 to win the honours in the class. Saurav Karmarkar less than half a second behind in second place while Sumith Upaskar, suffered initial hiccups with a slow reaction time of 0.207 and had to be content with the third place, 300th of a second behind Karmarkar in third. The 4-Stroke, 166 to 225cc class was won by Mustafa Siraj Khan. But it was Hasan Shaikh, astride a Bajaj Pulsar, who had the best start with a reﬂex time of 0.007sec. However, he consumed 13.810sec and had to surrender the ﬁrst slot to Khan on a Yamaha R15. Khan beat Shaikh by 200th of a second. Saurav Karmarkar lost by a thin margin, as it was a close call between second and third. Karmakar lost second place by 0.019sec. The 4-Stroke 226 to 360cc class was won by Akib Sayyed. He was quick and also had a good start with the best reaction time. He clocked 13.247. Abdul Shaikh

LONAVALA timing 13.378 finished second and Asif Shaikh came third with in 13.643. In the 4-Stroke 361 to 550cc class, all the winners were on a KTM 390. Aiyaz was the winner clocking 12.467 while Abdul Shaikh with a timing of 12.527 finished second. Iqbal Sheikh was came third 0.118sec behind. In the 551 to 850cc Sport class, Daytona 650 was the vehicle used by all the three winners. Siddharth Parmar was the fastest in the class with 10.631sec time while Rohan Thevar finished second in 11.080. Ketan Babre was split by 0.049sec between second and third as he filled the last podium place. The 649 to 850cc Single / Twin cylinder class was bagged by Aniket Ajit Patil riding a Ducati 848 EVO. He clocked 11.547sec. Rustom K Patel, also on a Ducati 848 EVO, managed to finish second with a timing of 11.623. Abhay Takoo, riding a KTM Duke 790, clocked 11.906 to finish third. In the 851 to 1050cc class, Atharva Achrekar riding a Kawasaki ZX10 R won clocking 10,083 as he managed with a reaction time of 0.228sec. Avinash Y riding a BMW S1000RR clocked 10.155 to finish second while Iqbal Sheikh riding a Suzuki GSXR clocked 10.182 to finish third. In the 1651cc and above class, Rathish Nair won riding a Kawasaki H25X. He clocked 10.272. Kunal Dangat riding a Harley Davidson Street BOB clocked 13.900 to settle for second position. In Upto 550cc Indian bike class, Attaulla Baig riding a Yamaha RD 350 clocked 12.045 to win the gold. Also riding a Yamaha RD 350 with the best reaction time of 0.004 was Anthoni Raj A, who timed 12.45 who relegated Abhishek Shinde to third. Riding a KTM 390, Shinde was slower by 400th of a second to settle for third position. In Muscle Bikes Open class, Aniket Hazare riding a Ducati clocked 10.783 to win this class. Shivdeep Deokar riding a samemake vehicle was slower by three

seconds to finish second. In Naked Bikes Open class, astride a Ducati, Aniket Hazare clocked 10.257 to win the class. Saurabh Parab on a GSXS1000 was slower by 0.700sec to settle for second position. Imran Warsi finished third riding a Kawasaki Z800 and clocking 11.514. n the Indian Bike Wheelie class Arbaz Shaikh, astride a KTM Duke 390 won clocking 15.744. Franklin Deepak, also on a KTM 390, was a bit more than a second behind and finished second. Shekhar Singh, also on a KTM Duke 390, was further two seconds behind and completed the podium in third place. In the Foreign Bike Wheelie class, riding a BMW S1000RR, Nadeem Shah was the fastest and secured the top slot clocking 10.348. Sachin Khengle, also on a same-make vehicle, was second, 100th of a second behind the winner. Parvez lliyas Inamdar finished third, a further two seconds in deficit.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022 autotrack.ind.in 47

DRAG VALLEY RUN

Indian Street Petrol Cars

n the Upto-1150cc class, Maruti Zen was the commonly used car. Mitesh Jathar with a difference of 0.300sec managed to hold on to top slot. Jeet Tapaswi came second while Ratish Nair with 100th of a second behind came third. In the 1151 to 1450cc class, Parth Dhage driving a Maruti Baleno managed to clock 18.045 to win the class. Biten Jagasia and Pratik Rajput, both on a Maruti Esteem, clocked 18.068 and 18.348 respectively, finished second and third in that order. In the 1451 to 1650cc class, driving a Honda City, Yash Pawar clocked 16.842 to win. Suchir Kulkarni, behind the wheel of a Maruti Baleno, managed to finish second with over 200th of a second delay. Arpit Mason, also driving a Honda City, was knocked out in a flash by the narrowest of margins at 0.008sec. He had the consolation of a third position on

the podium. In the 1651 to 2050cc class, Volkswagen Polos dominated the show. Krish Mehta clocked 16.131 to win the class. Missing the top slot with the narrowest of margins was Uvashri with 0.002sec difference. A further fraction of a second (0.3sec) was A Ravichandra in third. In 2051 to 2550cc class, Fiat Punto driven by Tanmay Hotkar made its way to the top. He clocked the fastest time of 16.338. Kaustubh Pitale, in a Honda Accord, was 0.200sec slower to settle for second position. Sagar Dangal, also on a Honda Accord, lost the second position by just 0.013seconds. In the 2551 to 3060cc class, Skoda Octavias ruled the class. With the fastest timing of 14.309, Umar Artani was the winner followed by Abubakh Artani in second with 0.065sec and Gautam Heble ﬁnished third by less-than-a-second difference. The 3061cc and above class belonged to another Skoda

48 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022

Octavia driver, Niranjan Todkari. He won by over 0.200sec over the second-placed driver on a similar vehicle Divya Das. Abhay Takoo came third a second behind.

Indian Pro-stock petrol cars Upto 1150cc class was Maruti Zen's den as all the drivers on podium were on this car. Aniket

Bhoj was the winner by clocking 18.800 while Nishant Naik ﬁnished second and Anish Kamlasan completed the podium. In the 1151 to 1450cc class, driving a Maruti Esteem, Biten Jagasia won with a time of 17.725. Mehul Mistry and Pratiksha Das, both driving a Suzuki Baleno, ﬁnished second and third respectively.

LONAVALA In the 1451 to 1650cc class, driving a Honda City, Akshay Gaikwad was the winner clocking 15.895. Swajit Achrekar with 0.053sec difference ﬁnished in second and Raj Kadam, had a jump start, and lost the glory. All the winners were driving on a Polo GT TSI in 1651 to 2050 class. Vedant Choudhary was the winner followed by Ninad Rane in second and Abhishek Tapadia in third. The 2051 to 2550cc class was bagged by Fahad Kutty in a Honda Brio. Anant Pithwalla and Tanmay Bhoi on an Esteem Turbo ﬁnished in second and third positions respectively. In the 2551 to 3050cc class, Minaam Multani clocked 12.900 to win the class followed by Zahir Shah in second and Anant Pithawalla in third. In the above 3061cc class, Pranav Kumar clocked 12.933 to prove his dominance in victory and Mithun M came second. Yug Italiya was third.

Indian Open Minaam Mulani driving a Volkswagen Polo won the Upto3060cc class clocking 12.909. Keith Dsouza was second and Ananth Pithawalla was third. In the Above-2061cc class, Vivek Ramchander was the winner.

Dheer Bhatt finished second and Mithun M completed the podium. Foreign street Pro-stock petrol cars Swajit Achrekar won the 3500 to 4599cc class. Driving a BMW 330I-Msport, he posted a time of 14.551sec to beat Sundeep Singh Sokhi to second position while Jeet Tapaswi came third. In the Upto-2499cc class, Biren Pithawalla clocked 12.634 to win followed by Nikunj Vagh in second position and Rakshit Deshmukh finished third. The 3500 to 4499cc class too, was bagged by Biren Pithawalla. He defeated Siddhartha Chaturvedi to second while Md, Shaikh finished third.

Foreign Class In the Foreign cars above5101cc class, Mozen Modey driving a Lamborghini Huracan clocked 11.433 to win the class followed by Sean Roger in second position. Roger, driving an Audi R8 lost by 0.090sec while Rohan Singh, in an Audi RS7 came third. In the Unrestricted class, it was Biren Pithawalla once again, who won in a Nissan GT-R. He completed the run in 10.533sec to beat Indra Costa, who was behind the wheel of a BMW M5. Rohan Singh J ﬁnished third.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022 autotrack.ind.in 49

SPRINT

Yuva Kumar Group D upto 260cc winner

NATIONALS

Day 1 belongs to Yuva Kumar of Hero MotoSports Deeksha from Pune bags Ladies class PHOTO BY: GNANARAJ

ains play havoc before the sprint ﬁnals at Goa, the two-day event was greeted with heavy rains, as the venue at Querim situated next to the coastal line of Goa bordering Maharashtra, suffered heavy rains for a week and the track of 7kms had some muddy puddles. The created track had many twists and turns and good number of straight lines. The reccee day was greeted with rains making the track more slippery and slushy for the Round 1 of the Finale. The Day 1

of Indian National Rally Sprint Championship (INRSC) Finale 2021 was supported by Vega Axor Helmets, Hero Motosports and BMC ﬁlters and was organised by Motorsport Inc. Yuva Kumar from Hero Motosports dominated Day 1, becoming the fastest rider with a total time of 9min 26sec. In Group A upto 600cc class, Badal Doshi from Mumbai was the fastest in the class by clocking 09:53. He was the winner followed by Nagpur rider Aman Prabakar Pawde in second

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position with a difference of 17 seconds. Sinan Francis from Ernakulam finished third a further 11 seconds behind and Jatin Jain, also from Nagpur, had to settle for third as he finished 23 seconds later. In Group B 130 to 165cc class, Pavan BK from Bengaluru won with a time of 10:21 beating Samuel Abraham by 56 seconds. Subramanya T by came third another three seconds behind. Shabuddin Sayed with 11:42 finished fourth and Naresh VS from Bengaluru was fifth

clocking 11:53. Muzaffar Ali from Bhopal finished sixth with a deficit of another second. The Scooter class was dominated by the Bengaluru riders. Winner Karthik N from Bengaluru clocked 11:25 followed by Abhijeeth Shetty who came second in 11:50. Subramanya T was 8 seconds behind in third. Pinkesh Thakkar from Pune missed the podium by 43seconds and Elango came fifth. Goutham N was sixth. Upto 130cc Group B class was won by young Kerala rider Ajin

DAY 1, GOA

Sachin D winner of Open class upto 600cc

Elango in Scooter class

Ajin Abraham winner of upto 130cc class

Abraham. He was the fastest clocking 10:57 and beat Chalas K Bose to second by 22 seconds. Sudeep Kottary from Puttur by clocking 11:39 finished third. Durgesh J from Mysuru missed the podium by 0.200th. Rakesh Kumar and Devraj Venkatesh finished in fifth and sixth in that order. In the Open class upto 600cc, Sachin D from Bengaluru won by clocking 9:44. Yuva Kumar from Hero Motosport was a second slower and missed the top slot. Badal Doshi from Mumbai with 18sec deficit completed the podium. Sinan Francis was fourth by clocking 10:22 and Sathya Raj from Hero Motosports was fifth. Jatin Jain from Nagpur finished fifth. In the Bullet class, Bengalurian Naresh VS who was the front runner for the championship finished his run in 10min 45sec and won the class. Suhail Ahamed also from Bengaluru clocked 11:21 to secure second position and Devraj Venkatesh with a timing of 11:43 finished third. Hitesh Ghadge missed the podium by four seconds and settled for fourth position. Chethan Hosati finished fifth and Yogesh Mirji was sixth. In the Ladies class, Deeksha from Pune clocked 16:00 to win beating Vanessa by nine seconds. Favourite Tanika Shanbag from Satara crashed twice and with a timing of 22:56 finished third as she was cautious nurturing an injury with a focus on the 2W Rally final round.

In Group D upto 260cc class, Yuva Kumar from Hero Motosports won by clocking 9:51 while his teammate Sathya Raj came second 45 seconds behind the winner. Sanjay Somshekar was a further four seconds slower in third position. Devraj Venkatesh with 0.350th of a second missed the podium and stood fourth. Karthik S and Samuel Abraham with a further difference of 14sec and 40sec were in fifth and sixth positions respectively. The Group B upto 260cc class was won by Yuva Kumar from Hero Motosports, as he also was the overall topper with a timing of 9:26. Sachin D from Bengaluru clocked 09:32 to finish second while Pavan BK came third in 10:15. Sathyaraj, also from Hero Motosports, with 16sec difference finished fourth. Devraj Venkatesh finished fifth and Sudeep Kottary finished in sixth position. In Group B upto 400cc class, Sudeep Kottary from Mangaluru stood first with a time of 10:36. Aakash Ithal from Puttur was 54seconds behind in second. Hitesh Ghadge from Pune was a further 1min 39seconds behind in third. The Star of Goa class, was won by Bengaluru's Karthik in 11:05. Shabuddin Sayed was second 24sec in deficit and Chethan Hosati another 23 seconds behind was third. Sarvesh Kargaonkar and Pradeep finished in fourth and fifth positions respectively.

Sathya raj Group D upto 260cc ﬁrst runner-up

Pavan Bk winner of upto 165cc JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022 autotrack.ind.in 51

SPRINT NATIONALS

Sachin winner Group B upto 260cc class

ith rain gods providing relief on the second day, the Round 2 was pretty dry at Querim, near Arambole in Goa, except for a few dew drops due to fog in the morning. The track was too slippery and the first 5 to 10 starters had to control their run till the dew dried up. The final round of the finale of the INRSC 2021 was supported by Vega Axor Helmets, Hero MotoSports and BMC filters organised by Motorsport Inc. Upto 600cc Group A class was won by Sinan Francis, who climbed up two places than the previous day as he clocked 09:37. Aman Prabakar Pawde with 9sec difference stood second while Badal Doshi the first day's winner slipped down to third with a further 34-sec difference. Jatin Jain with a further 26sec difference was fourth.

In Group B 131 to 165cc class, it was back-to-back top slot for Pavan BK from Bengaluru. He clocked a ﬂat 10min to win the class. Subramanya T improved

52 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022

his position to ﬁnish second with 15seconds difference while Samuel Abraham slid one position to ﬁnish third with 33-sec difference. Anuj Siddu

Yuva Kumar winner Group D upto 260cc

finished fourth. Anoop Manjappa and Naresh VS finished in fifth and sixth positions respectively. The Scooter class was won by

DAY 2, GOA

Karthik N winner Scooter class

Aakash Aithal winner of upto 400cc Group B

Karthik N once again with a time of 11:19. Subramanya T clinched one position up with a fivesecond difference and jumped to second. Abhijeet Shetty slid one position down to finish third with a 16-sec difference to second. Elango finished fourth another 23-second behind. Rana Prathap and Pinkesh Thakkar positioned themselves in fifth and sixth position in that order. In Group B Upto 130cc class, Mangalurian Sudeep Kottary clocked 10:10 to lead the class and Abhijeet Shetty from Bengaluru finished the stage in second by consuming 30sec more than the winner. Ajin Abraham from Kerala was a further 16-sec slower and had to settle for third position. Rakesh Kumar from Bengaluru and Durgesh from Mysuru with a further difference of 6-sec each settled for fourth and fifth positions respectively. The Open class upto 600cc belonged to Sachin D from Bengaluru. He was at his best with the big machine and managed to win the stage in 9min 8sec. Yuva Kumar from Hero Motorsport was 18-sec slower and secured second position while his teammate Sathyaraj was a further 18sec behind in third. Badal Doshi from Mumbai took fourth taking another 16 sec and Sinan Francis clocked 10:22, another 22

seconds behind to finish fifth. Jatin Jain came sixth. The Bullet class was won by Devraj Venkatesh from Bengaluru, who drastically improved his position from third on Day 1. He bounced to the top spot on the final day with a timing of 10:35. Hitesh Ghadge also climbed two positions to finish second taking another 21seconds behind the winner. Naresh VS had issues with the vehicle on the final day and thus had slipped down two places from Day 1 result. He came third with a difference of 11 sec. Chethan Hosati was further slower by 14sec and settled in fourth position. Yogesh Mirji and Yogesh Kumar finished fifth and sixth in that order. In the Ladies class, Tanika Shanbag won the stage on Day 2. She slipped down to third on Day 1 due to two crashes but looked more comfortable on Day 2 with a total time of 11:32. She was the winner followed by Vanessa in second position with a difference of 3min 2sec while Deeksha, the Day 1 leader could not repeat her performance as she was seven seconds behind and settled for third. In Group D upto 260cc class, Yuva Kumar from Hero Motosports dominated the day and won again with a total time of10min 1sec. His teammate Sathyaraj came second with a

Sinan Francis winner of Group A upto 600cc

Badal Doshi in action Group A upto 600cc

Tanika Shanbag winner of Ladies class

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SPRINT NATIONALS

Sudeep Kottary winner Group B upto 130cc

difference of 20 seconds. Karthik S from Bengaluru stood third with a further difference of 17 seconds. Sanjay Somshekar missed the podium by a second and settled for fourth. Samuel Abraham and Koustuv Kalita ﬁnished in ﬁfth and sixth positions respectively. The Group B upto 260cc class was won by Sachin D from Bengaluru. He clocked 9min 5sec and climbed one position than the previous day. He was slower than Yuva on Day 1 by six seconds but on Day 2, Yuva

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Kumar from Hero Motosports was slower by five seconds and settled for second position. While Yuva's teammate Sathyaraj finished third ensuring a double podium for team Hero Motosports with a further difference of 40sec. Pavan BK from Bengaluru missed the podium by 0.250th of a second. Mangalurian Sudeep Kottary and Devraj Venkatesh from Bengaluru completed the class in fifth and sixth positions respectively. In Group B upto 400cc class, Aakash Ithal from Puttur had a great day by finishing on top with a timing of 11:41. He climbed up one position than the previous day. Hitesh Ghadge from Pune also climbed up one position to second on Day 2 and missed the win by 35sec. Sudeep Kottary from Mangaluru and Suhail Ahamed from Bengaluru did not finish (DNF). Shabuddin Sayed was crowned the Star of Goa. He won with a time of 10:52. Chetan Hosati was second, 18sec behind and Karthik S from Bengaluru was third as he took another three seconds to finish the stage. Sarvesh Kargaonkar was 25sec slower than the third and settled for fourth. Pradeep and Binu John finished in fifth and sixth positions in that order.

Sachin, fastest rider on final day

he Champions of Indian National Rally Sprint Championship (INRSC) 2021 were honoured at the Champions Island in Goa on the same evening after the conclusion of the final two rounds. Sachin was fastest rider of the final Day. In Group A upto 600cc class, there was a tie between Sinan Francis from Ernakulam and Badal Doshi from Mumbai as both logged 40 points each but Sinan was declared as the champion based on the number of better finishes. Aman Prabakar Pawde from Nagpur with 36 points was the second runner-up. In the Open class, Bengaluru boy Sachin D was the champion with 50 points followed by Badal Doshi from Mumbai as first runner-up. Sinan Francis was the second runner-up with 25points. The Group B upto 130cc saw Ajin Abraham from Kerala win the championship with 40 points and with equal number of points Sudeep Kottary from Mangaluru was first runner-up. Chalas K Bose was 2nd runner-up with 26 points. In Group B 131 to 165cc class, Pavan BK from Bengaluru was the champion with 50points and Subramanya T from Bengaluru with 33 points was first runnerup. Samuel Abraham with equal points finished second runnerup. The Group B 166 to 260cc saw Yuva Kumar from Hero Motosports crowned as National champion with 43points. Sachin D from Bengaluru with equal points had to settle down as first runner-up. Pavan BK from Bengaluru with 27 points was second runner-up. Sathyaraj also from Hero Motosports with equal points finished fourth. In Group B 261 to 400cc class,

FINALE, GOA was third with 30points. In the Scooter class Bengalurians dominated. Karthik N was the champion with 50 points,

Aakash Ithal from Puttur with 43 points was the champion followed by Hitesh Ghadge from Pune with 33 points. Sudeep Kottary from Mangaluru was second runner-up with 25 points. In Group D upto 260cc class, Yuva Kumar from Hero Motosports with 50 points was

the champion followed by his teammate Sathyaraj as ﬁrst runner-up with 36 points. Sanjay Somshekar with 27 points was second runner-up. The Bullet class, saw Bengalurian Naresh VS win the championship with 40 points. Devraj Venkatesh with equal points was second and Hitesh Ghadge from Pune

Subramanya T with 33 points was ﬁrst runner-up and Abhijeet Shetty with equal points was second runner-up.

Group B upto 260cc winners

Winners Group D upto 260cc

Bullet class winners

Winner Group B upto 400cc

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TARMAC AUTOCROSS

Ponanna bags a double Joel Joseph wins Time Attack Open class at Meco Kartopia

onanna MS bags a double winning the Indian Open and the Meco Open while Joel Joseph won the Time Attack Open class in the tarmac Time Attack for four-wheelers held at Meco Kartopia in Benglauru recently. Vishal Tiwari from Bengaluru won the upto-1100cc class by clocking 02:33.9 beating Maneesh Reddy by ten seconds. Achintya Mehrotra from Mumbai won the Diesel Cars class by clocking 02:15.6 while Amitav Haldipur came second ﬁve seconds behind pipping Vivek Ramchander by a second to third place. Ashwin Durai was a further three seconds behind in fourth and KP Ashwin with

another five seconds deficit came fifth. Darshan Nachappa finished sixth.

Hussain Mujawar with three seconds further difference came third. Jayanth Somanathan another 600th of a second behind stood fourth. Maneesh Reddy was further slower by eight seconds to finish fifth and Ruthupama Vivek was sixth taking one more second to finish the course.

Ponanna was the winner of Indian Open class with a timing of 02:12.7. Joel Joseph missed the top slot by a mere 0.1 second. Dhruva Chandrashekar too was within a second of the winner and missed second place by 600th of a second. Bala Vijay came fourth another second behind while Achintya Mehrotra was ﬁfth taking a little more than half a second than his immediate driver while Rithvik Thomas ﬁnished sixth another second behind.

Joel Joseph won the upto2000cc class clocking 2:13.4. Ponanna MS came second in 02:15.0 followed by Jussain Muawar in third with another ﬁve seconds difference to second. Iqhlas Ameen was fourth another three seconds behind.

Ponanna MS won the 1600cc class clocking 02:13.0 as he beat Joel Joseph by three seconds.

Dheeraj Manae won the SUV Open class clocking 02:37.2. Naveen Nagaraj ﬁnished in

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second position in 02:45.1. Tarushi Vikram won the Ladies class with a time of 02:42.8 while Rashi Singh came second with a 11-sec difference. Ponanna MS won the Meco Open class with a time of 02:12.2 beating Joel Joseph, who clocked 02:13.7. Dhruva Chandrashekar was third a further second behind. Rithvik Thomas came fourth four tenths of a second behind. Achintya Mehrotra and Iqhlas Ameen finished in fifth and sixth respectively. In the Esteem Open class, Jayanth Somanathan won clocking 02:18.1. Maneesh Reddy finished second with a

BENGALURU three-second difference. Hussain Mujawar came third, another second behind. Bala Vijay won the above 2000cc class with a time of 02:15.5 beating Achintya Mehrotra by 0.2 second. Dhruva Chandrashekar with another 0.4-second deficit stood third. Amitav Haldipur was six seconds slower in fourth position. Ashwin Durai with 800th of a second difference was fifth and Vivek Ramchander, a further 0.1 second behind, finished sixth. The feature event, Time Attack Open class, was bagged by Joel Joseph as he clocked 02:12.3. Ponanna MS settled for second position with a difference of 600 t h of a second. Dhruva Chandrashekar with 300th of a second deficit completed the podium. Bala Vijay with a twosecond further difference was fourth. Rithvik Thomas and Achintya Mehrotra finished fourth and fifth, in that order, within a fraction of the second. Vishal Tiwari won the 1600 class by clocking 02:28.9 as he beat AS Naveen with a 24-sec difference and Kariappa MM did not finish.

Jayanth Somanathan won the upto 1400cc class by clocking 02:18.8. Hussain Mujawar came second in 02:21.1 and Maneesh Reddy was two seconds behind clocking 02:23.5 for third place. Joel Joseph was a further two seconds behind in fourth while Harneet Singh and Ruthuparna Vivek came fifth and sixth respectively. Sawan Sathyanarayan won the Karting Open class in the Kart Fight held at Meco Kartopia in Bengaluru. Both Adhithiya Arvind and Vybhav Mukund Rao were the fastest in qualifying but were unable to continue their form and settled for second and third positions respectively. Ashok Kumar finished fourth. Dheeraj Manae was fifth and Tarushi Vikram finished sixth. In the Karting Slalom class, Vybhav Mukund Rao won with the fastest time (01:22.1) to boot. Adhithiya Arvind was 700th of a second behind in second. Ashok Kumar completed the podium taking another second to finish. Dona R and Sawan Sathyanarayan clocked identical time (01:25.3) to finish fourth and fifth respectively. Athreya Kousgi came sixth.

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XCITING EXPERIENCE

A Week with XUV300 We had an opportunity to drive the Mahindra XUV300 TEXT AND PICTURES: AKSHAYA M

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XUV 300 During the weekend shopping trip, we went into the city to the Lalbagh nursery and that is when we truly learnt of all the services the XUV300 has to offer. The smart steering system, pushbutton start/stop, tyre-tronics (tyre pressure & temperature monitoring system) and speciﬁcally the proximity sensors, all of which were useful while navigating in trafﬁc. Although, we did miss having a dead pedal to increase the ease of driving.

ired of waiting for cabs to travel across the city, we ﬁnally made the decision to start looking for a car. During our research, we came across the Mahindra XUV series. One of the most important criteria for us was safety and we found that the XUV300 became the ﬁrst Indian vehicle to score the highest points among all 5Star rated cars tested so far by Global NCAP. So we spoke to the team and Mahindra to get the vehicle for a week and they agreed. The XUV500 has been one of the bestsellers for Mahindra & Mahindra since launch in 2011, ruling the roads for over 10 years. It was upgraded twice, in 2015 and in 2018. As the company decided to call off the model, taking forward the XUV legacy, Mahindra introduced another new model in the market, XUV700 with a variety of latest features – in terms of technology, look and design. The long waiting list for the delivery shows how the customers love this new SUV. We will come back with another drive story on the new XUV700. On Monday, we went to pick up a relative from the Bangalore

airport. We took the highway and toll roads and had a smooth ride with great performance. The in-built touch screen infotainment system with GPS navigation was excellent. Even during high speeds, we are assured of the best in safety with the cruise control feature as well as the 7 airbags including a knee airbag, dual-front, side and curtain airbags and seat belts for all seats along with reminders for each of them. The trunk space was smaller as compared to other compact SUVs but manageable.

While we said goodbye to the XUV300, we are left convinced that this is a great car in the compact SUV segment. The Mahindra cars are a universal preference as a comprehensive package for couples and families alike which is further proved by the fact that more than half of my members of the society already own a 'Mahindra XUV'.

Later that week, as we took the car out for a night drive, there was cool night air and the XUV allows us to adjust the air temperature to create separate, customised environments for the driver and front passenger. However, there is a lack of rear AC vent for the back seat passengers. As the car got colder in the front, we saw the windows fog up when the defogger came in very handy. While returning that night, the parking sensors in the front and back and the rear parking camera with the dynamic assist were exceptionally practical and convenient. JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022 autotrack.ind.in 59

DRIVE

ENDURANCE

Kushagrr Agarwal, Rajatesh Maji triumph The Noida pair bagged the Gumball endurance challenge at Kaho

he pair of Kushagrr Agarwal and Rajatesh Maji won the 2nd Edition of Gumball India, the non-stop, adrenaline-pumping endurance challenge which ended on a high at Kaho in Arunachal Pradesh recently. Flagged off from Koteshwar in Kutch district of Gujarat on December 24, the participants covered 4000kms non-stop, driving through places of historic significance and the drive culminated at Arunachal Pradesh with the Indian flag hoisting ceremony at Kaho village. And the national anthem was sung by the Indian Army. The first edition was run from South to North covering a distance of 3000 km. This year the distance was increased by 1000 km, running from West to East. The 16 participating teams faced a tough 4,000-kilometre non-stop drive. Drivers from Guwahati, Kolkata, Delhi, Jammu, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kochi participated in this year's event. The teams navigated through 15

secret checkpoints along the way that was revealed to them at the start of the event. Participants were free to take any route they wanted but they had to check-in at all the intermediate checkpoints. All the participating member's cars were monitored by a central tracking system which kept track of the Time, Speed and Distance (TSD). The stopping time and passage check-ins were also monitored. The pair of Kushagrr Agarwal and Rajatesh Maji from Noida

Tea break lineup

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representing Team KARM 2.0 triumphed in the General category ﬁnishing 3885.1 km followed by Team Defenders represented by Ashish Budhiya and Rohit Kashyap. The Ranchi team took second with 4024.6kms. The Delhi-based drivers Aditya Sharma and Alok Mishra from Team Urban Nomads ﬁnished third with a total distance of 4044.4kms. Prashant Gaukar and Digvijay Singh from Nagpur and Haridwar representing Team

Able Warriors were the winners in the Specially-Abled class. The pair of Joginder Singh and Yashwardhan from Hyderabad and Jamshedpur representing Team Ace finished second. Team Living Life on Wheels participants Somya Davar and Shivam Saluja, a Delhi-Jaipur combo, finished third. The prize distribution was held at Golden Pagoda, Namsai with District Commissioner RK Sharma and Superintendent of Police Dr DW Thungon handing out the trophies to the winners. The event was part of the 'Aazadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' celebrations for 75 years of Indian Independence under initiative by Arunachal Pradesh Tourism. To encourage more inclusiveness, the organisers, also tied up with Wheeling Happiness which provided free entry to two teams of speciallyabled drivers. This time, a differently-abled woman participant Saumya Davar undertook this challenging of an endurance drive. The second team was led by Joginder who was a passionate driver before his injury and with our support, he returned to the roads for the first time since becoming a paraplegic. It was also very exciting that our team of Digvijay and Prashant returned once again for Gumball 2021 after taking part in the first edition. Speaking on the event, Deepa

GUJARAT TO ARUNACHAL

Lakhpa interacting with the teams in Arunachal

Arunachal Pradesh entry point

Tea time

Malik, founder of Wheeling Happiness and the President of Indian Paralympic Committee said: “When I started participating in car rallies, I was the first and only paraplegic woman to do so. Now I am so happy to promote the same passion for adventure and motorsports among people with disabilities. I feel so elated that so many people with disabilities have come forward to explore driving and adventure. I want everyone to live their passion and believe in their abilities beyond disability." Sudev Brar, Core Organiser of the event said: “We are glad to end Gumball India on a high note this year. This is the 2nd edition of Gumball India and it was a huge success. Every team gave their best and drove across cities and places of historical significance in the most challenging and intense endurance sport. We promise to come back bigger, better and with more adrenaline-pumping challenges next year.” The event flow was from Koteshwar in Gujarat from where it is said that the glow of light from Karachi, Pakistan can be

seen in a clear night. From there, the drive ended at Kaho in Arunachal Pradesh, about 8 kms before the China border. Along the way, our checkpoints were equally interesting and covered some important places including: · Lakhpat - One of the important trading posts connecting Gurajat to Sindh, Kalo Dungar - Famous for 400year-old Dattatreya temple as well as the only place from where you can get the best majestic views of the Rann of Kutch. Dholavira - One of the five largest Harappan sites and the most prominent site in India for Indus Valley Civilization. Chittorgarh - Does not need any introduction after the epic poem and the more recent magnum opus, Padmaavat Kota - Historical reasons apart, who has not seen Kota Factory on Netflix? Khajuraho - A UNESCO world heritage site. Chunar Fort - A fort city with tons of history and stuff of the legends. Darbhanga - One of the oldest cities in India, and the cultural capital of Bihar. Guwahati - Largest city in northeast of India, on the banks of Brahmaputra. Wakro / Parshuram Kund - A place of significant religious importance.

Winners Kushagrr Agarwal and Rajatesh Maji

Prashant Gaukar and Digvijay Singh winners of Specially-abled class

Enroute discussion JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2022 autotrack.ind.in 61

OFF-ROAD

Sadain Chunawala wins Kartik tops Super Luxury class while Suhana claims Ladies event

adain Chunawala won the three-day second edition of Dune Cross, a tough off-road cross country rally, which was flagged off by DIG BSF Pushpendra Singh Rathore at Bikaner recently. Chunawala from Mumbai started building up the lead after Special Stage 3 (SS) and with a huge points bag of 985, he became the topper of the event. Kartik Sharma from Noida finished second with a total of 824. Rajiv Yadav with 818 points was third. Saalif Chunawala with 764 points was fourth while Abhiraj Singh and Ajay Baisla with 740 and 713 points were fifth and sixth respectively.

Day 1 was the night stage and the flag-off was done amidst very cold temperatures from hotel Vesta Palace, Bikaner to a remote village named Raiser which was about 20kms away from the start. Day 2 had four stages about 4 to 5 km in length, held about 45 km to a historical village named Kawani. The stages were pretty tough and many had a chance of competitors logging in 'did not finish' (DNF). The third and final day began early with four stages which were very tiring and vehicle-breaking, in nature as the result proved with a few DNFs. In the Polaris class , Sadain

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Chunawala was the winner with 985 points. He dominated all the stages with fastest timings while Saalif Chunawala with 764 points came second. In the Super Luxury class, Kartik Sharma was the winner with 824 points. Kartik in the very ﬁrst stage built up about 12 seconds lead but looked shaky in the second stage and was a bit slower. In this stage, he lost time and he came back well recovering from the very next stage. There on, it was no looking back from Day 2. Mihir Patel ﬁnished second with 470 points. Himanshu with 292 points was third. In the Gypsy upto 1300cc class,

Rajiv Yadav began the Day 1 well but looked as if he was losing hold over his position after stage 4 and 5. But there on, he picked up speed but lost some time in the final stage of the final day. Despite all this, he managed to accumulate 818 points to win the class. Abhiraj Singh was unable to capitalise on the lead he managed in Stages 4, 5 and 10. He was running short of points and with 740 points had to settle for second position. Gagan Matharu was unable to clear the fourth stage on Day 2, but he managed to attain 603 points to finish on the podium. Eric Benny also failed to clear the Stage 4 and came fourth with

BIKANER 518 points. Jaydev Ayachi cleared all the stages and but logged only 518 points. Although he was fastest in three stages with same number of points, he finished fifth. Suresh Dudi had 458 points in his kitty in spite of not clearing Stage 10 and finished in that order. In the Modified class above 1300cc, Sushant Saini with 692 points made it to the top. He was the fastest in the class in all the ten stages. Akash Gupta with 555 points stood second. Gayn Ji Rathore had a DNF in the second stage but still managed to finish third. Syed Abdullah was unsuccessful in clearing Stage 4, and with 370 points he was fourth. Vivek Gujrat was fifth as he was unable to be clear many stages. Thar CRDE Class saw Ajay Baisla win with 713 points. Rajesh Saini with uncleared Stage 9 had 711 points and secured second place. Gurlal Dhaliwal was also unsuccessful in clearing the ninth stage and finished third with 514 points. The fourth finisher, Sam Chunawala had 428 points. Devender Kadian with 394 points was fifth and Kutub Kazi with 392 points was sixth. In the SUV class upto 2500cc, Archit Jindal with 239 points was the winner but was unsuccessful in clearing the first stage. Rahul

Bedi was unable to clear Stage 4 and 9 and had to be content with 221 points in second. Jitender Singh with 214 points was third with zero penalties in a few stages. The SUV class above 2500cc saw Shantanu Grover win with 598 points. Varun Singh fell short by 37 points and had to settle for second position. Ajay Sharma with 515 points finished third. Rakesh Singh Parihar and Bijender Singh finished in fourth and fifth positions respectively. In the Pick-up class , Sanjay Choudhary with 700 points won despite not clearing Stage 9. Nishant Goyal with 492 points was second. Atul Rana got 366 points by did not clear Stage 4 and was third. Gaurav Rana with 347 points failed to clear Stage 4 and was fourth. In the Jeep class, Harinder Singh Gill with 591 points came out triumphant. Vinod Jangid came in second with 280 points. He failed to clear Stage 4 and los crucial points. The Ladies class was won by Suhana Singh with 312 points. Amrita Shergill was second with 305 points. Shefali Goel with 270 points completed the podium. Amandeep Kaur with 268 points was fourth and Mayura Shindolkar with 177 points came fifth. Thereja Benny finished sixth.

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ABU DHABI

FINALS FORMULA 1

Max Verstappen wins his first F1 World Driver's Championship Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes' dreams go up due to fag-end accident TEXT BY: BODAPATI DAVID

ax Verstappen won

his ﬁrst World Driver's

Championship at the end of one of the most intense title-deciders in Formula 1 history, passing rival Lewis Hamilton to take the lead and the race win on the last lap of a dramatic Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on December 12 in Abu Dhabi. With 54 laps of the race gone and with Hamilton in an apparently comfortable 11-second lead, Verstappen's chances of taking the title appeared to be over, but when Williams' Nicholas Latiﬁ crashed out and the safety car was released, the Red Bull driver was handed another chance. When the lights went out at the start, Hamilton got the better start and took the lead into Turn 1 ahead of Verstappen. Behind them, Sergio Pérez made a good start and took third place from McLaren's Lando Norris who

went wide. Having lost the lead, Verstappen slotted into the slipstream of Hamilton's Mercedes and closed up to the Briton on the run to Turn 7. He attacked with a move down the inside and Hamilton went wide. The Mercedes rejoined the track in the lead and the incident prompted the stewards to take a closer look but ultimately they ruled that there was “no investigation necessary” and Hamilton was free to march on in the lead. He then set about building a gap to Verstappen, who began to complain of tyre wear, and by lap 13 the Dutchman was ﬁve seconds behind his title rival. Over the next six laps the Mercedes driver closed the gap to the Mexican and with DRS support he attacked on the pit straight, passing the Mexican with apparent ease. Pérez was in

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no mood to relinquish the lead, however, and in the following DRS zone he powered back past the Briton to reclaim top spot. Pérez's feisty defence had the effect of allowing Max to erase much his deﬁcit to Hamilton and when the British driver ﬁnally made it past the Mexican under DRS on the next lap, Pérez quickly moved aside to let Verstappen power through to second place, just a few seconds behind Hamilton and with both now on hard tyres. The complexion of the race changed on lap 36 when Antonio Giovinazzi pulled over at the side of the track with gearbox issues. The Virtual Safety Car was deployed and with Hamilton staying out on track, the Team quickly called Max in for another set of hard tyres. Pérez also pitted under the VSC and he rejoined in third place.

Verstappen rejoined almost 17 seconds behind Hamilton and when the track went green the Red Bull driver began to close on the Mercedes at the rate of eight tenths of a second per lap. But as the final stint unfolded it became clear that the pace in the new tyres wouldn't be strong enough to put Verstappen close to the race-leading Mercedes. With 10 laps left Verstappen was 12 seconds behind Hamilton and running out of time, but on lap 53 the pendulum once again swung back towards the Dutchman. Williams' Nicholas Latifi crashed and the Safety Car was released. Verstappen immediately pitted and took a set of soft tyres as Hamilton stayed on track. On lap 57 race control decreed that the five cars on track between Hamilton and Verstappen would be allowed to unlap themselves and that the Safety Car would come in to provide for a single lap of racing, and when the track went green Max was immediately on the attack. He closed on Hamilton on the run to Turn 5 and with a brave dive down the inside he claimed the race lead. Hamilton fought back on the next straight and drew alongside the Dutchman and almost got past, but Max held the line, held his nerve and kept the lead until the finish line, and until he had claimed his 1st FIA F1 World Drivers' Championship title.