March - April 2021

DAKAR 2021

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INDIA’S FIRST DOMESTIC MOTORSPORTS & OFF-ROAD MAGAZINE

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MRF 2W INRC Rajendra RE excels in Hampi

JK NRC Amir Sayed hogs limelight

ASIAN LeMans Racing Team India nishes 5th on debut

4W INRC

SEPTUPLE CHAMPION

GAURAV GILL MUMBAI FALCONS STRONG INTERN

ATIONAL DEBUT

EDITORIAL / IMPRINT

IMPRINT Editor S. Ashok Kumar Tiwari

Hi, Our New Look.

AUTO TRACK is on a new track...

T

he successful completion of 2020 season is a real boost for the motorsport fraternity which had a long idle period due to COVID 19.

The short season has definitely pulled out many from depression and put them back on the track. The early announcement of the upcoming season is a very positive approach. More has to be looked into the Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) for 4-wheelers. It was the only Championship which never went as per plans last season, though it took off on a right note despite a few initial glitches.

Now with three tyre companies supporting the drivers, it is time to keep the track rolling for this season on priority. INRC 4-wheeler Championship requires much overhauling as too many confusions and un-kept promises have taken the charm away from the once-popular sport, despite good and best efforts from the Promoter and organisers. The priority now must be, to first sort out these issues before announcing the 2021 calendar. This also further puts the fraternity along with promoters and organisers on top, for following and executing the sport within a short period of time as everyone, everywhere managed very well to implement the Standard Operating Procedures set by the Government in view of the Pandemic.

The mother of all off-road events will be back after a brief hiatus. After missing the 2020 season, it is good news that RFC India, is back despite not having a main sponsor, as of now, and the off-roading community will get a hand on it for the 2021 season in the last week of July.

Planning the year to make sure that dates of the 11 different National Championships do not clash must be the Federation's top-priority. It is a matter of wait-and-watch.

Apart from MRF Racing, Rally and Supercross, the calendar for other Nationals like JK Racing, Meco Rotax Karting, Karting, X1, INRC-4W, Sprint and Drag Racing are yet to be announced.

Autotrack is also looking forward to organise the 12th and 13th "ATMA", Autotrack Motorsports Awards for excellence in motorsports for the year 2019 and 2020. As the 12th awards were taken hostage by COVID19 lockdown. But one hopes the surge in Covid cases will not put brakes on the process once again.

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

Concept and Design: S. Ashok Kumar Tiwari Staff Photographers: Keshav Murthy, 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 14, ISSUE 3 O1 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

R1, DUBAI

Racing Team India makes solid ALMS debut Finishes fifth and fourth in 2 four-hour races

R

acing Team India got its bid to become the first allIndian squad to compete at the 24 Hours of Le Mans underway with a solid debut over the opening two rounds of the Asian Le Mans Series in Dubai which concluded on Feb 15.

The JK Tyres-backed team's ORECA 07 LMP2 car, piloted

by Narain Karthikeyan, Arjun Maini and Naveen Rao, with technical support from reigning ALMS champions

O4 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

Algarve Pro Racing, finished fifth and fourth in the two four-hour races held at the Dubai Autodrome.

The team's #64 car showed promising pace throughout the weekend, as it had in the pre-race test sessions. But its challenge was hampered by racing incidents and a penalty.

The team had to make an extra precautionary pit-stop in Saturday's opening race which dropped the car down the order. A five second time

penalty for exceeding the speed limit further set it back, forcing the drivers to claw their way back up to fifth, where they had qualified.

The second race on Sunday got off to a promising start with Maini, who has plenty of endurance racing experience from his European Le Mans outings, setting competitive lap times and even leading the race at one stage.

But any hopes of a maiden podium were dashed after a collision with a slower GT car

forced the team to pit the car and carry out a nose change that cost valuable time.

Still, the two races in Dubai offered an important learning experience for the team, which on its debut became the first outfit with an all-Indian line-up to compete in international endurance races.

The team has entered the Asian Le Mans series as part of its bid to become the first Indian team to race at the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans.

RACING

JK TYRE NATL

Unchallenged young Amir Sayed hogs limelight Double for Sandeep Kumar clinches him a surprise Championship

A

mir Sayed from Kottayam was unchallenged in all the six races of Novice Cup and Chennai's Sandeep Kumar clinched a double while Vishnu, Diljit, Ashwin and Ryan won a race each in the Formula LGB4 in the final round of the 23rd JK TyreFMSCI National Racing Championship 2020 held at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore recently.

O6 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

Day One: JK Tyre Novice Cup: Amir Sayed from Team M Sport clocked 13:08.679 to win Race 1 beating Chetan Surineni from Momentum Motorsports by over 20seconds. Neym Rizvi from MSport who was a further 8seconds slower settled for third position. In Race 2, timings were not confirmed due to technical issues but the results remained the same as Race 1. And it made no difference to Amir Sayed

who won his second race of the day. Chetan Surineni and Neymi Rizvi finished in that order behind Sayed. The Race 3 results were no different from the earlier two races. But it was considerably slower as Amir the winner clocked 13:33.497 which was 25seconds slower than Race 1. Chetan was 26 seconds slower while Rizvi was 21seconds slower. The final race of the day belonged to Amir as he clocked 13:36.512 beating Aman Chaudhary to second by a huge margin as

Aman timed 13:47.738.

Chetan slipped down the order to third with a difference of another 12 seconds.

LGB Formula 4: Dark Don Racing dominated the day in all the three races.

In Race 1, Sandeep Kumar A from Dark Don Racing with a timing of 17:32.376 was the winner edging out his teammate Ashwin Datta to second by just three seconds.

The third Dark Don Racing driver Diljith TS with a further two seconds behind and

R2, COIMBATORE stood third. Ashwin with a timing of 14:35.521 was the winner of Race 2 followed by Sandeep in second. This race too was much closer with Ashwin winning by just a second difference. Diljith also lost out on a photo-finish to settle for third. Sandeep won the final race of the day with 22:32.129 while his teammate Chirag Ghorpade missed the top slot by an arm's distance. Diljith managed to complete the podium for the third straight time with a difference of just over one second. Meanwhile, Mira Erda from Vadodara escaped unscathed in a scary racing incident on Saturday morning. Mira's Formula LGB 4 car was hit from behind by Akshay Kapoor. Her car went out of control and turned turtle. She stood up in no time, much to the relief of all the officials watching it unfurl in Race Control room.

Day Two: JK Tyre Novice Cup: As anticipated, teen sensation Amir Sayed showed that the young man is in form and a prospect for the future as he crowned himself in glory once again. It was a day for him to just

keep going. But he never let things go easy, he kept his winning spree improving. With just two races left to end the day and the Championship, he won Race 1, with a timing of 14:17.157 while Chetan with 14 seconds difference came second. Aman Chaudhary, from DTS Racing, lost second place by just a second but was content with a third on the podium. The final race once again went Amir's way as he clocked 16:34.084 to beat Chetan to second by 22 seconds. Rizvi came in third another five seconds behind.

LGB Formula 4: The final day provided plenty of sparks as the Formula LGB 4 Championship went down to the wire till the last lap of the final race. It was a heartbreak for Ashwin Datta, who led overnight in the Formula LGB 4 category with 63 points. Call it sheer bad luck or the way racing plays out as a sport. Ashwin was distraught in the morning as he faced brake failure in the first race. It was a challenge for him to keep his cool in the last race of the championship (12th) in the afternoon as he started from the back row of the grid. The

WINNERS DILJITH, SANDEEP AND SAROSH

"I do not want to say anything really, as the nal standings have to be tabulated," said Sandeep.

formation laps itself had to be gone through repeatedly and after three times the race had to be restarted; Ashwin did the damage to his chances. At the very first corner, his car came into dangerous contact with a few cars and it was all over for him. After seeing mayhem ahead of him in the last race, he decided the best plan was not to do anything risky, especially after all the incidents. The repeated appearance of the safety car can play on the mind of the drivers. Yet, Sandeep's rich experience and ice-cool nerves stood him in good stead

AMIR SAYED LEADING AT C1 MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 07

RACING

JK TYRE NATL

as he finished fifth in the last race. He totalled 66 points to seal the Formula LGB 4 Championship. Ashwin finished with 63 points. These points tally are as per provisional standings.

Vishnu Prasad, 54 points was third. In Race 1, Mohamed Ryan

from MSport won with a time of 20:21.929 over his teammate Vishnu Prasad by just a second.

Arya Singh from Dark Don Racing with another twosecond difference stood third. In the second race of the day, Diljith had to struggle and bring

“It has been a very thrilling and satisfying championship for me. It was fun driving this whole season," said Amir, after winning the last race.

ASHWIN, SANDEEP AND DILJITH ON PODIUM

AMIR SAYED

LADIES CLASS WINNERS

O8 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

all his experience into force, to keep his teammate, Sandeep, behind him in the very-close finish. Sarosh Hataria from Ahura Racing came third another second behind. The final race of the day went MSport driver Vishnu's way as he beat Ryan by 6 seconds and Sarosh, for the second time in a row, finished third. Sandeep did not have much to say after the race.

Or, maybe, he could not believe the way luck played into his hands today. "I do not want to say anything really, as the final standings have to be tabulated," said Sandeep. "It was fun driving this whole season," said Amir, after winning the last race.

He garnered a whopping 120 points in the Championship which was the maximum possible. He was extremely happy to be crowned champion but kept his emotions in check.

There was no undue celebration and even on the podium, he was well in control. "It has been a very thrilling and satisfying championship for me," Amir concluded.

RALLY

COIMBATORE

Samuel Jacob leads TVS sweep in Coimbatore Aishwarya dominates Ladies Class once again; Satara's Tanika takes 2nd PHOTO BY: P BALAMURUGAN

S

amuel Jacob from TVS Racing emerged triumphant in the Rally of Coimbatore, the third round of the MRF Mogrip Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) for 2wheelers 2020 held in Coimbatore in January. The Rally had two Special Stages, 1O autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

Black Thunder and Thunder World which were run twice in the forward direction, accumulating to 68.70km of Special Stage distance and along with 14.42 liaison, the total rally distance made up to 83.12kms. The Black Thunder stage was 14.35km while the second physical

stage, the Thunder World was 20kms made up of gravel at the windmill farms of Kethanur. Samuel was the overall winner with a total time of 1hr 1min 3sec and led a top-four TVS sweep as the team riders bagged all the first four positions. Imran Pasha with a 36-sec

difference was second while Nataraj R, a further 49 seconds behind settled for third position. Sachin D came another 26 sec late to take fourth place. Asad Khan, a privateer from Chikkamagaluru finished fifth. Yuva Kumar, also a privateer, stood sixth.Nataraj

COIMBATORE R from TVS Racing riding an Apache RTR clocked 1hr 2min 28sec to win the Super Bike Pro- Expert Group A class. He was followed by Rakesh Kumar, a privateer from Coimbatore, who was riding an Apache RTR. He took 5min 12 sec more to finish second. Riding a Hero Xpulse, another privateer from Bengaluru, Vinay Prasad, was a further 21sec behi nd as he took the third place. Phalguna Raghavendra from Bengaluru and Amarendra Sathe from Pune settled for fourth and fifth respectively.

In the Super Bike Expert Group A class, Asad Khan a privateer from Chikkamagaluru riding an RMX 450Z, clocked 1:03.09sec to top the class.

Sarath Mohan, also a privateer, from Mallapuram riding a RMX450Z took second with a difference of 2min 50sec. Mithun Gopal from Trivandrum dropped out in the third stage. Varun Kumar A from Bengaluru riding a Yamaha YBX was the winner of Super Sport 130 Group B Class which was

VARUN KUMAR A WINNER CLASS 2

dominated by privateers. He clocked 1hr 11min 44 sec.

Vignesh Mahalingam from Coimbatore, also on a Yamaha YBX, with a difference of 2min 45sec settled for second. Hari Krishnan KS from Trivandrum, riding a Gladiator took 1min 23sec more for his third place.

Patteeshwaran from Pollachi and Kiran from Bengaluru finished in fourth and fifth positions respectively.

F r a n c i s P V f r o m Chikkamagaluru, riding an Impulse, was the winner of Super Sport 165 Group B Class with a time of 1hr 7min 18sec. Akhil Joy from Ernakulam, also astride an Impulse stood second coming 1min 31sec behind the leader. Vikram Sekhar from Coimbatore, with further 5sec difference, completed the podium.

Nirmal E from Kottayam finished fourth and Abrar Ahmed from Mysuru stood fifth. Super Sport 260 Group B was bagged by the overall winner Samuel Jacob from TVS Racing astride an Apache RTR clocking 1hr

SAJEESH REGHUNATHAN WINNER CLASS 5

NARESH VS WINNER CLASS 6

K SARAVANA KUMAR WINNER STAR OF TAMILNADU

PINKESH THAKKAR WINNER SCOOTER CLASS MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 11

COIMBATORE

RALLY

COIMBATORE

YUVA KUMAR CLASS 4 PARTICIPANT

SARATH KUMAR S WINNER CLASS 6

11min 1 sec to come out victorious edging out teammate Imran Pasha by 13 seconds. Yuva Kumar, a privateer from Bengaluru, riding a Hero Xpulse, completed the podium coming another 3min 57.0seconds behind.

Sathyaraj from Coimbatore and Samuel Abraham from Ernakulam, both riding a Hero Xpulse, finished in fourth and fifth positions respectively. Sajeesh Reghunathan from Bengaluru, riding a KTM DUKE 390, with a time of 1hr 23min 31seconds won the Super Sport 400 Group B Class. Harish S, also from Bengaluru riding a KTM DUKE 390, fell short by a mere 700th of a second and settled for second. Akash RJ from Kerala and T Vijay Kumar from Kodagu did not 12 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

finish the event. Sarath Kumar S, riding a Himalayan, clocked 1hr 18min 28seconds to grab the top position in the Bengaluriansdominated Super Sport 550 Group B Class. Vishwas SD with a difference of 51sec finished in second position.

Abhijeet Sarkar with another 13min 51seconds difference managed to complete the podium. Naresh VS dominated the class right

from the start till the end and with a handsome lead of over three minutes but ran out of luck just before the start of the final stage as he took external help to fix the flat tyre and was disqualified. The Scooter class with cent percent TVS-N TORQ. TVS Racing rider Karthik N won the class as he dominated throughout the season. He timed 1hr 22min 15 sec.

Ninganna M Handral, a privateer from Bengaluru, managed to finish in second with a difference of 1min 23 sec, but importantly ending the domination of a podium sweep by TVS. Pinkesh Thakkar, also from TVS Racing had to settle for third position with a huge difference of 6min 42 sec. His teammate Shamim Ismail Khan who was leading the class till the third stage had a flat tyre and lost huge time in the upcoming stages before service. He came back in the final stage after service and proved his mettle once again

clocking the fastest class time. But he was disqualified later. Another privateer Subramanya had to pull out in the first stage. In the Ladies Class, Aishwarya Pissay M from TVS Racing riding a Apache RTR finished on top of the class with a convincing win by 2min 32 seconds as she beat Tanika Shanbhag, a privateer from Satara, who was on a Hero Xpulse. Ryhana Bee, also a Privateer from Chennai, riding a TVS Apache, was third, a further 2min 2 sec behind Shanbhag. The Star of Karnataka Class, was bagged by Stephen T Roy from Kushalnagar on a Hero Impulse clocking 1hr 17min 39 seconds. MD Ansar from Bengaluru bagged second with a difference of 4min 10 sec. Akshay Raje Urs from Mysuru a further 33sec behind stood third.

Goutham Rao and Syed Towhid, both from Bengaluru, stood fourth and fifth in that order.

WINNER CLASS 1A NATARAJ R

RALLY DE HAMPI

Rajendra hogs limelight TVS makes a clean sweep at Rally de Hampi

H

ospet became the another vibrant m o t o r s p o r t destination in India, as the final round of the MRF Mogrip Indian National Rally Championship for twowheelers (INRC-2w) was held on the outskirts of Hospet at the Jumbonath foothills. The Special Stage distance of the two stages was 62.50-km long and liaison distance was 80.2km making for a total of 14 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

142.70km rally distance.

While the Jumbo Special Stage (12.5km) was run thrice, the Sagar Special Stage with an identical distance of 12.5km was taken on twice. Rajendra RE of TVS Racing riding on a Apache RTR clocked a total time of 1:09.53 to be the winner of Rally de Hampi. His teammate Samuel Jacob riding a Apache RTR with a difference of 1:07 settled for

second place. Imran Pasha also from TVS Racing with a further difference of 13 seconds completed the podium. Another TVS champion, Nataraj R missed the podium by 11 seconds.

Privateer Asad Khan from Chikkamagaluru, riding a Suzuki MRX 450, stood fifth overall. In the Super Bike ProExpert Goup A, Rajendra RE won with a lead of 1 minute 32 seconds over his

teammate Nataraj R, who was riding an Apache RTR. Privateer Nikhil B, astride a Yamaha from Kodagu, was another 3:1.0sec finished third. Vinay Prasad riding a Hero Xpulse had to pull out in the fourth stage due to mechanical issues. Asad Khan with a time of 1:13.29 won the Super Bike Expert class beating Sarath Mohan, a privateer from Mallapuram, on a Suzuki RMX450. Mohan

R4, HOSPET lost by 2min 19 seconds.

Amarendra Sathe, another privateer from Pune, riding a TVS Apache settled for third coming 11:47sec behind.

Mithun G, also a privateer from Trivandrum, riding a Suzuki RMX 450 was disqualified. In Super Sport 130 Group B, Varun Kumar A from Bengaluru, riding a Yamaha YBX, clocked 1:23:3.0 to win the class defeating Syed Kaleem, also from Bengaluru on a Yamaha YBX by 8min 32 seconds.

Prajwal V from Mysuru, riding a Honda Stunner, pulled out in the last stage while Karan S, became a casualty in the second stage. PV Francis from Chikkamgaluru, riding a Hero Impulse, won the Super Sport 165 Group B with a time of 1:17:32.0. Shoeb Mohamed Khan from Mysuru riding a Hero Impulse with a difference of 1min 23 seconds stood second. Mysore riders Abrar Ahmed and Zabiulla, both on a Hero Impulse, stood in third and fourth position respectively. Pratik Patel from Mumbai was excluded while Abrar Pasha and Dinesh Joshi did not finish pulling out after Stage 3. In Super Sport 260 Group B, Samuel Jacob from TVS

Racing, astride a Apache RTR, took 1hr 11min 1 sec to come out victorious edging out teammate Imran Pasha by 13 seconds. Yuva Kumar, a privateer from Bengaluru, riding a Hero Xpulse, completed the podium coming another 3min 57.0seconds behind.

Sathyaraj from Coimbatore and Samuel Abraham from Ernakulam, both riding a Hero Xpulse, finished in fourth and fifth positions respectively. Sajeesh Reghunathan from Bengaluru, riding a KTM DUKE 390, with a time of 1hr 23min 31seconds won the Super Sport 400 Group B Class. Harish S, also from Bengaluru riding a KTM DUKE 390, fell short by a mere 700th of a second and settled for second. Akash RJ from Kerala and T Vijay Kumar from Kodagu did not finish the event. Sarath Kumar S, riding a Himalayan, clocked 1hr 18min 28 seconds to grab the top position in the Bengaluriansdominated Super Sport 550 Group B Class. Vishwas SD with a difference of 51sec finished in second position. Abhijeet Sarkar with another 13min 51seconds difference managed to complete the podium.

ASAD KHAN WINNER CLASS 1A

VARUN KUMAR A WINNER CLASS 2

NARESH VS CLASS 6

WINNERS GROUP PHOTOGRAPH MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 15

R4, HOSPET

RALLY DE HAMPI

SARATH KUMAR WINNER CLASS 6

Naresh VS dominated the class right from the start till the end and with a handsome lead of over three minutes but ran out of luck just before the start of the final stage as he took external help to fix the flat tyre and was disqualified.

The Scooter class with cent percent TVS-N TORQ. TVS Racing rider Karthik N won the class as he dominated throughout the season. He timed 1hr 22min 15 sec.

Ninganna M Handral, a privateer from Bengaluru, managed to finish in second

YUVA KUMAR THIRD IN CLASS 4 16 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

with a difference of 1min 23 sec, but importantly ending the domination of a podium sweep by TVS. Pinkesh Thakkar, also from TVS Racing had to settle for third position with a huge difference of 6min 42 sec. His teammate Shamim Ismail Khan who was leading the class till the third stage had a flat tyre and lost huge time in the upcoming stages before service. He came back in the final stage after service and proved his mettle once again clocking the fastest class time. But he was disqualified

later. Another privateer Subramanya had to pull out in the first stage. In the Ladies

Class, Aishwarya Pissay M from TVS Racing riding a Apache RTR finished on top of the class with a convincing win by 2min 32 seconds as she beat Tanika Shanbhag, a privateer from Satara, who was on a Hero Xpulse.

Ryhana Bee, also a Privateer from Chennai, riding a TVS Apache, was third, a further 2min 2 sec behind Shanbhag. The Star of Karnataka Class, was bagged

by Stephen T Roy from Kushalnagar on a Hero Impulse clocking 1hr 17min 39 seconds. MD Ansar from Bengaluru bagged second with a difference of 4min 10 sec. Akshay Raje Urs from Mysuru a further 33sec behind stood third. Goutham Rao and Syed Towhid, both from Bengaluru, stood fourth and fifth in that order.

NINGANNA M HANDRAL 2ND SCOOTER CLASS

PV FRANCIS WINNER CLASS 3

DESERT CHALLENGE

Kabir, Team DRC win UDC again Yuva wins maiden Hero UDC off-road Moto; Prithvi stars in Open Class

A

fter four days of intense off-roading action and, neckand-neck battle for the top spot, Kabir Waraich and codriver Amber Udasi of Chandigarh’s Team Gerrari Offroaders once again emerged as the winners of the Hero UDC ‘Offroad-4WD’ at the 7 t h Hero Ultimate Desert Challenge powered

by Polaris held at Bikaner in February. Driving his Polaris RZR 1000, the Chandigarh duo scored an almost perfect 18 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

score of 980 points out of 1000, to secure their record fourth win. In the inaugural edition of Hero UDC Offroad-Moto, Yuva Kumar of Team Hero MotoCorp won the Overall Fastest Hero Xpulse Award, with 1263 points out of 1400 on his modified Hero Xpulse.

Chandigarh’s young motocross sensation Prithvi Dhillon won the non-Hero ‘Open class’ in the same category. Hero UDC held 10 special stages in Offroad-

4WD category and 14 special stages in the Offroad-Moto category over a course of three days. Special Stages varied from 1.5km to 10km in length with a mix of various terrain and navigational challenges. The pair of Kabir Waraich and Amber Udasi managed to complete all the ten stages and were fastest in seven of them and managed 980 points to win the Polaris class beating Deepam Prajapati and co-driver Amritpal Singh to second

position as they could garner only 915 points. However, they clocked better timings than the winners in Stage 5.

Sadain Chunawala along with Pratik Prabhudesai bagged 885 points despite not being able to clear Stage 7 but they managed to clock three fastest stage times to take third position. Advik Patnaik and Aranyaraj Kishore Singh also did not clear Stage 7. With a total points of 686 points they took fourth position. The pair

BIKANER of Saalif Chunawala and Anirudh Shete with 672 points finished fifth as they could not clear Stages 3 and 10.

Gypsy Class: The Gypsy upto 1350cc class was bagged by Gurprem Sidhu and Navdeep Singh with 575 points. They completed all the stages and set five fastest stage times.

Bhanu Pratap Singh and Maan Singh Saggu also completed all the stages and were fastest in three stages accumulating 489 points to finish second. Eric Benny and Ujjal Namshum could not complete Stages 4 and 9 but garnered 486 points to take third place. With 378 points after completing all the stages, Vivek Gujral and Arun Chahal finished fourth. The duo of Pawan Dabas and Bharat Dabas with 345 points from 8 stages came fifth.

They were unable to clear Stages 3 and 9.

Modified Gypsy Class: The Modified Gypsy above 1350cc class was won by the pair of Gurpinder Singh and Jaideep Singh, who completed all the stages being fastest in Five stages and achieved 735 points.

Damaninder Singh along with Naval Kishor Yadav secured second spot bagging 667 points, although they could not complete Stages 3 and 9. But they clocked five fastest Stage times. Vikas Tanwar and Sharad Agarwal with 602 points finished third completing all the stages.

Lokesh Malhotra along with Anwar Shirpurwala were fourth as they could not clear Stage 3 but managed 503 points. Neeloy Sarkar and Aashish B Chaudhary with 490 points were fifth. They could not complete Stages 8 and 9.

Thar Class: The Stock Thar class was won

by the pair of Devendra Singh Rathore and Manish Saini with 686 points. Though they failed to complete Stage 8, they managed to clock fastest times in seven stages.

While Vikram Singh and Ravinder Singh Rathore despite failing to complete Stage 7 managed 418 points to stand second. Nishant Goyal and Abhishek Adlakha did not complete Stage 3 but accumulated 317 to complete the podium in third. Gurlal Dhaliwal and Karan Brar with 300 points took fourth. They did not complete Stage3. Waibhav Choudhury and Saswat Swain with 285 points stood fifth as they could not complete Stages 4 and 5.

SUV Class: In the SUV Stock upto 2700cc class, Ankuj Chauhan and Viresh Singh bagged 470 points after completing ten stages to win the SUV Class followed by Sarvjeet Singh and Aman Sharma who fetched 397 points to take second place even though they had zero points from Stage 7 which they could not

ANKIT YADAV & MONU YADAV

RITIKA OBEROI & BRIJESH

SATHYARAJ

SADAIN AND PRATIK 2ND IN POLARIS CLASS MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 19

DESERT CHALLENGE

ONKARJITAND ANDKUNAL JASHANJIT VANEETA IN ACTION

SARVEET AND AMAN

2O autotrack.ind.in MAR /APR 2021

“

Yuva Kumar, winner of Overall Fastest Xpulse Award in OffroadMoto category said: “As a motorcyclist coming from Southern India, it is a big opportunity to be here and compete at this stage, on this terrain. I’m happy to be a part of it and perform the way I did. I am positively looking forward to the future editions of Hero UDC.”

“

complete. The pair of Anirudh Krishan Vaishnav and Rajesh Saini with 393 points took the third position. They did not complete Stages 2 and 8.

Anshuman Bishnoi and Neeraj Singh completed all the ten stages and won 388 points to come fourth. With zero points from Stage 8, the pair of Nitin Kapoor and Manish Sandhu could get only 361 points and settled for fifth position.

Super SUV Class: In the Super SUV Class, Ankit Yadav along with Monu Yadav got 605 points. They did not clear Stage 8 but managed to win the class followed by Rajiv Yadav and Lokesh Yadav, who fetched 522 points clearing all the stages in second place.

Harinder Singh Gill and Baljeet Taunque with 506 points after clearing all ten stages were third.

Bijender Singh along with Suhana, also cleared all the stages to garner 478 points and came fourth. Onkarjit Singh Birdi and Jashanjit Birdi with 471 came fifth after clearing all the stages.

The Monster Class: Was won by the pair of Damaninder Singh and Naval Kishore Yadav with 667 points.

Despite nil points from Stages 3 and 9. Harinder Singh Gill along with Baljeet Taunque won 506 points for second place. With all stages completed, Sushant Saini

YUVA KUMAR WINNER MOTO CLASS

BIKANER and Harmanpreet Singh Gill gained 469 points to take third place. They got zero points in Stage 6.

Polaris Class: Deepam Prajapati and Amritpal Singh won the Polaris Class with 915 points after finishing all ten stages.

The pair of Saalif Chunawala and Anirudh Shete with 672 points from eight stages stood second.

Pickup Trucks: Onkarjit Singh Birdi and Jahanjit Birdi after completing all the stages with 471 points won the Pickup Trucks Class. Sarvjeet Singh with Aman Sharma accumulated 397 points from 9 stages and stood second.

Anirudh Krishan Vaishnav and Rajesh Saini with 393 points from eight stages were third. Ritika Oberoi and Brijesh were fourth and Vaneeta Kang along with Kunal Kashyap were fifth.

Women's Class: In the Woman Driver's class, Ritika Oberoi along with Brijesh from nine stages scored 368 points to win the class. Vaneeta Kang and Kunal Kashyap from six stages were second after scoring 278 points, Satyajit Singh Vimmi along with Tony Jattana scored 244 points from nine stages to finish third. Mayura Shindolkar along with Kushagra Singh completed only six stages and with 217 points they stood fourth.

Young Drivers: This category had only two participants. Sadain Chunawla along with Pratik Prabhudesai with 885 points from nine stages were the winners followed by Saalif Chunawala and Anirudh Shete in second position with 672 points from eight stages.

After successfully winning his record fourth title in Offroad-4WD category of

India’s biggest offroading competition in the desert terrain.

“

Kabir said: “It feels good to be back on the top of the podium after missing it last year.

The idea was not to make too many mistakes and properly execute the basics, and that’s exactly what we did. I would like to thank my codriver Amber without whom this win wouldn’t have been possible.”

In the special categories, Hanumangarh’s Gurpinder Singh (co-driver Jaideep Singh) won the overall fastest award in the nonPolaris category of 4WD segment with 735 points.

Securing 368 points, Ritika Oberoi (co-driver Brijesh) emerged as the fastest woman. The 13-year old Advik Patnaik (co-driver Aranyaraj Kishor Singh) and Prithvi Dhillon emerged as

the fastest young driver and young rider, respectively.

Rajasthan-Punjab-Haryanabased Desert Raiders Club won the coveted Team Trophy.

Moto class: The overall winner with Hero bikes in the Moto Class for the Modified Xpulse, was bagged by Yuva Kumar followed by Santosh Bishnoi in second while Sathyaraj A finished third. Xpulse stock class was bagged by Sahab Ram. Hemant More finished second and Prasanta Barik settled for third. XpulseModified with Rally-Kit class belonged to Rana Pratap while Shailendra Singh was second and Eshan Banodkar finished third. In Impulse category, Lakhyeer Singh Rathore was the winner as

Asif Gaur finished second and Shahrukh Khan settled for third. Open class was bagged by Prithvi Dhillon while Rihen Bhardwaj was second, and Abhimanyu Bhati came third. Young rider category winner was Mansh Saini.

WINNERS OF UDC Overall:

KABIR / AMBER

Moto:

YUVA KUMAR

Womens: RITIKA / BRIJESH Youngster: SADAIN / PRATIK

Polaris:

DEEPAM / AMRITPAL

Super SUV: ANKIT / MONU

Pick-up:

ONKARJIT / JAHANJIT

Gypsy:

GURPREM / NAVDEEP

Monster: DAMINANDER / NAVAL

GURPINDER AND JAIDEEP

WINNERS KABIR AND AMBER

MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 21

RALLY

COIMBATORE

Unstoppable Gaurav Gill, Musa Sherif claim th 7 National title The Arjuna Awardee equals the record 7 titles by Naren Kumar PHOTO BY: VIKRAM SUNDHARAMOORTHY

T

he third and final round of the CYC fmsci Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) 2020 for 4-wheelers was held in Coimbatore. The number of participants who entered was 63 for the two gravel stages run twice at the 22 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

Kethnur windmill farms.

Gaurav Gill was unstoppable, with a clean sweep of wins from all the three rounds, he went on to regain his INRC title making it his 7th National title and equalled the National record of 7 titles held by Naren Kumar. Gill

along with co-driver Musa Sherif clocked a total time of 1hr 27min 56.700sec to become the outright winners of the Rally. For Musa Sherif too, this is the 7th National title and a record.

INRC: After winning both the back-to-back rounds at

Arunachal Pradesh, Gaurav Gill along with Musa Sherif, driving a Mahindra XUV300 supported by JK Tyre, took a comfortable lead of 1minutes, 25seconds to come out triumphant at the Rally of Coimbatore. After an overnight lead of 1min

R3, COIMBATORE 20seconds from four stages run on Day 1, Gaurav began his Day 2 on an cautious note, further extending the lead by 4 seconds from the remaining two stages. The pair of Dr. Bikku Babu and Bonnie Thomas from Kerala, driving a VW Polo, clocked a time of 1hr 29min 21sec and settled for second position. Youngster Fabid Ahmer and Eldo Chacko from Kerala, also driving a VW Polo supported by JK Tyre, finished third with a deficit of 36 seconds. Fabid was just 8 seconds behind Bikku on Day 1 but was unable to close the gap on Day 2 due to mechanical issues and Bikku Babu, popular as Dr Speed, never let his guard down. The defending champion and Yokohama tyres supported driver Chetan Shivram, navigated by a new co-driver Shahid Salman, missed the podium by a minute and 8 seconds. The reigning champion who saw his VW Polo face issues in the Arunachal round, couldn't do much as he missed the podium. The pair of Aditya Thakur and Virender Kashyap driving a VW Polo from Team Snap Racing, with a further 31sec deficit, stood fifth.

Ritesh Guttedar and Lokaranjan, driving a VW Polo, were just behind by 6 seconds but had to be content with sixth overall position, which nevertheless

OVERALL WINNERS GAURAV GILL AND MUSA SHERIF

DR. BIKKU BABU AND BONNIE THOMAS WINNERS INRC2

JINRC WINNERS HARKRISHAN WADI AND CHIRAG THAKUR

INRC4 WINNERS VAIBHAV MARATHE AND SUHAN MK

INRC3 WINNERS FABID AHMER AND ELDO CHACKO MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 23

RALLY

COIMBATORE

WINNERS Overall: GAURAV / MUSA INRC2: BIKKU / BONIE INRC3: FABID / ELDO INRC4: VAIBHAV / SUHAN JINRC: HARKRISHAN / CHIRAG GYPSY: SANJAY / KARAN GYPSY CLASS WINNERS SANJAY RAZDAN AND KARAN AUKTA

was a good achievement for an INRC2 team.

INRC2: The Kerala pair of Bikku Babu and Bonnie Thomas driving a VW Polo on MRF Tyres won the class with a total time of 1hr 29min 21sec. Chetan Shivram and Shahid Salman, who paired for the first season, were 1min 44sec slower and had to settle for second position. They began Day 2 with a difference of 1min 2sec and lost another 33sec on Day 2.Ritesh Guttedar M and Lokaranjan HJ were another 38seconds in deficit in third place and completed the podium.

Team Snap Racing drivers, Sahil Khanna and Vidit Jain, driving a VW Polo missed the podium by a margin of 1min 10sec. Veteran pair Rahul Kanthraj navigated by Vivek Bhatt, despite mechanical 24 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

issues stood fifth with 21min 13sec difference. Lakshay Veer Dabas, navigated by Sagar Mallappa, with a further difference of 19min 20sec finished sixth. This class saw four cars log DNFs (did not finish) and one suffered MPL penalty.

INRC3: Fabid Ahmer, along with Eldo Chacko, on JK Tyres won the class clocking 1:29.57sec and a lead by over 1min 39sec over Aditya Thakur and codriver Virender kashyap who brought their VW Polo to a second-place finish.

Maninder Singh Prince, along with navigator Vinay Padmashali, driving a snap Racing-tuned VW Polo, supported by JK Tyre, finished third with a further difference of 1min 20sec.

Mohammed Kasim, along with Sanath G, with a further

INRC2 WINNERS

R3, COIMBATORE

GYPSY CLASS WINNERS

INRC3 WINNERS

JINRC WINNERS

47sec difference were fourth followed by Harkrishan Wadia and Chirag Thakur in a Honda City in fifth as they took 57sec more to the finish.

Phurpa Tsering of Arunachal Pradesh, driving a VW Polo on JK Tyres, along with Lenin Jose, finished sixth with a further difference of 2min 44sec.

INRC4: Vaibhav Marathe and Suhan MK driving a Honda City on Yokohama tyres were the winners of the class with a total time of 1hr 36min 51sec. The pair of Yeswanth Padale and Bharath SM driving a Honda City, came second taking another 3min 42sec. Pradeep Ravi, driving a Maruti Suzuki Esteem, with Arvind Dheerendra giving the calls, came third another 1min 38sec behind. Sumesh M, on a Maruti Suzuki Esteem, along with Anil Abbas clocked 1hr 52min 10sec to finish fourth followed by Arthira Murali and George Varghese, also on a Esteem in fifth with a deficit of 1min 4sec to his immediate car.

JINRC: HarKrishan Wadia and Chirag Thakur won the Junior INRC Class timing 1hr 34min 42sec. Driving a Honda City they beat the pair of Rakshith Iyer and M Chandrashekar who were behind the wheel of a Maruti Suzuki Esteem by

29min 25sec. The mother and daughter doctors from Davangere, Dr Shivani Pruthvi, navigated by mom Dr Deepti Pruthvi, brought their Mitsubishi Cedia home in third but took another 11min 7sec to completed the podium. Arjun Rao along Shanmuga Sundaram from Snap Racing and Rohith Iyer along with GM Manjunath did not finish the event. The lady pair of Pragathi Gowda, who did well in Arunachal Pradesh on debut, along with another debutante navigator, Trisha Jagannath, had a strange bad luck spoiling their chances. Their car key were misplaced or stolen on Day 1 after their car stalled at a crowded place.

Gypsy Cup: Out of the 12 participants, only six Gypsies managed to complete the rally. Sanjay Razdan, along with Karan Aukta clocked 1hr 40min 40sec to win the Class. They were followed by Sanjay Agarwal along with Smitha Prasad in second with a difference of 16seconds.

Divyanshu Vyas, navigated

by Venu Ramesh Kumar, finished third with a further deficit of 27seconds. Dheeraj KV, along with Pramod Raman, finished fourth, a further 1min behind. The pair of Daksh Gill and Mrinmoy Saha with a further difference of 1min 47sec came fifth.

CHETAN SHIVRAM AND SHAHID SALMAN IN ACTION

INRC WINNERS MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 25

RALLY

ARUNACHAL

Guarav Gill-Musa Sherif dish out high speeds to win Dean-Shruptha clinch INRC2; Aditya-Virender stop Fabid-Eldo pair in INRC3

I

t was a second straight win for Gaurav Gill in the back-to-back rounds of the Rally of Arunachal Pradesh as he won the Round 2, too, in the Champions Yacht Club FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship for four wheelers 2020. Gaurav Gill navigated by Musa Sherif, driving a Mahindra XUV300 and supported by JK Tyre, excelled with a display of masterful driving on the super-speed tarmac rally at 26 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

Itanagar. While the same 14km 4-lane highway track was utilised for both the rounds, this rally as the previous one had two night stages on Day 1 and Day 2 had one day stage. Speed maestro Gaurav with a total time of 42min 15sec was the winner beating teammates, the pair of Amittrajit Ghosh and Ashwin Naik, also driving a Mahindra XUV300 on JK Tyres with a huge difference of 1min 33sec. Talented Karna Kadur, along with Nikhil Pai, driving

a VW Polo on MRF tyres completed the podium a further 1min 09sec behind Ghosh. Mangalurians Dean Mascarenhas, navigated by Shruptha Padival, on a VW Polo supported by JK Tyre finished fourth with a further difference of 41 seconds.

Aditya Thakur navigated by Virender Kashyap driving a VW Polo were fifth taking another 1min 42sec. The Kerala pair of Fabid Ahmer and Eldo Chacko, driving a VW Polo supported by JK

Tyre, recovered after early hiccups with a further 9sec in deficit.

INRC2: Dean Mascarenhas along with Shruptha Padival driving a VW Polo supported

by JK Tyre clocked a total time of 45min 38sec to win INRC2. Sahil Khanna navigated by Vidit Jain from Snap Racing driving a VW Polo finished second with a difference of 2min 3sec. The pair of Rahul Kanthraj and

R2, ITANAGAR

OVERALL WINNERS, GAURAV GILL AND MUSA SHERIF

INRC2 WINNERS, DEAN MASCARENHAS AND SHRUPTHA PADIVAL

Vivek Bhatt behind the wheel of a VW Polo were behind by just 3sec as they completed the podium. Chetan Shivram and Rupesh Kholay brought their VW Polo, shod on Yokohama to fourth place as they took 1min 59sec more.

Lakshay Veer Dabas along with Amandeep Singh driving a VW Polo with 40sec further difference were fifth.

INRC3: Driving a VW Polo, Aditya Thakur along with Virender Kashyap clocked 47min 21sec to win the Class beating favourite Fabid Ahmer and Eldo Chacko, by 9 seconds. Both the Kerala drivers were in a VW Polo on JK Tyres. Maninder Singh Prince along with Vinay Padmashali from Snap Racing supported by JK Tyre driving a VW Polo completed the podium with a further difference of 35sec.

Harkrishan Wadia along with Chirag Thakur driving a

Honda City also on JK Tyres took a further 21sec to take fourth position. Arjun Rao and Shanmuga Sundaram supported by Yokohama were fifth another 30sec behind. The all-ladies team sponsored by Vasundhara Jewellers, Pragathi Gowda and Deeksha Balakrishna driving a VW Polo sixth a further 38sec in deficit.

INRC4: Mujeeb Rahman, along with Goutham CP, driving a Honda city were the winners of INRC4. The duo clocked 51min 28sec. Defending champion Vaibhav Marathe, along with Suhan MK, driving a Honda City supported by Yokohama came second with a difference of 46seconds.

Rohith Iyer, navigated by GM Manjunath, with a further difference of 2min 52sec stood third. Lanusanen Pongener, along with Lokaranjan HJ, the surprise

INRC, 2ND RUNNER-UP KARNA KADUR AND NIKHIL PAI MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 27

R2, ITANAGAR

RALLY

ARUNACHAL

INRC4 WINNERS MUJEEB RAHMAN AND GOUTHAM CP

first-round winners, were further slower by 13sec driving a Honda City and stood fourth. Nabam Asha navigated by Mahesh Nandi driving a Maruti Suzuki Baleno were fifth another 18min 37sec behind. The pair of Khyati Mody and Sagar Mallappa driving a Honda City stood sixth.

JINRC: Harkrishan Wadia along with Chirag Thakur by clocking 48min 28sec were the winners of the Junior INRC followed by Arjun Rao and Shanmuga Sundaram in second position as they took 30sec more. Pragathi Gowda navigated by Deeksha Balakrishna stood third.

Rohith Iyer and GM Manjunath stood fourth.

Gypsy Cup: Kariappa Mekerira and Abhinav Ganapathy from Coorg with a total time of 52min 1sec were the winners followed by Sanjay Razdan and Karan Aukta with a difference of 1min 23sec stood second. The pair of Daksh Gill and Mrinmoy Saha with a further difference of 16sec finished 3rd. Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary navigated

by Uday Kumar with a further difference of 50sec were fourth. Mohd Kaif Khan along with Arjun Dheerendra were fifth another 31sec behind. Sanjay Agarwal and Smitha Prasad were sixth taking a further 1min 14sec.

ARUNACHAL CLASS WINNERS

JINRC WINNERS HARKRISHAN WADIA AND CHIRAG THAKUR

INRC2, 2ND RUNNER-UP SAHIL KHANNA AND VIDIT JAIN

JINRC 2ND RUNNER-UP PRAGATHI GOWDA AND DEEKSHA BK 28 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

INRC2 WINNER DEAN IN ACTION

R2, DUBAI

RACING ENDURANCE

Racing Team India finishes fifth in Asian Le Mans Indian team listed for French Le Mans, continues to chase the dream

R

acing Team India, the first all-Indian team to compete at the international endurance racing level, ended its first Asian Le Mans Series campaign fifth in the overall standings on Feb 21, as it continued to make progress towards its Le Mans dream.

Narain Karthikeyan, Arjun Maini and Naveen Rao, raced their ORECA 07 LMP2 car to a pair of fifth-place finishes in the final two races of the

maximising its potential.

The team's first season of competition offered plenty of positives however.

Faced with a steep learning curve, the outfit showed it has the speed to fight at the front with its Indian Tricolour liveried car leading the second Dubai race at one stage.

Former F1 racer Karthikeyan and European Le Mans veteran Maini were blisteringly quick, showing all of their racing experience.

2020 IMSA Prototype Challenge Champion Naveen Rao, the team's bronze-rated driver, also made big strides forward, unlocking a new level of performance from Dubai to Abu Dhabi.

Racing Team India is grateful to the Asian Le Mans Series and the ACO. Organisers were extremely supportive of the team's effort and goals and welcomed it into the series with open arms.

The team will now is listed among the participants to take part in the race at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which is postponed due to COVID19.

season at Abu Dhabi's Yas Marina track.

The results came on the back of the fifth and fourth-placed finishes the team chalked up in the two season-opening races in Dubai.

Backed by JK Tyres, and with technical support from reigning Asian Le Mans champions Algarve Pro Racing, Racing Team India had gone into the Abu Dhabi season-ender hoping to build on its Dubai showing.

But unfortunate racing incidents hindered the #64 challenger's chances of MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 29

RALLY DAKAR

Harith Noah conquers Dakar in second attempt The TVS-backed rider creates history becoming 1st Indian to finish in top-20

T

VS Racing-backed rider Harith Noah created History at Dakar, the iconic crosscountry event known as the gruelling and toughest in the world. Noah became the first Indian to finish Dakar Rally in the Top-20, a admirable achievement as he overcame a crash and beat the record of his compatriot CS Santosh, who best was a 36-finish.

3O autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

The Indian rider Harith Noah from Kerala, began this Dakar journey riding for Sherco TVS Racing. Being part of the shakedown was more exciting, as he missed it in the previous year. But he was still fixing up issues with the bike, the 11-km Prologue stage did not go as he expected and he was not happy with his performance, as he spent less time on the bike.

Stage One was with a total run of 622kms including a Special Stage of about 277kms ended at Bisha after the start at Jeddah. This stage demanded lot of physical attention as it was passing through rocks.

Harith managed to finish the day in 31st position overall and 31st in the stage despite trying to understand the bike and he slowly increased his comfort

level with the bike.

Harith retained his 31st position overall and 32nd in the 457-km Stage 2 which was about 685kms in total.

From Bisha to Wadi-AdDawasir, it consisted of soft sand dunes.

Stage 3 was the longest stage of the rally with 813kms in total heading out of Wadi to the Capital city of Riyadh with a special stage distance of 337kms.

RIYADH

Harith held on to his 31st position overall and improved 25th fastest in the stage. He kept improving positions as his confidence level and his comfort level with the bike increased.

The 629-km Stage 4 heading towards Buryadah was expected to be one of the toughest stages full of rocks and a rocky river-bed and it never went on well with Harith. The 419-km Special Stage had set a nightmare point in the form of a rock just outside the track. He had a bad crash at about 100-km speed, the same rock which CS Santosh and other riders crashed at.

But he managed to pull the bike out and ride further but the bike was fully damaged.

Without an exhaust and a twisted seat he went further for about 150kms. Another issue was in the waiting just

40kms before the finish. The damaged rare fuel tank had its say and there was no fuel left. He had to waited for some time and managed to get 3 litres from a latecoming rider and fill into his water bag which served as fuel tank for further journey that could only take him to a further 20kms. There on he had to further arrange for fuel to the finish of the stage and one more rider supported with another 3 litres. This lost time pulled him down to 37th overall by being 66th in the stage, but he was glad he completed the stage that took a toll on many a rider including CS Santosh, who was airlifted to hospital in Riyadh.

To put the day behind was not so easy during stage five, with a total distance of 662kms and about 456kms of Special Stage distance.

The stage was very harsh and tiring, most of the competitors were unable to make way to the service on time as the stage demanded very good navigational skills. A few arrived just hours before the next day start. But Harith managed to finish the day in 39th position by sliding two positions from the previous stage and was still 41st fastest in the stage. This despite having good navigational experience, he was followed by his teammate mid-way who rejoined him after losing track. But once again Harith had to face testing times. Just 20kms before the finish, he started experiencing some technical issues with the bike and it took about 60 minutes to figure out the issue and sort it out. In the wake of several competitors arriving the

bivouac very late, the organizers decided to shorten the special Stage 6 by 100kms which was 348kms instead of 448kms moving towards Ha'il also by deferring the start by 90 minutes. Overnight rains had made navigation easy, as it had left a route print on the soil. He managed to climb four places up to 35th overall and 27th in the stage. Stage 6 was followed by an essential rest day giving time to recover from the earlier challenging stages. The total distance of 737kms was in the menu for the 7th stage as it was a fresh start after a day-long rest. As the initial route was very rough with rocks and bumpy, saving the bike and his painful back was a priority but he managed to finish 33rd overall and 26th in the stage.

MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 31

RIYADH

RALLY DAKAR

Then it was the beginning of his favourite hard surface stages.

Stage 8 had a total of 709kms out of which 375kms consisted of competitive Special Stage.

Reaching to the Neom region of Saudi Arabia, he managed to climb one position better than the previous day and finished 32nd overall and 29th in stage, in spite of having arm-pump issues due to the freezing cold.

Harith continued his up-rise with a smile on his face as he was getting more comfortable with bike and the favourite hard surface too helped in stage 9 which was a loop from Neom to Neom by covering a total distance of 579kms out of

32 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

which 465kms was Special Stage distance. He completed the stage in 17th and stood 25th overall.

Stage 10 being the shorter special stage of 342kms heading towards Al-Ula out of the total 583kms. He rose to 24th position by being 16th fastest in the stage.

This was his best Stage classification for any Indian in Dakar.

As the finish of the Dakar 2021 was nearing, Harith was leaving no stone unturned to improve his placing as only two stages were left. He managed to still climb two positions up and finished 22nd overall and 18th in the 511-km Special Stage out of

“ It was a lot many lessons learnt from the previous year on navigation. This put me in more comfortable position this season. I was very excited when I came to know I have nished in 20th position. I was not following up with the stage positions to focus on riding.

But further on I will work on grey areas to improve and become beer for the next edition in areas where I am not good at."

59 kms in total and the rally was in the Yanbu region of Saudi Arabia.

The final day was the longest day for Harith. Mentally he thought it was the shortest stage in spite of the hard surface being his favourite. As he had to face technical issues with his bike mid-way and had to move below 100-km speed due to technical issues, he finally took a bold decision to go full on in the final 5-km of the stage. This saw Harith climbing up two more positions to finish 20th overall and 19th fastest in the 225kms special stage, finishing at Jeddah.

R2, CHENNAI

DRAG

NATIONALS

Hemanth Muddappa th retains National title for 4 year

Ann Jennifer triumphs to become Girls' Champion

B

engaluru’s H e m a n t h Muddappa from Mantra Racing retained his overall title in the 2020 MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Drag Racing Championship which concluded at the MMRT on Jan 24.

titles in two different classes.

Aiyaz, a private entrant, clinched three titles – the 226-360cc and 361-550cc categories in the four-stroke class and the Up to 165cc (2Stroke) – while Bharath Raj of Rulexx Rockers Racing topped in the Up to 165cc and 226-360cc classes.

4-Stroke: Muddappa ended the 2020 season which was delayed due to the pandemic with a grand double and a clean sweep in both Above 1051cc and 815-1050cc categories.

He won all four outings over two rounds to underline his dominance in two-wheeler drag racing. Thus, Muddappa became the National Drag champion for the fourth successive year with seven

In the Above-1051cc Class, Hemanth Muddappa with a best timing of 7.879sec was the winner followed by Baba Satagopan in second as he could only clock 8.263sec.

Hafizullah Khan with a very close difference of 0.099sec was third. In the 815 to 1050cc Class, Muddappa was once again in his elements topping with a time of 0.071sec. Zubair Ali Jung

timed 8.202sec to settle for second position while Baba Satagopan finished third in 8.036sec.In the 361 to 550cc Class, Hyderabad's Karthik Mateti won clocking 12.325sec beating Aiyaz (12.360sec) to second. Thulsi Ram by clocking 12.447 finished third. PM Soorya by clocking 12.532 was the winner of 226 to 360cc Class.

J Bharatraj with a mere difference of 0.004sec settled for second position while Shankar Guru A clocking 13.166 came third. In upto 165cc Class, J Bharatraj clocked 14.420sec to win the class followed by PM Soorya with a timing of 14.46sec in second. R Aravind Ganesh stood third in 14.526sec.In the Girls category 165cc

Class, Ann Jennifer clocked 16.858sec to win the class followed by RV Czimkhy in second by clocking 17.077sec. Niveta Jessica with 17.156sec had to settle for third.

2-Stroke: Aiyaz clocked 12.959sec to win the upto-165cc Class beating Mohammed Touheed to second.

Touheed timed 13.220sec.

Kaleem Pasha clocked 13.224sec to finish third.

Mohammed Rafiq won the upto 130cc class by clocking 13.200sec. Mujahid Pasha clocked 13.452 to settled for second position while Mohammed Touheed with a difference of 0.235sec stood third.

MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 33

RALLY DAKAR

th

J Rod delivers 11 , his best at Dakar; th Buhler 14 Ace rider CS Santosh suffers serious crash in Stage 4

A

t the end of an emotionallycharged and gruelling 12 stages, Hero MotoSports Team Rally delivered an impressive performance with both riders posting their best-ever Dakar standings. Joaquim Rodrigues finished 11th and Buhler was 14th.

With three riders as part of the 43rd edition of Dakar Rally at Jeddah for its fifth consecutive Rally represented by Joaquim Rodrigues, CS Santosh and Sebastian Buhler, the latest

34 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

addition to the team.

Unfortunately, Santosh, the top Indian rider at Dakar, suffered a crash in Stage 4 and could not complete the rally.

In the Prologue Stage, Buhler finished 5th while Rodrigures came in 10th and the Indian Rider CS Santosh ended up 35th.

Stage 1: Starting first for the team, Sebastian Buhler started the stage well but chose a wrong track along with a group of riders about 20kms into the stage which resulted in him riding alone

in the dust for most of the stage. Having lost time, he finished the stage at the 29th position.

Joaquim Rodrigues started well but decided to exercise caution to avoid any unwarranted incidents right at the start of Rally. Santosh too decided to ride safe and finished 43rd.

Stage 2: Delivered an inspired run in the Stage.

Pushing hard, the rider posted significant gains with Rodrigues finishing 12 t h breaching into top 20, and Buhler in 14th place with a 24th

overall. CS Santosh continued to grow in confidence and delivered a solid stage to leap up by several positions in the overall rankings to finish on the 36th position in the overall standings.

Stage 3: Continuing their sound run, the rider trio turned in another good performance. Rodrigues finished the stage in the 20th place, Sebastian Buhler came in 21st to retain his overall 24th position and Santosh closed the stage in the 36th place by tackling another long stage

RIYADH

really well to gain a couple of positions in the overall rankings. He now stands at the 34th position.

CS Santosh hits a rock Stage 4: Wolfgang Fischer, Team Manager said: "Today was quite a difficult and emotional stage for us as it was the same stage where we lost Paulo last year. It was unfortunate that Santosh had a crash today and he will not be able to continue his Dakar 2021 journey anymore." This stage turned out to be a mixed bag for Hero MotoSports Team Rally.

On a positive note, Rodrigues continued to inspire everyone with his gritty performances and set a blazing pace to finish in sixth and overall 16 th position.

Buhler continued to keep it steady and safe with a 24th place finish in the stage.

On a sombre note, Indian ace CS Santosh hit a rock and suffered a crash forfeiting the

stage. He was immediately attended to by the onground medical team and was found to be stable. His 2021 Dakar campaign has come to an unfortunate premature end. He was airlifted to Riyadh where he has taken treatment and returned to India after a few days for further treatment.

A Hero MotoSports Statement said: “We are pleased to share that Santosh has no major physical injuries except for the dislocated right shoulder and head trauma. The latest scans have also shown no major issue that could impact his full recovery.

The entire Hero MotoSports Team Rally and the extended Hero Family is fully commied to aid the recovery and rehabilitation of our teammate.''

Stage 5: Moving past the unfortunate incident of Stage 4, the team continued to move forward with a solid performance in Stage 5. Both the riders were now placed

inside the top-20 in the overall rankings with Rodrigues on 19th and Buhler 20th.

Stage 6: Considering the difficult Stage 5 that led to several competitors arriving the bivouac very late in the evening, the organisers earlier decided to shorten the Stage 6 by 100kms and also deferred the start by almost 90 minutes. However, the stage still challenged the competitors with 348kms of special featuring dunes of all shapes and colours, which proved physically demanding on the competitors.

Rodrigues struck form once again and achieved an 8th place finish in the stage and 17th overall. Sebastian Buhler continued to hold his position steady around the early 20s mark with a 21st place finish. With this they headed for a well-deserved rest day, the next day, giving them time to recover from the onslaught of a tough first half of the rally and reassess

their strategy for the next half.

Stage 7: Picking-up from where they left their Dakar 2021 campaign before the rest day, the Team delivered yet another solid performance with Joaquim Rodrigues registering his third Top- 10 stage finish w i t h 1 6 th o v e r a l l a n d Sebastian Buhler continuing to be steady 21st position.

Stage 8: It was the turn of Buhler to lead the team's charge. In the concluding half of the Marathon Stage, he turned in a stellar performance to finish the stage in the 10th place. His first ever Top-10 stage finish in the Dakar Rally.

Rodrigues, on the other hand, had a relatively tough time after his bike hit a rock and he hurt his shoulder from the impact. He had to slow down considerably to get himself back to the bivouac safely. Battling the pain and discomfort, he managed to finish the stage at 25th place.

MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 35

RIYADH

RALLY DAKAR

Stage 9: It was an emotionally charged day for Hero MotoSports Team Rally, as it marked the first death anniversary of Paulo, who passed away after a crash at the Dakar Rally on the same day last year.

Rodrigues finished the stage in the 13th position. Buhler, started the stage well but then lost his way and as a result conceded some time. However, he rose to the task and finished the stage in 24th position.

Stage 10: This was the fifth Top10 stage finish for the team and the fourth for Rodrigues. Riding like a man on a mission, he set the pace right from the start and rode with a good rhythm, in the relatively shorter Stage 10, to

“

finish at 10th place.

His teammate Buhler though had a more subdued stage after losing a lot of time in the beginning due to a navigation mistake. However, he regained quickly to win back some time in the latter part of the stage and finished at 21st place.

Stage 11: Both riders were now in the Top-15 in overall rankings.

Buhler kept it steady and concentrated hard to avoid any mistakes at this critical juncture in the rally. He got rewarded for his discipline and perseverance with a 12th place finish.

Rodrigues also started the stage really well to get into a good pace and rhythm until right at the very end of the stage he

Sebastian Buhler (Competitor No. 24) said: "The last stage was quite nice and the terrain was also in the perfect condition because of the rains so I am very happy to cross the nish line today. This place brings so many bad memories to us so it was a big relief to nish the last stage. Also it was the rst big test for the bike and it worked perfectly so it was a great job done by the whole team. I want to thank my team, Hero family and our supporters for backing us through this difficult Dakar and the year. Hopefully this New Year will turn out to be beer for all of us."

Joaquim Rodrigues (Competitor No. 27) said: "I am so happy to have made it to the nish line.

The stage had a lot of navigation so I tried to focus on that and avoid making any more mistakes in this last stage.

The last few kms were the longest ever for me and when I saw the nish line I just felt so relieved. I made it to the nish for Paulo and my family. I want to thank all my teammates, Hero family and everyone who supported me to come back here and race again."

missed a way point. Besides losing time, he also attracted a time penalty for missing it, thereby finishing the Stage 11 on 26th place.

Stage 12: Hero MotoSports Team Rally completed its Dakar 2021 campaign with a fantastic result as both Team riders crossed the final finish line today in Jeddah.

Joaquim Rodrigues, for whom this was a highly-emotional Dakar, finished the last stage with yet another Top-10 finish at 8th place, making it his sixth Top-10 stage finish in this Dakar. Sebastian Buhler was not far behind and also posted another Top-10 for the team with 10th place finish in this last stage, his third of the rally.

“

CS SANTOSH IN ACTION

SEBASTIAN BUHLER IN ACTION

JOAQUIM RODRIGUES IN ACTION 36 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

TSD RALLY

OMEGA

COVID CARE

Omega Seiki Mobility unveils RAGE + FROST for last-mile delivery of COVID-19 Vaccine

I

n a bid to serve India in providing 360 degrees' logistic solutions by creating a robust supply chain for COVID-19 Vaccine drive, Omega Seiki Mobility unveils Rage+ Frost, a Smart EV Threewheeler with the refrigerated carriage purposely designed for pharmaceuticals & food delivery. The company joined hands with Trans ACNR to bring expertise in create such robust multipurpose vehicles.

The electric three-wheeler design has been finalized after in-depth engineering & research to attain a sleek contemporary pilot's cabin, aerodynamic design, and ample carriage space.

Considering the certain parameters, the vehicle resolves the respective issues of vaccine delivery and transportation. The batterypowered vehicle can store vaccines for 72 hours in a stationary state at a temperature as low as -20 degrees Celsius.

“We are excited to launch

Rage+ Frost in the market.

Pandemic has left its adverse effect on the nation, so this product will help the country in the last-mile delivery of the vaccine. This initiative will mark historic times when it will be on the roads. We are committed to building a strong and healthy nation by contributing with our technology in producing environmentfriendly vehicles. The OSM was working hard to develop a product, which will help to deliver the Covid-19 vaccine.

The introduction of Electric three-wheelers on the electrification front will be a great initiative to resolve the problem of last mile delivery.

This is an important step for the growth of our company as well. Team OSM has been working on many products since March 2020, contributing to the Nation's electrification drive and sustainable transportation. The all-new Rage+ frost will be available Pan-India in a coming couple of months", says Uday Narang,

Chairman of Omega Seiki Mobility.

The new Rage+ Frost brings a concept in pollution-free delivery of essentials, leading to maximum productivity, economic and environmental gain. The smart EV runs on Zero Maintenance Li-ion battery technology with a swappable option in the respective product. The pilot's cabin supports a roller cage structure for complete driver safety. The aerodynamic design offers a low cost of running at Rs. 0.5/km. The vehicles offer the latest smart technology including a regenerative braking system.

The vehicle offers a new generation Electronic speedometer with a top speed of 50km/hr. and a loading capacity of 960 GVW. The refrigerated carriage ensures a 1340-watt cooling capacity at 0 degrees Celsius.

"COVID-19 vaccine is the biggest breakthrough of science in modern human history. Now it's time to

vaccinate. Mass vaccination of more than 1.3 billion people is a humongous task. It involves logistics at unprecedented scale. We, at Omega Seiki Mobility, believe the Government has done the job of making vaccines available.

Now it's the job of industry to take the vaccine to the masses.

The challenges of transportation, storage, cold chain and last mile delivery have to be overcome. We at OSM are providing the complete vaccine delivery system. Last mile in India is always the most challenging task and this will be accomplished by our Rage+ Frost. The system has been designed to run on battery for 72 hours. It can maintain 0 to 20 degrees, once charged for 3 days. This is in line with our vision of making vaccines available to all, at door steps.

We also have tied up with B Medical a pioneer in PCM refrigeration box technology from Europe for storage in small boxes. These can be cooled to as low as -70degree.

These combined with Rage+ Frost provide a complete Vaccine delivery system.", added Dr. Deb Mukherji, Managing Director, Omega Seiki Mobility.

"Trans ACNR has been in the transportation cooling business for the past 20 years.

We command a majority market share in this segment.

Our strength lies in R&D and product development in cooling and refrigeration technologies. We are pleased to partner with Omega Seiki who are pioneers in electric vehicles technology. By joining hands, we bring the last mile delivery of products like food, pharma in a temperature controlled environment to our customers. Vaccine delivery will be a major project for us.

We are very pleased to launch Rage+ Frost through OSM and Trans ACNR collaboration.", added Mr. Shatrughan Kumar, MD, TRANS ACNR. MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 37

RACING

NATIONALS

Jagan Kumar wins Pro-Stock 165cc Open title Chennai's Mohan is champ in Novice Class; Ann Jennifer regains Girls crown PHOTO BY: SRINIVASA KRISHNAN

J

agan Kumar swept to title triumph in the Pro-Stock 165cc Open category while Chennai youngster Mohan Babu topped the Novice (Stock 165cc) class as the second and final round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2020 concluded at the MMRT on Dec 20.

Day 3: Jagan, 31, picked up his ninth National title including the 125cc in 2009 38 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

and eight in the 165cc Open class. For Babu, a 21-year old Purchase Executive in a Chennai firm, it was his maiden National title. In ProStock 301-400cc: Race3, Anish Damodar Shetty from Race Concepts was the winner followed by Rajini Krishnan in second position as KY Ahamed finished third.

Race4 went Rajini's way as Deepak Ravikumar from TVS Racing was second while Amarnath Menon from Speedup racing was third.

FINAL, CHENNAI Pro-Stock 165cc: Race3, Jagan from TVS Racing was the winner followed by his teammate KY Ahamed in second position as S Mathana Kumar from Eneos Honda Erula Racing in third.

Race4, belonged to Mathana Kumar followed by Sarath Kumar from RACR Castrol Power Racing in second position as Ahamed finished third. Novice Stock 165cc Race4, Navaneeth Kumar was the winner followed by Mohan Babu in second position while Alwin Sundar from AS Motorsports was third.

Day 2: Juggling racing and online exams, 19-year old Ann Jennifer (Sparks Racing) from Chennai kept her nerves to regain the title in the Girls category with her fourth consecutive win. She had previously won the title in 2018, but a couple of poor rounds cost her the championship in 2019.Earlier, 40-year old Rajini Krishnan, a former multiple National champion, rolled back the years, and came up with a masterly display to win the premier Pro-Stock 301-400cc race.

Equally impressive victors were Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) in the Pro-Stock

165cc race, and Bengaluru’s Ullas Santrupt (RACR Castrol Power Racing) and Navneeth Kumar (Rulexx Rockers Racing) from Puducherry in the two Novice (Stock 165cc) category races. Jennifer in Girls Stock 165cc Race2, yet again had a poor start from pole position, but recovered to win easily from Gusto Racing pair of Lani Zena Fernandez and Arpitha Bhat, who both finished second and third, respectively, in the championship. Participating in a National championship after eight years when he was busy racing superbikes on the international circuit, Rajini, who started from P3 on the grid, destroyed a quality field to win the six-lap race by the proverbial country mile. TVS Racing’s Jagan Kumar was second followed by Amarnath Menon (SpeedUp Racing).

Jagan had to fight hard for his win in the Pro-Stock 165cc race, being constantly harried by team-mate Ahamed as TVS Racing enjoyed another 1-2 finish with Kevin Kannan (RACR Castrol Power Racing) a distant third.Ullas Santrupt from RACR Castrol Power Racing was the winner of Novice Stock 165cc Race 2,

MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 39

RACING

Sudheer Sudhakar dominates TVS Novice Class

TVS ONEMAKE

Bengaluru’s Abhishek Vasudev wins TVS Open category title followed by Sudheer Sudhakar from Gusto Racing in second position, Mohan Babu from Chennai was third.

In Race 3, Navneeth Kumar from Rulexx Rockers Racing was the winner followed by Alwin Xavier from Rockstar Racing in second as Sudheer Sudhakar in third.

Day One: Earlier on Friday, KY Ahamed started his campaign with two brilliant performances as he led his team, TVS Racing, to 1-2 finishes in both the Pro-Stock categories (301-400cc and 165cc).Also notching up victories in the National Championship were 23-year old Engineering graduate from Bengaluru Seshadri Suresh (Sparks Racing), in the Novice (Stock 165cc) Class and Ann Jennifer (Sparks Racing) who completed a hat-trick of wins in the Girls (Stock 165cc) category. Ahamed, the 23year old rising star from Chennai, first won the premier 301-400cc class race ahead of team-mate and last year’s champion Deepak Ravikumar and veteran Rajini Krishnan (RACR Castrol Power Racing). Ahamed, thus, moved ahead of championship as leader Anish Damodar Shetty (Race Concepts) retired with a mechanical problem at the 4O autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

start itself. Soon after, Ahamed, timing his charge to perfection, took the top spot in the Pro-Stock 165cc category race, this time, leading his team-mate and multiple National champion Jagan Kumar over the finish line. Rajiv Sethu (Eneos Honda Erula Racing) came in third.Earlier, in the Novice (Stock 165cc) race, Seshadri, starting from P7, languished in midfield for much of the six-lap race. At the front, Nithin S (Sparks Racing) and Ullas Santrupt (RACR Castrol Power Racing) were locked in a tight fight until the former crashed on the penultimate lap, exiting the last corner.

F urther down the gri d, Seshadri made a tremendous move, getting past three front-runners and eased his way to a fine win ahead of Mohan Babu and Ullas Santrupt who was subsequently docked a 10-second penalty for overtaking under yellow flag and was pushed to sixth with Alwin Sundar (AS Motorsports) elevated to third spot. Ann Jennifer from Sparks Racing was the winner followed by Lani Zena Fernandez from Gusto Racing finished second with a difference of .202sec as Arpitha Bhat finished third.

S

udheer Sudhakar dominates Novice class in the final round of TVS One-Make Championship held at MMRT in Chennai.

RTR 310 Open:Race1, was bagged by Karthik Mateti from Hyderabad with a total timing of 5min 56.032sec.

Abhishek Vasudev from Bengaluru with a narrow margin of 0.122sec difference settled for second and Anand R from Chennai was third with a further difference of 0.253sec.Two races were part of the Day 2 activity. Kishoar VS from Coimbatore with 11min 47.847sec was the topper followed by Anup Kumar M from Chennai who came second with a further

difference of 2.734sec.

Abhishek Vasudev with a further difference of 0.535sec settled for third position. In the second race of the day, Anup Kumar M won with a total time of 11:46.186 beating Kishoar VS by 0.333sec and Aditya Rao from Bengaluru with over 2-sec difference stood third. Day 3 had one race to go, which was bagged by Aditya Rao from Bengaluru by clocking 11:46.052, Vishwadev Muraleedharan from Coimbatore finished second with a timing of 11:52.507 and Kishoar clocked 11:55.485 to settle for third.

Novice RTR200:Sudheer Sudhakar began his winning spree right from Race1. The Delhi-based rider with a total

FINAL, CHENNAI

time of 6min 46.843sec was on top followed by Mohan Babu from Chennai in second spot with a difference of mere 0.076sec almost a photo finish. The Keralabased rider Abhishek Narayan with a further difference of 0.753sec stood third. What better and exciting than Race 1 could have asked for on Day 2. All the top-three had a stunning photo finish. Mohan Babu

clocked 13:21.457 while Sudheer Sudhakar clocked 13:21.467 and Jayant G Prathipati clocked 13:21.468.

It was dead-heat and the finish order was decided by photo-finish. The final day had two races to conclude the championship. Delhibased rider Sudheer Sudhakar clocked 13:16.909 to win Race 3 while Teja TVR from Hyderabad with a difference of 0.098sec stood

second. Navaneeth Kumar from Puducherry timed 13:18.803 to settle for third position. Navneeth Kumar managed to finish on top of final race of the Championship with a timing of 13:19.991 as Sudheer with a difference of 0.037sec was second. Alwin Sundar with the same difference with the leader had to settle for third.

Girls RTR 200:Jagruthi Kiran Penkar from Kalyan won the

Race1 with a total time of 6min 46.843sec. Arpitha Bhat from Mangaluru with a difference of 0.637sec difference stood second and Jagathishree K from Chennai a further 0.257sec behind took third on the podium. In Race 2, the 5-lap race belonged to Arpitha VM as she clocked 11:27.866. She beat Jagathishree to second as she could clock 11:30.153.

Rakshitha S Dave timed 11:30.371 to take third.

Media: Zaran Mody clocked 11:26.925 to win the 5-lap race as Anis Shaik came second clocking 11:32.884.

Azaman Chothia was third in 11:33.003.Bengaluru’s Abhishek Vasudev, winner of all four races in the previous round last weekend, assured himself of the title in the Open category of the TVS One-Make Championship with two podium finishes and a fourth place in the three races run. He took his tally to 145 points, well clear of Chennai’s Anup Kumar M (104) with a race to spare and a maximum of 25 points on offer on Sunday.

Mangaluru’s Arpitha VM took the title in the Girls category of the same championship with a win in the last race.

MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 41

HAMPI

AUTOCROSS

Roopesh BC, the fastest driver Hospet's Basha bags Star of Hampi Class; Md Sahil wins multiple classes

H

ampi twin-track autocross was held for the first time on the outskirts of Hospet as part of the Hampi fest. The over 1600-metre track had to pass once below the ramp and then above it. Roopesh BC from Bengaluru was the fastest driver of the day clocking 2 min,13.952 seconds. He bagged the Open Class and the Maharaja of Hampi Class, beating a field of over 85 entrants.

INAC1: In the SUV Open Class, Pramod Raman from 42 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

Bengaluru clocked 2:29.707 to win the class beating Dheeraj KV, also from Bengaluru, who finished the course 4.312sec behind to finish second. In the upto 1400cc Class, it was Moin Pasha from Bengaluru who bagged the title with a time of 2:21.844. Mohanraj GP, another Bengaluru driver took second narrowly missing the top spot by 0.245sec. Vinay SM, another Bengalurian, came third with a further difference of 7.008sec. Dhruva

OVERALL WINNER ROOPESH BC

HOSPET

WINNERS 2WD OPEN CLASS

WINNERS 2WD UPTO 2000CC

Chandrashekar, also from Bengaluru, clocked 2:16.427 to win the Above 1400cc Class while Ritesh Guttedar M from Gulbarga, slower by 1.432sec settled for second position. Pragathi Gowda, the lady competitor from Bengaluru, took a stunning third, just 2.754sec behind to complete the podium.

Roopesh BC from Bengaluru was further slower by 1.756sec to take fourth position and Abhin Rai from Madikeri took fifth place another 11.098sec behind.

The Unrestricted Open Class witnessed the fastest timing of the day, 2:13.952, clocked

by BC Roopesh as he also won the Class beating Ritesh Guttedar M to second.

Guttedar came 1.302sec after Roopesh. Dhruva Chandrashekar took third another 1. 215sec behind.

Mujeeb Rahaman, another INRC star from Kasargod with a further difference of 3.

808sec was fourth while Pragathi Gowda finished fifth, taking another fraction of a second at 0.195sec.

INAC2: The Upto 850cc Class winner was Mohammed Sahil who clocked 2:32.623sec and also clinched the win in the upto 1400cc class. Later, Sahil went on to win upto 1400cc

and Open classes in the INAC3 category too, to hog the limelight. In Upto1400cc Class, Mohammed Sahil from Mudigere won with a time of 2:25.108. Mohan Raj GP from Bengaluru fell short by 2.27sec on the leader and had to settle for second position. Arjun Rajiv, the youngest driver from Bengaluru, completed the podium with a further difference of 2.143sec. Abhin Rai was fourth another 2.108sec behind while Ruthvik M Gowda from Mysuru came fifth with a further deficit of 0.435sec.Ritesh Guttedar won the above 1400cc class clocking 2:19.101 as he edged out Mujeeb by 1.927sec. Pramod Raman took another 3.655sec for the course to finish third.

Dhruva with a difference of 2.429sec and Pragathi with a further difference of 2.516sec stood in fourth and fifth respectively. In Open Class, Roopesh clocked 2:16.452 to win the class and behind the leader with 1.553 sec deficit, Dhruva finished second. Ritesh managed to be on the podium a further 0.876sec difference. Mujeeb came in another 0.172sec behind for fourth. Ruthvik M Gowda took another

WINNERS 4WD OPEN CLASS

WINNERS STAR OF HAMPI

RITESH GUTTEDAR IN ACTION MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 43

HAMPI

AUTOCROSS

3.759sec for fifth while Pragathi Gowda was sixth a further 0.438sec adrift. In the Pro-Stock Open Class, the lone competitor Sohan Guttedar clocked 2:37.939 to bag the class.

INAC3: Mohammed Sahil won the Upto 1400cc Class clocking 2:23.934 with a comfortable margin over Abhin Rai who finished second taking 6.675sec more. Ravikiran Gowda from Mysuru finished third with a further deficit 8.310sec. The driver from Nashik, Abhinay Virkud managed to finish fourth with a difference of 0.883sec.

Suresh Kumar from Mysuru finished fifth another 4.28sec behind. In Above 1400cc Class, Ravi Kiran Gowda won by clocking 2:24.202 and Prashanth Bhargav Ambatti from Hyderabad came second with a difference of 0.397sec. Mohammed Sahil clocked 2:25.427 to finish third. Avinash DC from Shivamogga clocked 2:27.591 to settle for fourth as Sagar Pradeep from Mysuru took another 2.932sec to stand fifth. Open Class: The Open Class winner was Mohammed Sahil who clocking 2:26.082 to round off the day with four wins.

Prashanth Bhargav Ambati clocked 2:32.502 to finish second once again. Sagar Pradeep with a difference of 20.304sec was third while Abhinay Virkud with further 10.497sec behind to take fourth. Pallavi Shamrao Yadav, another lady competitor from Kolhapur, came fifth with a further deficit of 1.001sec.Pro-Stock, Star of Hampi for locals from Hospet was bagged by Basha who clocked 2:44.881.

Laxman finished second another 8.2

ROOPESH BC IN ACTION 44 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

WINNERS 2WD UPTO 1400CC

WINNERS UNRESTRICTED 2WD UPTO 1400CC

HOSPET

Mujeeb-Musa duo sparkles Bengaluru pair Sachdev and Dheeraj KV wins SUV Class

K

asargod duo, Mujeeb Rahman along with Musa Sherif, representing Snap Racing on a Honda City, exhibited their skills to thrill many as they conquered the Rally de Hampi, an INRC 2021 contender event, the high-spot of the week-long Motorsport Festival at the historic place in January. The two stages were set on the outskirts of Hospet and were run twice.

INRC2: Only two cars out of three managed to finish but that did not stop Mujeeb Rahman, with experienced Musa Sherif as navigator to clock some good times as they won with a total time of 1hr 01min 2.200seconds.

Mujeeb recorded his lead right from the start in the four-stage rally. He clocked fastest stage timings but was

slower in his second two runs. Ritesh Guttedar M from Gulbarga along with Lokaranjan HJ from

Bengaluru, driving a VW Polo, finished second with a difference of 1:28.500sec.

Third competitors, the team

of BC Roopesh and Phalguna Raghavendra from Bengaluru, driving a VW Polo, had to pull out in the very first stage due to driveshaft issue.

INRC4: PSR Yeshwanth along with Bharath SM from Bengaluru driving a Honda City Vtec clocked 1:03:36.300 to win INRC4 class as they dominated all the four stages right from the start. Ruthvik M Gowda from Mysuru and Sudhindra from Bengaluru driving a Maruti Baleno clocked 1:17.700 to settle for second position. Avinash DC and Kenith Harsha, both from Shimoga, on a Honda City Vtec, took third with a difference of 4:13.600sec with the leader. Deepak Chandra from Bengaluru and Mohanraj from Shimoga finished fourth with a difference of 8:22.400sec with the leader.

SUV Class: SUV Open class was won by Nidhi Sachdev and Dheeraj KV both from Bengaluru behind the wheel of a Maruti Gypsy. They clocked 1:21.06.800.

INRC 2 WINNERS MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 45

RACING ASIA F3

rd

Mumbai Falcons create history with 3 place Jehan Daruvala, shows class to take 3rd in Driver's Standings

M

umbai Falcons created history in Abu Dhabi on Feb 21, becoming the first Team with all Indian members to finish in the top-three of an FIA Championship, after they won the third place in the Asian F3 Championship.

Mumbai Falcons had taken the bold decision to become the first team with all Indian members in a major FIA Formula Championship.

Despite hurdles through the season, an Indianowned team with Indian management and Indian drivers, made the Asian motorsport community take notice of its capabilities 46 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

with a historic third in both the team & driver's championship.

The team, led by the country's leading star Jehan Daruvala, clinched the third position in the Driver's Championship standings as they grabbed three podiums during the last weekend of the 5-round Formula 3 Asian Championship to end its campaign in style.

The Falcons missed the second place by a mere two points, riding on an impressive nine podium finishes through the Championship by their two drivers Jehan Daruvala and Kush Maini. Daruvala has

been in good form as he notched three wins, two second places and three third places. There were five rounds and each round had three races.

Race 13: Kush Maini started the Race 1 in fourth position while Jehan started in sixth.

Kush had a rousing start and drove a flawless race to earn his maiden podium in the championship. He took advantage of a retirement ahead of him to move into the third position and hold on to it till the end. His podium helped to garner important points for the team.

With the grid for Race 2

being decided by the fastest laps in Race 1, Jehan lined up third behind Zhou and Pasma. Pasma had another scorching start to lead the race, while Jehan drove smartly to hold on to the third position. Kush finished fourth behind the lead pack.

Jehan started Race 3, (the 15th and last race of the series) too behind Zhou and Pasma. The top three made a good getaway and held their positions. Jehan made a lunge down the inside of Pasma into the hairpin, but was unable to make the move stick on the exit.

The Indian made another attempt a few corners later

ABU DHABI

but was unable to get past.

Zhou won the last race too while Pasma finished second ahead of Jehan. Kush made a good start from eighth and gained a position. He attempted another move for sixth, but the other driver closed the door, resulting in a contact that dropped him back to eighth.

Jehan, with 3 victories, 2 second places and 3 third places, secured third place in the Championship.

Mumbai Falcons secured an unprecedented third in the Championship thanks to that additional podium from Kush.

Mumbai Falcons aims to raise the profile of Indian motorsport, with a number of new initiatives which will be announced soon.

Earlier rounds: Race 1: Jehan Daruvala and Kush Maini began the championship in contrasting styles. While Daruvala began with a podium in the very first race taking the third place and then going on to notch up two wins and second in Round 2. Another win and a podium in Round 3 too raised hopes of a Championship win but a

poor Round 4 spoiled such a chance. Maini, on the other hand, was unlucky as he had initial hiccups and faced issues with the car and never recovered till the end. But the saving grace is his podium in the last round, which ensured a third place in the Championship for the team.

Mumbai Falcons earned an F3 Asia podium on debut as Jehan Daruvala finished 3rd in the very first race in Round 1, in Dubai.

Jehan started 4th and had to take evasive action at the start after being cut off by a driver ahead. He then had to defend during the 1st lap, but recovered and soon overtook another driver.

With a car right on his tail, Jehan could not make up further places. He eventually finished 3rd to earn Mumbai Falcons their first maiden F3 podium on debut. Later, Jehan finished 7th in both the races of the first round.

took second in the last race of the week-end.

He started on pole and led every lap to comfortably win Race 1 of Round 2 in the continent's premier championship.

In the first Qualifying session, earlier in the day, Jehan was the only racer on the grid to dip below the 1 min 52 second mark to grab the Pole position ahead of Isack Hadjar from France, who clocked 1:53.051.

Chinese racer Guanyu Zhou and championship leader was a close third, posting a lap-time of 1:53.070.

The Mumbai Falcons racer started well and soon opened up a lead of 1 second. Right behind Jehan there was plenty of action.

But later, Jehan reeled out a series of quick laps and he sped away to open a gap of over 3 seconds at one point before backing off, to cool his tyres.

On the penultimate lap, Jehan once again gave it everything, and posted the fastest laptime of the race which gave him pole position for Race 2, the next day. The Indian comfortably crossed the finish line to win Mumbai Falcons their first International victory and the first for an Indian Team in the Asian Formula 3 Championship.

Race 5, 6: In Race 5, The Mumbai racer had a nearperfect launch from pole position and held his position into the first corner.

Behind him, Isack Hadjar of France also held onto second, while championship leader Guanyu Zhou dropped a position to allow Dino Beganovic into third.

The first few laps were uneventful and once the top few settled into a rhythm, Hadjar seemed to have more pace than Jehan. He soon started piling on the pressure, with numerous attempts which did not stick.

Hadjar then had a good run out of the corkscrew section and came alongside Jehan.

The two entered the corner side by side, but Jehan held on.

A few laps later a similar situation repeated, this time

Round 2: Daruvala created history in the Formula 3 Asian Championship, scoring a double back-toback victories for Mumbai Falcons in Race 4 and 5 and MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 47

ABU DHABI

RACING ASIA F3

however, the duo went side by side for more than one corner. This allowed Beganovic in third, to also pull alongside Jehan. In the run down to the braking zone, it was three cars wide with barely centimetres between the cars. The Mumbai Falcons' racer in the middle of the sandwich, momentarily fell behind the duo. He was the bravest though, and braked last, allowing him to surge ahead.

Jehan somehow managed to stay on track and held the lead.

Proceedings settled for a bit, before Hadjar made another attempt, but Jehan was able to fend that off despite Hadjar pulling ahead slightly.

Jehan held off a final attempt on the last lap as well, and crossed the finish line to take his second consecutive victory. Hadjar and Beganovic were second and third respectively.

In Race 3 of Round 2, Championship leader Guanyu Zhou was unable to get going initially and Jehan from third moved into second, with Hadjar third.

Jehan and Hadjar on an older set of tyres failed to challenge Chovet, who comfortably won the race.

48 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

The Mumbai Falcons' racer was second, ahead of Hadjar.

Race 7: Falcons' Jehan Daruvala grabbed the second position on Feb 6.

That is Race 1 in Round 3 at the Yas Marina International Circuit.

India's top racer underlined his form by grabbing a Double Pole in the two qualifying sessions in the morning.

This is his fourth consecutive podium finish over three nerve-wracking days. Jehan and Kush seemed to be in their elements as the action began. Jehan straightaway went to the top of the time sheet, on his first flying lap itself. His laptime of 1:53.399 earned him his third pole position of the Championship.

Jehan did not have the best of starts from Pole in Race 1 though. Chovet made the best of the opportunity to reach the first corner even before Jehan. Zhou also had a sluggish start but managed to retain third.

Chovet steadily began to open-up a small lead and Jehan could not catch him and finished the race in second position.

Mumbai Falcons' Kush Maini,

meanwhile, had a good race even though he started from 11th he overtook 4 cars and was in seventh but eventually finished eighth.

Race 9: On Feb 7, Jehan brought down the curtain on two back-to-back rounds winning Race 3 of Round 3.

His thus had three victories and two second-place finishes over the last four

days.

Jehan had an excellent start from pole, and led into the first corner. China's Guanyu Zhou, starting second, followed Jehan while the two Frenchmen behind them were almost side by side.

Isack Hadjar, starting from fourth, however, managed to overtake Championship leader Pierre-Louis Chovet to climb into the third position.

Jehan held his nerve and reeled out a series of quick laps to open up a small gap on Zhou. A brief safety car period neutralised Jehan's lead, though. But once the safety car pulled into the pits, Jehan made an excellent restart and immediately pulled away from Zhou.

Jehan posted a couple of fastest laps and cemented his lead to win ahead of Zhou, while Hadjar finished third.

Mumbai Falcons picked up a few more points, thanks to Kush Maini having another good race finishing eighth. In the next race he finished 7th.

FINAL, CHENNAI

RACING

third with a total time of 15:14.057.

Novice CBR150: In Race 1, Vivek Rohit Kapadia from Belgaum clocked 13:25.235 to win the class followed by Shyam Sundar from Chennai in second with a time of 13:25.251. Rakshit S Dave from Chennai clocked 13:32.822 to finish third.

Shyam Sundar came back strongly to dominate Race 2 with a total time of 13:30.923.

Another youngster from Satara, Ikshan Shanbhag fell short by 0.410sec and settled for second position. Vivek Rohit Kapadia couldn't perform as on the previous day but managed to be on the podium.

H O N D A

Young Sarthak Chavan excels 2-day Honda One-Make, Talent Cup showcase young stars PHOTO BY: SRINIVASA KRISHNAN

Open NSF 250R: Kavin Quintal from Chennai won Race 1 by clocking 11:06.157. He was followed in second position by Varoon Sadasivam from Chennai with a difference of 0.147sec.

Geoffrey Emmanuel clocked 11:13.593 to secure third

place. In Race 2, the 8-lap race was dominated by the young Sarthak Chavan from Pune who clocked 14:59.511 to win the race. Samuel Martin from Bengaluru came second a 11.872-sec behind.

Moshin Peramban from Mamallapuram finished

MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 49

ECOLIFE AUTOCROSS

Syed Salman wins INAC2 Modified Open Class Chetan Shivram and Ismail Khan bag other 2 Modified classes

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he Ecolife Dirt cross for four wheelers was held at the Unite Off-road track in the outskirts of Bengaluru organised by Motorsport Inc, the 1.2km Gravel track had few sharp curves and turns testing the 117 entrants skills.

INAC 2 Pro-Stock Mithun Raj wins the Diesel Open Class with a total time of 2:20.641 beating Sriju Sadasivan with over 3-sec difference in the Ecolife Autocross Championship 2020 which concluded 5O autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

recently. Kiran Reddy, who closed a further two seconds behind was third with Rohit Balaji taking fourth with another 20sec deficit.

Esteem Open Class was won

by Ismail Khan who clocked 2:08.313. Vinay SM with 2sec deficit was second while Abhin Rai who timed 2:11.820 stood third. Arvind with a further below-2sec difference finished fourth while Sufiya Khan with a timing of 2:14.576 came fifth.

INAC3 Pro-Stock 2W drive Upto 850cc Class, Mohammed Sahil was the

fastest in the class in spite of loosing over 4sec in the first lap. He then gained momentum in the second lap and clocked 1:10.478 with this run he was able to clock a total time of 2:25.245 to win the class. Vinod was also slower in his first lap but was faster in second lap by three seconds and with a deficit of just over 2sec, he managed to finish second.

In the 851 to 1099cc Class, Mohammed Sahil was very consistent in both the laps and with a timing of 2:07.371 he won the class. Pruthvik R by improving upon his first

lap timing of 1:09.793 was slower by 11sec after two laps and had to settle for second spot. Pramod Raman was also faster in second lap but fell short by 2.148sec and loses second spot. Shahid Khan finished fourth behind him taking another 21sec.

In 1100 to 1400cc Class, Abhin Rai with consistent time in both the laps clocked 2:09.591 to win the class.

Ithihas KT also lapped almost equal times but was slower by about 4sec to settle for second position. Manjunath K overcame his first lap slow timing and managed to

BENGALURU

ROOPESH BC IN ACTION

CHETAN SHIVRAM IN ACTION

finish third with a further difference of 2.877sec.

Ruthuparna Vivek with an improved second-lap timing was slower by 4sec to settled for fourth while Praveen Rampure was fifth another six seconds behind.

In Non-Rally Car Open Class, Ruthvik M Gowda clocked 2:06.214 to win beating Ismail Khan by 3sec. Ithihas KT began his first lap with a positive note but was unable to keep up with the pace and was 4sec slower in his second lap to time 2:16.519. He came third. Shahid Salman missed the podium by a narrow margin of 0.252sec. Harshith KS was slower by further one second to settle for fifth.

Madhi Sri Elangovan after beginning the first lap on a slower note managed to speed up the second lap and improved by seven seconds and with a total time of 2:34.005 finished on top. A Sufiya Khan was also very slow in her first lap but managed to be faster by 7 seconds in second lap. She came 0.544sec later to settle for second spot. Suma S with a further 12-sec difference finished third.

The 1401 to 1650cc Class, was bagged by Mohammed Sahil with a total time of 2:13.153. He improved on his first-lap timing with a fraction of 0.700sec. Moin Pasha began his first lap on a good note but couldn't hold

on to it. He was slower at least by a second in the second lap. In all he came second with a difference of 3.640. Deepak Chandra also was slower in his second lap than his first lap but was third in the finish order. Gopinath Ganapathi was further 25sec slower to settle for fourth.

Amateur segment had two classes, one for the Ladies and the other an Open Class.

In the Ladies Class, Suma S began her first lap on a slower note but managed to improve the second lap timing by over three seconds which proved to be fruitful for her a she won with a total time of 2:39.206. Madhi Sri Elangovan with a difference of over 3sec came second while Rekha Niranjan another 27sec behind took third.

Sanjay Rajan Sukumar with a total time of 2:18.980 was the winner of the Open Class beating Shahid Salman who had a very slow first lap in spite of managing to pickup pace. He was six seconds slower and finished second.

Monish Salimath start was also not impressive. He was further slower by an additional second and completed the podium in third. Mohammed Nuhman with very close laps timed 229.504 to take fourth.

Raghunath was further slower by 4sec to settle for fifth position.

MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 51

ECOLIFE

Gideon,

AUTOCROSS

dominant rider of the day

INAC2 Modified category: In 1100 to 1400cc Class, Ismail Khan's consistent effort towards improving his lap time put him on top with a total time of 2:04.673.

Mohamed Ayub Khan lost his momentum in his second lap and with a difference of 4.909s ec settled for second spot.

Mohan Raj with two seconds improvement over his first lap could only come close to Ayub and came third, a further 0.829sec behind. Moin Pasha with a further less-than-a-second difference came 4th. Sawan Sathyanarayan by clocking 2:14.938 settled for fifth.

Chetan Shivram won the above 1401 to 1650cc Class by clocking 2:05.664 as he Asad Pasha by a difference of over one second.

Roopesh BC was slower in Lap 1 and proved him too costly as he lost the second place by a second. Dean

52 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

mascarenhas though finishing in the same second with a very fractional difference of 00:043sec was fourth.

Dhruva Chandrasekhar was not in his elements and his best on the day, a 1.739 sec slower timing got him only fifth.

The Open Class was bagged

by Syed Salman Ahmed with a fastest timing of 2:03.361 after improving on his first lap time, which put him on top. Dean Mascarenhas after a slower Lap 1, came back strongly to be faster by 9 seconds, but the damage was already done, as he lost by 0.111sec and settled for second.

Roopesh BC with a further 1.455sec deficit completed the podium. Dhruva with a 0:557sec difference stood fourth and Chetan, behind by another 0.477sec took fifth.

Naseeba wins Ladies Class

T

he Ecolife Dirt cross for two wheelers were held on day one at the Unite Off-road track in the outskirts of Bengaluru organised by Motorsport Inc, the 1.2km Gravel track had few sharp

curves and turns testing the sixty riders skills specially in the first corner, as it was a mass start with overnight heavy downpour.

Despite trailing in the second lap, Naseeba kept steady and won the three-lap Ladies

BENGALURU finish on top got an opportunity in Bullet Class despite a few water-logged and slippery corners due to intermittent rains before the class began. Mohammed Zaheer followed him in second position while Syed Vahib finished third.

Mohammed Zaheer was the winner of Upto 165cc Class followed by Mohammed Arif in second and Sajeesh Reghunathan in third.

In the Star of Karnataka Class, Anish D Shetty was the winner followed by Syed Shamsheer in second and Ramesh Balaji in third.

Class, beating Soundarya Venkatesh, who suffered a crash on the muddy surface and lost the lead. The slippery rains due to overnight rains played their part as Naseeba took the win. Lakshmi P finished third.

Ramesh Balaji won the Scooter class while Prajwal followed him in second position and Anish D Shetty came third.

The Upto 260cc Class was bagged by the dominant rider of the day Gideon, who was at his best in all the classes he participated.

Naresh VS never got a good start and he had to bypass two riders to finish second.

Prajwal finished third.

Gideon was once again the topper in Indian Open.

Naresh VS despite a couple of attempts to come closer to

the top was not successful and settled for second position. Anish D Shetty finished third for the second time.

A win in the Foreign Open was the third win for Gideon in a row. Mohammed Arif came in second position while Sajeesh Reghunathan settled for third.

Naresh V after three unsuccessful attempts to

MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 53

KARTING N AT I O N A L S

Brothers Ishaan, Rohaan Madesh star in their classes Maini brothers, Arjun, Kush, make a rare appearance at Meco Kartopia PHOTO BY: SHAHJAHAN

T

he third, fourth and fifth rounds of Meco FMSCI National Karting Championship was held at Meco Kartopia in Bengaluru.

Round 3: The Micro Max Class was won by Ishaan Madesh of Peregrine Racing International with a timing of 12 minute, 27.798 seconds.

Aditya Suresh Kamat from Birel Art stood second with a 10-second difference despite clocking the fastest 54 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

lap of 1:01.611. Arafath Sheikh from MSport with a further difference of 0.035sec finished third. Nikhilesh Raju, also from Birel Art, clocked 12:38.981 to settle for fourth and Anuj Arun Velraj took fifth place. In the Junior Class, Rohaan Madesh from Peregrine Racing International was the winner clocking a total time of 14:34.075. Ruhaan Alva from MSport after a best lap time of 56.275 managed to finish second with a difference of

1.464sec while Rishon Rajeev from Birel Art clocked 14:47.737 to complete the podium. Ishan Madesh from Peregrine finished fourth and Jaden Rahman Pariat from MSport settled for fifth.

International driver Kush Maini representing NK Racing with a total time of 18:02.571 and a best lap time of the race at 55.768sec won the Senior class. His brother, another International driver, Arjun Maini also from NK Racing, clocked 18:06.586 to

settle for second position.

Mihir Suman Avalakki from Birel Art clocked 18:13.712 to secure third position. Shahan Ali Mohsin from MSport with a difference of 4.062sec was fourth and Nigel Abraham Thomas from Peregrine Racing with a total timing of 18:23.817 came fifth.

Round 4: Ishaan Madesh from Peregrine Racing clocked 12:20.768 to win the class with the fastest lap 1:01.188 to boot in the Micro Max

R3 TO R5, BENGALURU

Class. Arafath Sheikh from MSport timed 12:29.535 to settle for second while Nikhilesh Raju from Birel Art came third another 0.562sec behind. Raju's teammate Aditya Suresh Kamat with a further difference of mere 0.091sec came fourth and Anuj Arun Velraj from MSport settled for fifth with a timing of 12:41.134. Rishon Rajeev from Birel Art with a total time of 14:46.691 was the winner. Ruhaan Alva from MSport was just 0.236sec slower to settle for second position. Jaden Rahman Pariat from MSport with 14:48.081 finished third.

Shaurya Kapani from Rayo Racing stood fourth clocking 14:53.320 and Ishaan Madesh from Peregine Racing came fifth in 15:02.135. Akshat Misra from MSport clocked the fastest lap time of 56.188 but finished eighth. Kush Maini from NK Racing won the Senior Class clocking 17:02.885 while his elder brother Arjun Main was at least slower by 7sec from the winner and had to settle for second. Shahan Ali Mohsin from MSport was further 4.753sec behind and completed the podium.

Suriya Varathan K from MSport with 0.381sec difference was fourth while Mihir Suman Avalakki from Birel Art with another

8.317sec behind was declared fifth.

Round 5: Ishaan Madesh won Round 5 Micro Max class with a time of 13:11.258 and also bagged the fas tes t lap tim e of 1:01.000 on the way to victory. Arafath Sheikh by clocking 13:19.734 took second position and Aditya Suresh Kamat clocked 13:23.353 to settle for third position. Nikhilesh Raju D was fourth with a time of 13:24.195 and Vedha Vishnu finished fifth with a total time of 13:41.934.Rishon Rajeev continued his winning spree in the Junior Class, once again managing to keep Ruhaan Alva behind him with a very thin margin of 0.459sec. Abhay M clocked 14:44.521 for third. Shaurya Kapani and Jaden Rahman Pariat finished in fourth and fifth positions respectively.

Arjun Maini got an opportunity to top the Senior class as he clocked 17:02.222 and he was followed in second position by Mihir Suman Avalakki, 6.775sec slower. By clocking 17:11.272, Yash Aradhya from MSport completed the podium. Raaj Bakhru from Rayo Racing clocked 17:15.611 to settle for fourth as Nigel Abraham Thomas from Peregrine Racing came fifth in 17:15.947.

MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 55

RACE

ENDURANCE

Anindith Reddy triumphs in the 50-lap Endurance Race Jebaraj brings back old sparkle with superb wins; Arpitha Bhat dominates Ladies Class PHOTO BY: SHAHJAHAN

K

MS-50, the 2021 e d i t i o n o f Endurance Race was held at the Kari Speedway along with a few support races recently. The main 50-lap Endurance race: Anindith Reddy from Rayo Racing won the ITC Class clocking 1 hour, 04 minutes, 13.547 seconds beating Dhruv Mohite by a lap and a difference of 35sec.

The man who gives youngsters a run for their money with his racing performance, veteran driver 56 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

of over 70-years Vidya Prakash D from Prime Racing finished third by completing 45 laps in the above timing.

His teammate Rajaram C finished fourth while Kishore Siddharth settled for fifth. In the Super Stock Class, Joel Joseph from Race Concepts Motorsports completed 47 laps in 1:05:36.111 to top the class. His teammate Sanjay Balu was one lap short and had to settle for second position. Vishnu Prasad from MSports within the same time completed only 46 laps

to secure third spot. Dr Shivani Pruthvi from Race Concepts Motorsports completed 45 laps to finish fourth in that order and Kumar KE finished fifth also by completing 45 laps.

Sohil Shah from MSports completed the 50 laps in 1hr, 6min, 59.428sec to win the LGB F4 Open Class. Dark Don racer Sandeep Kumar completed the same laps in 1:07:22.170 to settle for second position while Rupesh Shivakumar took the last spot on the podium with

a one-lap deficit. Mohamed Ryan from MSports with 49 laps was fourth with Ahura Racing driver Anushriya Gulati taking fifth for 48 laps.

Raghul Rangasamy from MSports completed the designated 50 laps in 1:06:10.671sec. Three more drivers managed to finish with one lap deficit. They were Vignesh Kadarabad from MSports in second and Diljith TS from DTS Racing in third. Hashim, also from DTS Racing, came in fourth while Aditya Swaminathan with 2

COIMBATORE LADIES CLASS WINNERS RACE 2

WINNERS OF ENDURANCE RACE,FLGB F4 OPEN, FLGB 1300 OPEN, ITC AND SUPER STOCK HONOURED BY B VIJAYKUMAR

more laps deficit finished fifth.

Race1: Stock upto 165cc for Ladies: Arpitha Bhat from Gusto racing dominated the class, as she won with a total time of 8 minutes, 58.216 seconds beating Ann Jeniffer from Sparks Racing with a difference of 2.273sec. Lani Zena Fernades from SDZ clocked 9:02.815 to finish third. Jagruthi Penkar and Jagathishree finished in fourth and fifth positions respectively. The Stock Upto

165cc Novice above-23 Class was bagged by Jagadeesh N from Spark Racing in 9:11.387. Jayanth Prathipati from Gusto Racing came second with a deficit of 10.694sec. His teammate Phani Teja who with a further difference of 0.099sec completed the podium.

Tharun Kumar from Rockstar and Rohit Lad from Track Works settled for fourth and fifth respectively. Jebaraj from Gusto was the winner of Group-A 300cc Class with a lead of over 6.887sec on

GAGANDEEP SINGH IN SUPER STOCK CLASS

Lokesh V from Race Abilities.

Tharun Kumar from CRA with a further 15-sec difference

finished third. Ajai Xavier and Subramanikandan, both Privateers, stood fourth and fifth respectively. Anfal A from Rockstar clocked 9:31.115 to win the upto 165cc Novice for Below 23year Class. Alwin Sundar from AS with a difference of 1.36sec was second while Jatin Purabia from Sparks Racing with a further 6-sec difference secured third position. Udayi Prakash was fourth and Varun GN finished fifth. Stock upto 301 to 400cc was bagged by Rahil Shetty from Gusto. Sivanesan with a difference of 2.178sec from Alishaa Racing secured second position. Jagadeesh N from Sparks Racing with further close to 2sec difference completed the podium. Karthik Mateti from Gusto finished fourth and Naresh Nagnath Kaname from Rulexx Rockers Racing was fifth.

MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 57

RACE

ENDURANCE

The ITC-Super stock Class was bagged by Anindith Reddy from Rayo Racing. He clocked 13:01.238 to beat his teammate Dhruv Mohite by 33sec. B Vijay Kumar from Prime Racing with 29sec was third. Joel Joseph and Sanjay Balu both from Race Concepts Motorsports were fourth and fifth respectively.

FLGB 1300 Open, FLGB F4 open was bagged by Sohil shah from MSports beating his teammate Raghul Rangasamy by 0.930sec.

Sandeep Kumar from Dark Don with further above 1sec difference stood third.

Mohamed Ryan from MSports was fourth while Sarosh Hataria from Ahura Racing finished fifth.

Race2: Arpitha Bhat by clocking 11:53.824 was the winner of Stock upto165cc Ladies Class. Ann Jeniffer finished second and Lani Zena

COIMBATORE Fernandes was third. Aditi Krishnan from Apex Racing finished fourth as Rakshitha Dave from SDZ finished fourth. In the 165cc Novice above-23 years Class was bagged by Lokesh V. Tharun finished in second position and Jayanth Prathipati was third. Jishnu Nair from Gusto and Preetham from CRA were in fourth and fifth positions respectively.

Jebaraj was the topper for the second time in Group A 300cc. Tharun Kumar came in second while Ajai Xavier finished third. Lokesh V was fourth and Ashwini Balaji settled for fifth. The Stock 165cc Novice Class below-23 years belonged to Allwin Xavier and Abhinav finished behind him in second position. Anfal managed to be on the podium in third.

Alwin Sundar was fourth and Mohammed Yusuf was fifth.

Rahil Shetty won the ProStock 301 to 400cc as Jagadeesh followed him in second and Karthik Mateti finished third. Pradeep and Aditya Roa were in fourth and fifth, in that order.

ITC RACE 2 WINNERS

RACE 2 FLGB F4 OPEN WINNERS

SUPER STOCK RACE 2 WINNERS

ROHIT LAD LEADING IN 165CC NOVICE ABOVE 23 58 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

TSD RALLY transportation business and the last-mile delivery of goods.

"We are elated to serve our products in the neighbouring country, easing their day-today tasks and updating them with the latest EV technology. Indeed, EV is the future and we, as an OEM is sincerely focussing on coming out with the best-inclass vehicles and quality service experience. We trust that our vehicles will cater to an impressive response in the neighbouring country.

Bangladesh at present does not have an EV policy but it may change fast. I met many senior officials of Bangladesh Industrial Development Agency (BIDA) and all of them welcomed Omega Seiki. They are very keen to bring this technology to their country and are very happy

THE NEXT BIG STEP Omega Seiki Mobility to set up a plant in Bangladesh

O

mega Seiki Mobility, the Electric Vehicles (EVs) manufacturing company of Anglian Omega Group is setting up an electric vehicle manufacturing facility near Dhaka in Bangladesh, with an investment of 100 crore. This will be the first project of any Indian EV company in international markets. The company will be known as OSM-Bangladesh and will be registered in Bangladesh.

Omega Seiki Mobility

will be manufacturing all of its electric vehicles i n B an gl ade s h an d wi l l be providing complete technical support.

Bangladesh's economy has grown consistently at 8.5% for the past 5 years. The per capita GDP has also increased to USD 1800. The country has become a global hub of garments manufacturing of high quality for major brands and the Smart Electric vehicles will surely help the people associated with the

to provide all the support. I am especially pleased to start from Bangladesh which is in our neighbourhood and a friendly country. We have plans to open in several other countries gradually", said Mr Uday Narang, Chairman, Omega Seiki Mobility.

Bangladesh has a wellestablished port and goods export system which drives the garments export. This will be a big factor for making Bangladesh an export hub for OSM. The project will be a modern green field

facility and will focus on manufacturing twowheelers, three-wheelers and electric bicycles.

“

“With electri cation happening fast in automotive markets globally, we see it is time for the Bangladesh market to change as well.

The transition in 2 and 3 wheelers will be fast as they contribute to the pollution and traffic chaos. Our vehicles will be powered by Li-Ion baeries and with powertrains which wouldbe built-in Bangladesh, with technology transfer from India. In due course, we are looking at full localization in Bangladesh. We would also be looking to export from Bangladesh to global locations e.g.

ASEAN, Africa, etc.

Bangladesh has a zerotax policy for exports to 39 countries. This includes India as well and we are looking at selling in the northeast from there." added Dr. Mukherji, Managing Director, Omega Seiki Mobility.

“

OMEGA

BANGLADESH

The vehicles manufactured in Bangladesh will be sold under the OSM brand through local partners and franchises. Already the company is in discussions with some big business houses. Bangladesh has a big market for 3-wheeler autorickshaws and at present these are all IC engines.

There are some low-end Chinese electric vehicle imports, especially in rural areas. Bangladesh currently imports vehicles from Japan, China and India.

MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 59

Building competitiveness in Indian EVs industry - the paradigm shift for the new age industry

By Dr. Deb Mukherji Managing Director, Omega Seiki Mobility

T

ransition to electric vehicles has begun rapidly in global auto industry. By 2040 almost 76% of the global car makers would have exited traditional fossil fuel-based cars (Source: McKinsey report 2021). This shift is going to happen in Indian industry too and already we see 2 and 3 wheelers in commercial segments shifting to EVs. This shift will accelerate in formats of personal vehicles too. This is also a great chance for Indian EV industry to b e c o m e a global player for supplies of parts of electric vehicles. A complete new eco system of e l e c t r i c vehicles will get created not only for domestic but

6O autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

for global markets. Michael Porter diamond model is used to assess factors which affect competitiveness of an industry.

Fig1: Porter diamond model for evaluation of firm’s competitiveness Direct competition amongst the competitors and rivals makes the organization alter its business strategy to develop a competitive edge. The more intense domestic rivalry is, the more companies are being pushed to innovate and improve in order to maintain their competitive advantage.

A good example for this is the Japanese automobile industry with intense rivalry between players such as Nissan, Honda, Toyota, Suzuki, Mitsubishi and Subaru. In the EV space we do see intense rivalry developing in India. At the entry level there are already Chinese imports 3 wheelers and 2-wheeler. In the long run we see the domestic industry will develop their unique business strategies for sustenance. Factor conditions are the resources available to the industry. In this aspect the basic factors like material resources Li, Co, Mn for

COLUMN, EVs batteries, the key component of EV is not available in India and industry is import dependent. Indian industry would develop alternate materials for batteries. Human resource as factors such as a skilled labour force, good infrastructure and a scientific knowledge base are available.

Demand conditions within the country create pressure on the companies and makes then competitive in international markets as well. In India we see a demanding customer for the EV since automotive is a mature market with the ICE vehicles. The EV would be compared with these vehicles for performance, features, reliability and cost. We see intense pressure on EV industry to develop competence due to this pressure. The presence of related and supporting industries provides the foundation on which the focal industry can excel. In case of EV, we see alliance would be built between vehicle and battery makers, motors and electronics parts makers. This way a complete eco system would be created for manufacturing of EV. Governments cannot create competitive industries; only companies can do that.

Rather, government encourages and pushes companies to raise their aspirations and move to even higher levels of competitiveness. We see this being done in India by stimulating early demand for advanced products (demand factors); focusing on specialized factor creations such as infrastructure, the education system and the health sector (factor conditions); promoting domestic rivalry by enforcing anti-trust laws; and encouraging change. Chance factors are the ones which are not in anyone’s control. Sometime these work to the advantage sometime they do not. The

recent Corona virus is an example. The Paradigm Shift in EV Industry Fig 2: Understanding of the shift in EV adaptability We see EV industry moving from the left quadrant of low volume, quality and price into right side with high quality backed by superior technology. The market will pay higher price for a high-quality product. The high quality and reliable product will drive the volumes higher.

We see the mobility space in India changing with technology infusion in the entire eco system. We see complete mobility system will get evolved with the smart mobility solutions. EV as the Smart mobility solutions comprises of the following sub components: 1. Mobility as service 2. Intelligent on demand app-based mobility services 3. Advanced shared mobility solutions 4. Intelligent traffic management solutions 5. E Mobility as part of smart cities energy ecosystem.

We see Mobility would become part of service with e-commerce companies like Amazon providing free mobility in exchange for using their services for purchase of goods. In addition, the vehicle has enormous capacity to capture user’s data. This data would be used to create users’ profile, purchase behavior and hundreds of other data points. This data is then used by marketing companies to enhance their product sales. Electric vehicle would become part of the entire data management system, starting with capturing, assimilating. Advanced Shared mobility works on a

combination of shared mobility, connected cars powered clean technologies. Connected vehicles operate in a grid by talking to each other. Intelligent traffic management system works with artificial intelligence and predictive technologies. With the help of cameras, sensors, GPS and data processing systems, the system is able to predict traffic congestion and take action to divert the traffic to alternate routes on real time basis. This saves cost and time for the users. E mobility with its battery management and energy management system is part of the complete energy eco system.

Digital payments for charging services are routed through online gateways.

The car in its idle time generates energy which is hooked onto the energy grid. This could be utilized to power up house appliances, heating / cooling system or sold to the users in the grid. Demand and supply of energy is continually mapped by the intelligent energy system in the cars and information is fed to the grid thereby reducing the power generation by the conventional fuelbased sources.

Conclusion: We see a clear roadmap for the EV adaption globally as well as in India. The major drivers like Government push, environmental concerns and cost will push this adaption. It is also a great opportunity for the Indian industry to be self-reliant on EV components manufacturing e.g., motors, battery and entire power train.

We see EV as not only a mode of transportation but a part of the complete new eco system of smart energy management system. The Government declaration to make EV mandatory by 2025 for 2/3 wheelers is a major driver towards electrification of vehicles in India. Supportive policies like FAME2 are other favorable factors to the EV industry. The major challenges with the technology related to mileage, charging will be overcome in next 2-3 years. We see a market share of 30-40% in Indian market for the EVs by 2030. Indian industry will drive in with the complete eco system of vehicles, charging infrastructure, battery and power train manufacturing and smart energy management system. This is the new paradigm in automotive world.

MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 61

PHOTO FEATURE

SUPER SHOW

By Indian Oil and Harley Davidson riders

I

ndian Oil - Harley-Davidson Friendship Meet took place recently at Lonavala where around 60 Harley Davidsons from Seven Island Chapter from Mumbai and 50 Harley Davidsons from Two Rivers Chapter from Pune converged to meet over a friendly breakfast at Jayesh Petro Services, Karla, Lonavala. "This is one of the biggest event where we are interacting with such a big and enthusiastic high end petrol users and it shows that the decision of the Corporation to bring this 100 Octane fuel was much required", said Ajay Shrivastava, GM (RS), Maharashtra State Office and his team welcomed all the Harley Owners Group (HOG's) including the Ladies of Harley (LOH's). The highest kms logged by Male and Female, the Best Couple riders were appreciated by a small gift.

62 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

Anuj Gupta has completed more than 130,000kms on his Harley Davidson Bike in the last 6 years.

"People often ask me what this passion of riding a motorcycle is all about? What do I gain from buying such an expensive depreciating asset which no sensible, hard-working guy would buy? Riding clears my head and my soul. It helps me see the positive things of life rather than dwell on the negative and it gives me a perspective of peace and freedom. The most interesting aspect of my riding is that my wife Manisha is with me in this journey and she is my pillion rider", said Gupta.

The entire show was presented and compered by Narendra Gangakhedkar in a most lovely manner, who later thanked all the riders on behalf of IOC for making the event a memorable one.

MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 63

XP100 PETROL

For IndianOil, 99 is not enough!

LAUNCHES INDIA’S FIRST

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World's best premium grade petrol for high-end bikes & cars in Nagpur, Goa.

64 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

TRACKING BRANDS

OFFICIALS FROM INDIAN OIL (L TO R) NARENDRA GANGAKHEDKAR, AJAY SHRIVASTAVA, NAVNEET MEHTA, ASHISH GUPTA & ANJALI BHAVE MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 65

RALLY DAKAR

Ashish Raorane completes in Dakar Experience Class The Mumbai mariner suffers a crash on debut but rejoins the Experience class

A

shish Raorane, the Mumbai mariner, who is on his maiden Dakar, becomes the fourth Indian to take part in the mother of all rallies.

Prologue: After the ceremonial start at Jeddah.

He unfortunately didn't get the start he was hoping for.

He hit a knife edged rock just at the start of prologue, and managed to miraculously keep the bike on 2-wheels but knew he had damaged the front rim. It was a bit unsettling for him to ride out the short prologue.

Stage 1: This opening 277kms special stage was

66 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

pretty rocky and brutal.

Ashish made some navigational errors in the beginning and lost some time. The stony sections got worse after the first stretch of 60kms. ”It was a tough one for almost everyone today. The section prior to refuelling was fast but the route after that was crazy hard and technical,'' he later said.

Definitely a tough start on his Dakar debut but he is taking one day at a time, knowing he is completely on his own with just a trunk to support his journey.

Stage 2: The 457kms special stage started with dunes and this was the first time he was riding the KTM 450 Rally Replica. To make it worse, the dunes were extremely sandy and even the top riders were struggling. It was a huge learning curve for him in the first 30 to 40kms. He had many small tumbles and lost a lot of energy by just lifting the bike

that was fully fuelled. But after about 70kms he got used to the bike and also the sand which was insanely soft.

The stage was incredibly long and hard for each one of the competitors and in the end, he could reach the bivouac before sundown, something that was of utmost importance.

After helping KTM Factory Racing's top rider Matthias Walkner, he was stranded in the dunes as he had issues with his clutch, Ashish gave him his spare one to help him out in true rally spirit! He finished the day in 84 t h ranking and a stage ranking of 85.

Stage 3: Ashish made very good progress in the 403kms special stage from Wadi AdDawasir. He started off really well and was really enjoying the dunes along with the beautiful sand plateaus. The rocky section after that caused a bit of harm as he had a crash and hurt his thumb a little. Rest of the stage was dunes with rocky enduro sections where it was another learning curve for him in riding a big bike in

RIYADH such terrains. He also ranked up to 81, from 85 previously, by the end of the day had to fix the oil leak.

Stage 4: Ashish progressed in leaps and bounds in the 337kms special stage, rising up the ranks by 6 positions in this stage. He got into good rhythm and was enjoying the stage, navigating his way through, till he came across CS Santosh's damaged motorcycle. Ashish was a bit shaken-up by this and was unable to focus. His dear friend's well being and thoughts of his accident stayed on. It took an hour before he could regain focus and continue on the route.

Towards the end of the stage, he faced issues with navigation. The road-book wasn't scrolling with the controls so he had to manually scroll it with his hand while riding the motorcycle in such a challenging terrain.

The liaisons were really long too and he was looking forward to reaching the bivouac to get some much needed rest but he noticed a leakage from the front fuel tank fuel pump. A very exhausting day indeed.

Things weren't getting any less challenging as days progressed. He managed to end the day being 80 t h overall with a stage ranking of 75.

Stage 5: Despite the 446kms from Riyadh to Al Qaisumah stage being touted as a tough stage, he had a great start with smooth navigation.

He progressed quickly through the extremely difficult sections of the stage as he overtook several bikes and gained confidence. This was clear in his preliminary rankings which improved through each waypoint up to #75 at WP 8 (Waypoint). It was in this section, that he suffered a crash in the dunes.

He was thrown off his bike and suffered an impact to his head. He was immediately evacuated in a helicopter to the end of the stage where an ambulance transported him to the nearest hospital.

Tests and a CT scan came back as clear. He is conscious with stable vitals and has been in touch with his family.

He was sent to a hospital in Ha'il (near the rest day bivouac) where he was under observation in the ICU to relieve him of the pain and help him on his road to full recovery. “It was a tough decision, but I had to call for help," he later said.

After a busy set of days with the medical team in the hospital and ASO, he and his motorcycle have passed all the clearances and he's been given the green signal to continue the rally in the Dakar Experience category.

Stage 9:This was a tough stage of 465kms to come back to. Ashish was a bit tentative on the bike for the first 30kms. The stage was pretty technical with lots of stones and sand tracks, and passing cars and trucks threw dust which made matters worse. At about 85-km mark before the finish line, he went flying over the handlebars but the airbag saved the day.

He chased the sunlight for the last 60kms and managed to get to the finish just as it went dark. He finished the stage at #59, the best one so far as he climbed 16 positions up from Stage 4 but then again, it doesn't count for anything, except that he won't be the last one to start tomorrow while continuing in the Dakar Experience category.

Stage 10: The Special Stage from Neom to Al-Ula consisting of 342kms was a bit of a cold and an extremely dusty start to the stage which alternated between slow

rocky sections and fast sand tracks. Around km-80, Ashish hit a stone which he didn't spot due to the dust ahead and got flung over the bars, thankfully with no damage to man or machine. The last 20odd kilometres were slow as the trucks caught up and filled the entire valley with dust, causing him to slow down. He finished at P57 and ended at P60 due to a 15-min penalty during neutralisation.

Stage 11: The Stage 11 was from Al-Ula to Yanbu, the longest stage of the rally and it was tough as promised.

With 511 Special Stage distance from 557kms, Ashish had a good time on the bike for the most of it but an issue with steering damper had him crash in the dunes towards the end. He

had quite a few close calls riding in the dust and also a massive off about 25kms before the finish. Thankfully he was let off with just a few bruises. Big thanks to fellow competitor Andrew Houlihan for helping him get back up, as Ashish was quite winded after that tumble. He finished the stage at P55, got the same neutralisation penalty again but since he's not classified in the overall, he's not following up on it. He finished the day in 55 t h position, five position up from the ninth stage where he restarted after the crash.

Stage 12: The stage commenced from Yanbu to Jeddah with 225kms of Special Stage out of total 452kms and ended the Dakar Experience for Ashish's journey.

MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 67

MOTO FEST AUTOCROSS

Subir Roy wins 4w section; Ganguly tops 2w Class S

ubir Roy in 4W and Uday Ganguly in 2W won the Kolkata Moto Fest 2021 held at Shyam Business Park in Singur recently. This was the first Autocross and Dirt Track event happening in Eastern India after the COVID-19 pandemic which witnessed a neck-and-neck competition amongst the top drivers and riders of this zone. Over 146 entries were part of the event including 4 ladies.

68 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

2 Wheelers: In Upto 165cc 2/4 stroke Group D, Vishal Das riding a Hero Impulse clocked 3:44.770 to win the class followed in second place by Uday Ganguli, who was also on a Hero Impulse with a difference of 8.123sec.

Manmeet Dhanjal, also on Hero Impulse, with a further difference of 0.886sec completed the podium. The Upto 165cc 2Stroke Group B Class, was won by Sisir Kumar Raha astride a Yamaha

RX135. He clocked 3:54.130 to hold the top slot followed

by Uday Ganguli also riding a Yamaha RX135 in second position with a difference of 3.050sec. Manmeet Dhanjal riding a Yamaha RX100 with another 0.310sec behind took third. Upto 165cc 4Stroke Group B was dominated by Hero Impulse with Manmeet Dhanjal taking first in 3:30.330. Uday with 14.380sec difference came second and Vishal

Das with a further deficit of 22.260sec settled for third position. Sayan Mondal riding a Hero Xpulse was the winner of 165 to 260cc 2/4 Stroke Group D by clocking 3:34.540. Uday was slower by 4.310sec and had to settle for second position and Manmeet on a Hero Impulse with deficit of another 0.730sec finished third. The 165 to 260cc 2/4 Stroke Group B was bagged by Uday Ganguli riding a TVS RTR 200

KOLKATA as he clocked 3:27.780.

Manmeet riding a Hero Karishma with 3:32.820 stood second and Barno Barman, also riding a Hero Karishma clocked 3:46.372 to be third. In the Royal Enfield Class, Sayan Mondal clocked 3:51.850 to win the class.

Kaustab Chowdhury settled for second position with a difference of 0.340sec and Tirthankar Ghosh came third with a timing of 5:04.360.

The Expert Open 2/4 Stroke Group B was bagged by Uday, riding a TVS Apache RTR200 in a time of 4:31.990.

Manmeet riding on Hero Karishma with further 3.720sec behind to take second and Sayan, astride a Hero Xpulse, was declared third a further 12.390sec behind. Novice Open 2/4 Stroke Group B belonged to Somhrit Chanda riding a Hero Xpulse and clocking 3:29.430. Sinchan Ghosh on a Hero Impulse clocked 3:33.490 to settle for second and Kaustab Chowdhury, riding a Royal Enfield, stood third with a further difference of 3.440sec.

4 Wheelers: Modified upto 1400cc Petrol / Diesel Class winner was Ibrahim Ali driving a Maruti Suzuki Ignis and clocking 1:17.530. Sourav Chaudhrui driving a Maruti Suzuki Swift with 0.260sec difference was declared second.

Souradeep Chatterjee on a Maruti Suzuki Swift was another 0.700sec slower and settled for third. Soumik Basu driving a Maruti Suzuki Esteem another 1.120sec behind came fourth.

Jogendra KR Jaiswal driving a Maruti Suzuki Swift clocked 1:17.170 to win the Modified upto 1650cc class. Subir Roy driving a VW Polo with 0.720sec difference stood second while Chandrasish Roy also driving a VW polo

with a further difference of 0.250sec was third. Rajiv Sarkar and Sk Ibrahim stood fourth and fifth respectively. Winner of Modified 1651 to 2000cc Class was Subir Roy driving a VW Polo by clocking 1:17.080. Souradeep Chatterjee driving a Honda City with a difference of 1.280sec finished in second position while Souradeep Dutta driving a Maruti Suzuki Swift with a further difference of 1.440sec was third. Mohit Jaiswal driving a Honda City stood fourth with a narrow difference of another 0.010sec.Pro-Stock upto 1400cc class winner was Sourav Chaudhuri driving a Maruti Suzuki Swift by clocking 1:16.450. SK Ibrahim with a difference of .530sec stood second while Souradeep Chatterjee with a further difference of 2.300sec stood third.

Subhajit Kumar driving a Ford Figo was fourth and Aniruddha was fifth. In ProStock upto 1650cc Class, Sourav Chaudhuri clocked 1:14.440 to win the class.

Jogendra by clocking 1:17.450 finished behind him in second and Subhajit with a mere 0.270sec difference completed the podium.

Chandrashish and Ibrahim finished in fourth and fifth positions respectively. In the Unrestricted Class, Yogesh Chandra Mullick and Subir Roy finished joint-first sharing the top position.

Subhajit Kumar was second while Vikramjit Kumar was third. The Ladies Class was won by Deepshikha Ganeriwala driving a Maruti Suzuki Baleno and clocking 1:26.590. SK Alivia driving a Maruti Suzuki Ignis with 6.240sec difference finished second and Monima Chowdhury by clocking 1:33.620 in a Chevrolet Sail completed the podium.

MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 69

RACE

The Cy cling e v ent attracts huge response from South India

CYCLING

V

UNDER 8YRS BOYS CLASS

Vyshak & ALEN win

40 PLUS WOMEN CATEGORY WINNERS

12 TO 14YRS GIRLS CATEGORY WINNERS 7O autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

“ This MTB track was so special to me and year on year the organizers make it more technical to enhance our skills and I am happy to be the winner from the past 3 years.”

Winner R Alen Rovan

yshak KV won the third edition of Western Valley MTB Cycling challenge in the Men's Elite Open Class which was held at Sundakkamuthur, Kovaipudur, recently. The event attracted close to 250 cyclists from Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Tamil Nadu. Bengaluru boy Vyshak won the Men Elite Open Class.

He had to cover twice, the 6.44km single track which had multiple courses like loose gravel, humps and dips. The route also passed through natural terrain and a few streamcrossings. Firos Ahamed, also from Bengaluru, had to settle for second position. Daniel DK from Coimbatore bagged the third position.

Under 8-years: In the men category, Dhanvanth was the winner followed by Haran in second as Kirthanik Yukan finished third in the 500mts track event. M Mugil Nila was the winner of Girls Class followed by BS Yazhbharathi in second and R Jaisri settled in third.

Between 8-10 years: Abinav won the 3.4-km single-lap race in the Men's category. Sachin Dev finished second while Niranjan Devarajan was third. In the Girls category, Ashwika M was the winner followed by Sruthika R in second while Lakshana PV finished third.

10-12 years class: It was a single-lap race on 3.4-km track.

Dhanush Prasanth dominated the men's category. Mithesh Ramsam Mukesh followed him in second even as M Raghavendra had to settle for third. The Ladies Class belonged to Smrithi Kumaresen while Nithila Das came second and

COIMBATORE

12 TO 14YRS BOYS CLASS

40 PLUS MEN CLASS WINNERS

Hashini K finished third.

12-14 years: This Class too had the same track of 3.4-km but it was run twice in the men's category. S Rohit Sudan was the winner followed by Savion Sabu in second while Febin Royce C completed the podium. In the Ladies Class, Seema M won the class followed by Akshata V in second spot and Archita V in third.

14-16 years: The 14 to 16 years class had 6.44-km track with a single lap and it witnessed Pooja Swetha M winning the class followed by K Harshit in second. Shyam Madhav settled for third in the men's class. R Alen Rovan won the ladies class followed

by Shruthu Devi in second.

Dhanya Darshini stood third.

16-18 years: The same 6.4km route was taken on twice.

Daniel DK won the men's category followed by Darshin SN in second and K Tamilselvan ( Sabari) in third.

S Vaishnavi Madhumitha was the winner of Ladies Class which was of one lap, followed by M Kavya in second. Harini RC completed the podium in third.

18-40 years: The 6.4-km route was to be taken twice for men while the 3.4-km route was taken once for women. B Ashwin Kumar was the winner in men's category

followed by Vijay in second and Vijay M stood third.

Monisha P won the Ladies Class followed by R Jothi in second. Deepa K secured third position.

40 Plus: The single lap of 6.4-km was on the cards for men over 40. Vijayaram Balasundaram was the winner in this class as he beat Usha Kannan to second place. V Venu Ramesh Kumar finished third. For women it was 3.4-km lap taken once.

Aarti Desai won beating Daisy Mohanraj and L Sasikala finished third.

UNDER 8YRS GIRLS CLASS

14 TO 16YRS BOYS CLASS MAR / APR 2021 autotrack.ind.in 71

HOSPET

HAMPI 0FF-R0AD

Venkat-Mahendra pair bags top class Utsav de Hampi includes Off-road action for the first time

T

he off-road activity for the first time was part of the Utsav de Hampi, the two-day event had 9 Stages to be cleared.

72 autotrack.ind.in MAR / APR 2021

The Pro-Modified class had nine stages in the menu. The pair of Venkat and Mahendra won bagging a total 673 points with two 100% scores.

Pradeep and Ramesh with a difference of 8 points stood second.

Kranthi and Dhanraj despite five best-stage finishes and a total of 655 points, adrift by 10 points to second settled for third place. Sidhartha and Savan despite three full scores managed only 601 for a 4th position finish. Satheesh along with Adarsh with another 11 points difference stood fifth. The pair of Nagesh and Sanjay with 418 points were sixth.

The 8-stage Modified class went into the kitty of Manas and Dhanush who scored 682 points. Krishna and Arvind with 567 points came second.

Navin, along with Satish, scored 536 points to complete the podium.

Satheesh and Arvind with 461 points secured fourth position while Nischal and Manu followed them scoring 360 points.

Stock class also had 8 stages. It was won by Ashwin Abhishek who garnered a total of 605 points. The pair of Umesh and Suresh with 562 points came second while Sandeep and Pradeep with 546 points settled for third. The husband-and-wife pair from Sakleshpur, Sapna and Chandan, with 530 points were fourth followed by KP Reddy and Abhilash with 504 points in fifth. Vijay and Adarsh finished sixth.

RNI No. KARENG/2007/21952 Pages 72+4