January - February 2023

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NH MEMORIAL HIMALAYAN DRIVE 2.0 HDBC

ASAD KHAN CROWNED CHAMP

INS ASIA W A D W O IG PRAGATH S FINALE ’ N E M O W PACIFIC

DRIVER CHAMPION

AKHIL RABINDRA INDIAN RACING LEAGUE - SEASON 1

JK RACING

Madras al Internation Circuit hosts Asia Pacific Finale

TRIPLE FOR VISWAS

DESERT STORM 2022

YUVA KUMAR; CHIRPAL-ARYA dominate 2W RACING

RAJINI; MATHANA Champions

KARTING

ROHAAN, NIKHILESH AND ABHAY CHAMPIONS

4W INRC

KARNA-NIKHIL WIN MAIDEN

2022 K1000 INRC ROUND 3

PLUS

FEATURE

HYGGE ENERGY

HALDIA

Suhail Ahmed Sparkles

ATMA

Ambitious Natural Rubber Project

INTERVIEW

Mr. Shashank Srivastava, ED - Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.

FIA MOTORSPORT GAMES Sanjay Takale Honoured, Finishes 8th in Rally4

EDITORIAL / IMPRINT

Hi,

Our New Look.

AUTO TRACK is on a new track...

I

t is good to avoid a mad rush at the end of the season but nice to see the season ending up by mid­February. The season which should have been completed by December or at least January, was pushed ahead due to extreme and extended monsoon playing spoilsport. With normal rains predicted this upcoming monsoon, things should be in place.

All the championships have completed their scheduled rounds. The shortest rounds in a season, once again would be for INRC after the cancellation of the Nellore round, which is going to shoot up in 2023 with seven rounds and it stands as the first championship to commence in 2023 calendar. As the Karnataka Assembly election dates are scheduled to be announced shortly, which is expected to be in May, if it clashes with one of the INRC rounds, there may be a reschedule of dates, which shouldn't happen, God willing!

The successful execution of Indian Racing League (IRL) 2022 to its fullest potential and the only Indian races in 2022 going Live on Star Sports 2 raised the bar of Indian Motorsports. Also the street race at Hyderabad, being the first in India, will also host the India's first Formula E coming February 2023. India will see two big International races this calendar which includes MotoGP coming up in September. Also eye catching this season will be the just­launched Indian Supercross league.

In this season­ending schedules, MRF2000 will complete three rounds, INRC for 2­wheelers and INRC for 4­wheelers will complete its final round each and, so does Autocross for 4­wheeler championship and the Sprint for two­wheelers.

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

O1 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

IMPRINT

Editor S. Ashok Kumar Tiwari Concept and Design: S. Ashok Kumar Tiwari

Staff Photographers: Prakash Rawat, Noorulla Managing Editor: Roopa A. Tiwari Sr. Correspondent: S. Nithyanand

Correspondent: K. Manjunath Ghanshyam A Tiwari Gokul

Spl. Correspondent: David Bodapati Western Region: autotrack.west@gmail.com Mob: 09757176958

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 16, ISSUE 2

CONTENTS

26

34

January / February 2023

30 44

International: 04

FIA Selection: 06

JK TYRE RACING: 08

MRF 2W INRC, PUNE: 12

MRF 4W RACING: 16

INDIAN RACING LEAGUE: 20 ROTAX KARTING: 24

08

24

42: EV Charging Unit 44: 2W Natl Racing

INRC 4W- K1000: 26

47: Drag

MRF Supercross: 30

50: Haldia Autocross

IRL, Chennai: 36

53: BMW

ATMA: 40 20

54: Interview

56: MOTO GP

58: Hero Dirt Biking

60: Himalayan Drive 62: Desert Storm

12

50

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22 64

16

44

NEW DELHI

RALLY

Sanjay Takale bags 8th in World Motorsport Games COFFEEDAY

The popular rally driver from Pune takes part in Rally4 class

R

enowned aerpace Racer ( aerpace.com ) from India, Sanjay Takale gets a special appreciation trophy for his brave driving at Circuit Paul Ricard in November. Among 72 nations and 462 competitors who took part in the FIA World Motorsport Games ­ 2022, Takale finished 8th in Rally4 event.

"This rally will be memorable for a lifetime. When the podium ceremony was on, I was surprised when I heard my name being called. Later, the FIA officials told me they acknowledged my bravery and driving style. They told me at 54 years of age, I still drove like a youngster. Well, the combination of tarmac track and left­hand drive was the first time for me. I think what went in my favour was that I broke no French traffic rules, which one could in a closed and fortified arena," recalled Takale, about the special moment, from Marseille.

"What will also remain etched in my memory is the fantastic association with aerpace, a company reinventing O4 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

FRANCE

transportation with pioneering technology, with a mission to build a futuristic transportation system through green and self­ sustainable electric mobility. Our work is revolutionary and I feel proud to be an aerpace Racer," added Takale, a former APRC winner in his class.

The MD of aerpace, Milan Shah, acknowledged Takale for his achievement at World Motorsport Games and highlighted that apart from innovative technologies, aerpace is also going to help get the importance of Motorsport games in India.

Young said even though six years have passed since they took part in the competition.

"Takale has retained his control over the car. He speeds up nicely when needed," Young added.

The appreciation that came their way was heart­warming. "Many other drivers broke the traffic rules, but we decided to stay within traffic rules and finished the transport stage even though we got late," Takale added.

He could have finished higher had it not been for a traffic snarl in the sixth stage, which he finished 8 minutes late and was handed a 80 second penalty.

Pragathi Gowda wins FIA Rally Star Asia-Pacific Women's Final Australian Taylor Gill tops among men

A

ustralia's 19­year old Taylor Gill, a mechanic by profession, and Pragathi Gowda from India were declared winners of the FIA Rally Star Asia­Pacific Final which concluded at the Madras International Circuit, near Chennai, in October.

A four­member Jury, after considering the timesheets and then interviewing the finalists, declared Gill, who hails from New Castle, as the overall winner of the Final while 25­year old Pragathi won in the women's category. She will represent the Asia­Pacific region in the women's World Finals in Peru in January 2023.

The qualifiers for Stage­3 were put through two phases of timed runs on the final day. At the end of the first phase, the list was

narrowed down to six contenders based on their times.

The top­six were then given another run to decide the quickest. The six drivers were then interviewed by the four­ member jury who then announced the winner, taking into consideration the performances, fitness and driving skills.

Pragathi, a post­graduate in finance, who juggles between profession and motorsport, said: “I am super happy. I will do my best to make my country proud.

Winning the Rally Star is the biggest recognition I have received and I have worked very hard for it. I would like to tell all the women out there to not lose hope. This is the happiest moment in my life.

“On the first two days, it was

O6 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

more of a tarmac run, but today, it was more gravel which I am very comfortable with and so was very confident. I just stuck to my basics and did what I had to

do. I was not happy with my first run today, but I completed the second with ease.”

Taylor Gill, struggling to contain

his emotions, said: “I don't have the words to describe my feelings now. Coming into the Final here, I just wanted to enjoy myself and put everything together. A couple of weeks ago, I did one day in a cross car in Australia, but the Rally Star cars here are vastly different. Right now, I am over the moon.”

The Asia­Pacific winner will join the other continental finals champions. Two winners of these events join the selection of drivers for the first FIA Rally Star Training Season in 2023. The last spot in the FIA Rally Star Training Season will go to the winner of the Women's Final, which is due to take place in Peru.

The winner of the FIA Rally Star Asia­Pacific Final will be representing the region in the 2023 FIA Rally Star Training Season. Besides six rallies in an M­Sport Ford Fiesta Rally3, the Training Season package includes physical and intellectual assessment, driver coaching and testing. The aim is to equip the successful contestants with the attributes they need as they attempt to secure a drive in the FIA World Rally Championship in the future.

At the end of 2023, the best four FIA Rally Star Team members are rewarded with a season in the FIA Junior WRC Championship in 2024. For 2025, three drivers go forward into a second Junior WRC season. And if one of the FIA Rally Star Team members wins the title, they secure a WRC2 campaign in a Rally2 car for 2026 with a Rally1 drive their next target.

Double for Vorapong; Milestone for TVS

NEWS

KY Ahmed, Jagan Kumar miss podium in TVS Asia One-Make Championship

A

chieving yet another incredible milestone on foreign soil, TVS Racing team successfully concluded the first edition of its TVS Asia One Make Championship with a creditable double for Vorapong. TVS Apache RR310 motorcycle clocked its highest top speed of 211.2 km per hour at Chang International Circuit. The TVS team also had a heart­break as KY Ahmed missed the podium twice and multiple Indian National champion, Jagan, who scaled up from the last crashed in the final lap aiming for an elusive third.

Race 1, never went well for Jagan as he had to start from 13th for missing the practice session. KY Ahmed started from P5 and Deepak Ravi Kumar from P6.

front he made up one more place and despite pushing hard he ended up 8th.

Vorapong Malahuan finished on top followed by Watcharin Tubtimon in second and Fugo Tanaka in third.

The gird position in Race 2 was the same. Jagan who started on P13, gained two positions at the start and quickly moved to 7th place in the next couple of laps.

With two more laps to go, he was in fourth place and started fighting for the third. He tried hard and on a couple of occasions he attempted to overtake but had to pull back. In the final stages of the race, he made one more attempt but an unfortunate contact while overtaking saw him crash out of

the race.

Just after the start on P5, Ahmed gained one position into fourth.

Later, on a couple of occasions, he lost and regained a place and did well on a left­hander to take the third position. But the joy was short­lived as Ahmed lost seven places and slid to 10th in the fifth lap. Later, he tried his best and overtook a few riders and finished in sixth place.

Deepak, who started on P5, slipped to 11th place and finally finished 10th.

Finally, Vorapong Malahuan finished on top for the second time in this round. Fugo Tanaka took second place and Watcharin Tubtimon came home third. Ahmed finished sixth and Deepak was tenth.

Ahmed began well and made up a place into fourth early on. Later, he lost ground and slipped a place into fifth. He tried hard to regain his position but ended where he began just three­ tenths of a second behind a podium place. Deepak who slipped to 13th at one stage, recovered and finished 11th.

In the very first lap, Jagan managed to gain two places into 11th position and later made up one more place to consistently run in 10th and with a crash in

INDIAN SUPERCROSS RACING LEAGUE

The MOU being handed over by Mr. Gautam Shantappa, Vice President FMSCI, and Mr. Sujit Kumar­ Chairman of Supercross Racing Commission of the FMSCI to the promoters of the INDIAN SUPERCROSS RACING LEAGUE led by Veer Patel, Eashan Lokhande and Aashwin Lokhande.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 07

RACING NATIONALS

Viswas Vijayaraj dominates with a triple Momentum's Chetan Surineni strikes in JK Tyre Novice class

PHOTO BY: SHAHJAHAN

A

hura Racing's Viswas Vijayaraj won a triple in the LGB Formula 4 races while Chetan Surineni of Momentum Motorsports excelled in the Novice class in Round 2 of the 25th JK Tyre FMSCI National Racing Championship 2022 at Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore .

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COIMBATORE

LGB Formula 4 Rescheduled as the second race of the day due to rain, Race 1 saw the comeback of defending champion Vishnu Prasad, who missed Round 1. With MSport's Ruhaan Alva missing this round due to the World Motorsport Games in Marseille, and Arya Singh leading the overall tally, the race was up for surprises. It was Ahura Racing's Viswas Vijayaraj who beat Vishnu Prasad to finish on top of the podium while Tijil Rao secured the third spot.

In Race 2, after a neck­and­neck battle, Viswas Vijayaraj defeated teammate Amir Sayed and MSport's Vishnu Prasad finished a close third.

The 20­lap Race 3, the concluding race for the day, brought out a lot of drama with the top drivers fighting it out on the track till the last lap.

The seasoned female racers Mira Erda from MSport, and Anushriya Gulati from Dark Don Racing, put up a spectacular show by leading under the top­ 10 for several laps.

It was Viswas Vijayaraj, however, who continued his grip and momentum throughout to clinch another top spot on the podium

while Arya Singh, and Ashwin Datta from Dark Don Racing, returned to the podium, at number 2, and 3, respectively.

JK Tyre Novice Cup The inaugural race was held on a rain­drenched track. With tally topper Kyle Kumaran absent from this round, it was a good chance for Hasten Performance's Aadithya Parasuram, who was second overall with 27 points. But, Aadithya could only finish as Runner­up behind MSport's Aman Nagdev, who won the race. DTS Racing's Joel Joseph finished a close third.

LGB FORMULA 4 RACE 1 WINNERS

Race 2 soon turned out to be a fierce battle among the young racers and the table completely turned with Arjun Syam Nair from Momentum Motorsports claiming the victory while DTS Racing's Vinith Kumar, and MSport's Dhruvh Goswami followed him in that order.

Race 3 saw the young campaigners resume their battle. Momentum Motorsports' Arjun Syam Nair, who topped Race 2 the previous day, toppled over after getting hit by Aman Nagdev. It was Arjun's teammate Chetan Surineni, who showed a surprising run to clinch the win

LGB FORMULA 4 RACE 2 WINNEERS JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 09

RACING

NATIONALS

and DTS Racing duo Vinith Kumar came second followed by Joel Joseph in third.

It was Momentum Motorsports' Chetan Surineni's day as he came up with a superb finish to win Race 4 after a close fight. The fierce battle among the young guns saw Hasten Performance's Aadithya Parasuram bounced back to clinch the second place while his teammate Adheet Parashar finished third. The podium finish puts Aadithya Parasuram 10 points ahead of Kyle Kumaran in the overall tally. Kyle missed this round as he was taking part in the World Motorsport Games in Marseille.

Royal Enfield Continental GT Cup With weather getting better and the track drying up, the Race 1 finally took off as the fourth and concluding race for Day 1. The Pro­Am Series format saw 10 professional and 15 amateur riders competing on the grid. Seasoned campaigners Anish D Shetty and Allwin Xavier battled it out throughout the race, although it was Anish who claimed the victory. Navaneeth Kumar came second followed by Soorya PM, a close third.

Category­wise, Anish topped in the professional category, followed by Navaneeth in second and Allwin in third place. In the Amateur category, Soorya PM was the winner, followed by Pradeep C Ashish Patel in that order.

The Race 2 started off well, but it turned out to be unlucky for Day 1 winner, Anish D Shetty as he lost control and retired midway. It was 1O autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

COIMBATORE

LGB FORMULA 4 WINNERS

Navaneeth Kumar, who took this opportunity to claim the victory. In the Pro­category, Navaneeth took the lead, with Allwin coming second and Ullas S Nanda finished third.

Soorya PM continued his lead in the Amateur category followed by Varun Gowda in second and Pradeep C took the last place on the podium.

winner Navaneeth Kumar had a fall midway and Allwin Xavier sealed the top spot of the podium. Sudheer Sudhakar came up with a good performance to clinch the second spot while Meka Vidhuraj came third. Soorya PM won the Amateur category again while Varun Gowda, and Pradeep C finished behind him in that order.

The track was better than morning for Race 3 providing more grip to the riders. Race 2

The JK Tyre presents Endurance League Cup 2022 powered by United CRA was introduced

for the first time in Round 1 last month. This category features 20 teams of two riders each racing on 250cc bikes non­stop for 60 minutes with a rider change as a true test of endurance. After an hour long test of endurance and racing intellect, it was the pair of Abhishek Vasudev and Amarnath Menon, who bagged a deserving victory. Rohit Lad and Abhinav G came second and Prabhu V and Sarvesh Hamunnavar clinched the third place.

ENDURANCE RACE IN PROGRESS JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 11

RALLY

NATIONALS

RAJENDRA RE OVERALL WINNER

Petronas TVS Racing team dominates with 9 riders in Overall top-10

PHOTO BY: PRAKASH RAWAT

P

etronas TVS Racing's Rajendra RE from Shivamogga continued his domination this season winning the Round 5 of the MRF Mogrip FMSCI National 12 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

Rally Championship for 2W, promoted by GodSpeed Racing, which was held in Pune on November 27.

The delayed start due to fog and time

constraints forced the organisers to cut down the rally distance to half, and run as per finish schedule. Heavy rains this year, damaged the tarmac badly and the pebbles layer that

formed as a result, provided the riders a different challenge and experience.

The rally which was supposed to be 51 km was reduced to an approximate 26 km, with one stage in the forward direction and another in the reverse direction, after regrouping. The third run was cancelled due to time constraints.

Petronas TVS Racing riders, riding a TVS RTR450, dominated the round winning the top seven slots in the Overall Class. Except, Russell Jossy, a privateer from Mumbai taking part in Class 5, who finished a creditable overall 8th, all the other nine out of the top­10 were TVS factory riders.

Rajendra, the 2019 National champion, who bagged his third consecutive victory this season, clocked a total time of 27min 54sec, to lead the overall leader­ board followed by his teammate Abdul Wahid Tanveer in second position with six seconds difference. Tanveer lost a lot of time in the first run and despite increasing the pace to beat Rajendra in reverse run, he fell short of the top slot. Samuel Jacob was another eight seconds behind but managed to complete the podium in third place. He clocked a 14­dead in his second run, but could not dip below the 14­minute band for a

PUNE

stage, unlike his teammates in the top­2 and took 16.2 seconds more to finish both the stages, clocking 28:10 for his third place.

Nataraj R came fourth in his class, and 6th overall, about 2 minutes behind the leader.

Privateers from Pune dominated the Star of Maharashtra class.

Veteran rider Amar Sathe, riding a Hero Xpulse 200 2V, despite not being the fastest in both the stages managed to finish on top with the best time of 36:43, which included a 30­sec Liaison penalty. Niraj Wanjale, riding a Hero Impulse, finished second 16 seconds behind after logging a 30­sec Liaison penalty. Kishor D Jadhav, astride a Hero Impulse was the fastest but his 4­min, 10­ sec Liaison penalty put him at the bottom of the order. But still he managed to stay finish third.

With most of the riders not taking part, Class 1A for Superbikes Expert Group A had a lone finisher Vinay Prasad BK, a privateer from Bengaluru who took part in this class only in this round. Riding a Hero Xpulse 200 4V, he clocked both the stages in 34min including a 1­min Liaison penalty.

RUSSELL JOSSY WINNER OF SS 400 GROUP B

AISHWARYA PM WINNER OF LADIES CLASS

Supersport 130 Group B:

Chalass K Bose, a privateer from Kottayam, riding a Honda Stunner won the class inn a total time of 33min 27sec beating

SHAMIM KHAN WINNER OF SCOOTER CLASS

CHALASS K BOSE WINNER SS 130 GROUP B

WINNERS GROUP PHOTOGRAPH JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 13

RALLY

NATIONALS

IMRAN PASHA WINNER OF SS 260 GROUP B

AMARENDRA SATHE WINNER STAR OF MAHARASHTRA

Gaurav Ajit Pathare from Mumbai, who was riding a Yamaha Gladiator. Gaurav finished second with 8­min Liaison penalty. One of the front runners, Anoop Manjappa from Bengaluru, riding a Honda Stunner, finished third as he crashed in the first few kilometres from start and had to pull out from a ditch to rejoin the rally. But he made up some good time in the second stage and finished third. Vinoth Kumar S from Erode did not take a start since his vehicle stalled during the reccee due to mechanical issues.

Supersport 165 Group B:

Coimbatore rider K Sasikumar, a privateer riding a Hero Impulse, won the class with a total time of 33min 12sec defeating Mobin Shah from Mumbai, also on a Hero Impulse with over 3­min difference.

Supersport 260 Group B:

All the podium places in this class were won by Petronas TVS Racing riders on a TVS RTR200.

Imran Pasha with a total time of

29min 31sec won the class followed by his teammate Sachin D, who finished second with a 30­sec difference. TVS' third rider in the class Banteilang Jyrwa came third another 9 seconds behind. A privateer from Bengaluru, Jeevarathinam J, riding a TVS Apache RTR 180 came fourth taking another 6min 46sec to finish the course.

Abhimanyu Ray from Pune, riding a KTM Duke, was fifth with a further 2min 51sec difference including 1­min Liaison penalty.

Duke390 another 1 minute 15 seconds behind that included 1min 20sec liaison penalty.

Mohammed Zaheer from Bengaluru, riding an Adventure 390, had to ride both the stages with a flat tyre, right from start and he finished fourth, with a 10min 3sec further difference, including 1min 10sec road penalty. GS Amogh Nag from Bengaluru, riding a KTM Duke390, with a further 8min 7sec difference including 15min 10sec liaison penalty was fifth.

Russell Jossy, a privateer from Navi Mumbai riding a KTM Duke390 was the winner of the class clocking 32min 29sec. He also finished Overall 8th ahead of many faster bikes. Hansraj Saikia from Guwahati, riding a KTM Duke, had a few electrical issues with the bike and managed to finish second with a 1­min 49­sec difference, including a 1­min 10­sec Liaison penalty. Venu Ramesh Kumar, an experienced rider from Coimbatore came third on a KTM

The Championship leader in the class, Naresh VS, a privateer from Bengaluru, riding a Himalayan, took a comfortable victory to extend his lead clocking 34min 43sec. Yogesh V Mirji from Miraj, riding a Himalayan, was a far­ away second finishing 7min 5sec behind the leader. Nilesh Yashwant Thakare from Nashik punctured his Himalayan and was forced to pull out just before start.

Supersport 400 Group B:

14 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

Supersport 550 Group B:

Ladies Class Group B : Table topper, Bengaluru's

K SASI KUMAR WINNER OF SS 165 GROUP B

PUNE

Aishwarya PM from Petronas TVS Racing, riding a TVS RTR200, won with ease clocking 35min 29sec beating rising star from Palakkad, Fazeela U, a privateer riding a Hero Impulse. The Kerala rider was 1min 34sec behind in second followed by Deeksha Srivastava from Pune on a Hero Impulse in third with a further 8min 48sec difference.

Superstock upto 450 Group D:

Privateer Sabarish R from Coimbatore, astride a TVS Apache RTR200 won the class in 32min 52sec beating Goutham Rao R, also from Bengaluru on a TVS Apache RTR200. Rao came 1min 46sec behind in second.

Kaustav Kalita, a first­timer from Guwahati, riding a Hero Xpulse 200, came third with a further difference of 4min 47sec, including 1min 10sec liaison penalty.

Scooter upto 210 Group B: T h e s c o o t e r c l a s s s a w

overwhelming response with the highest entries till now in any of the season. Shamim Khan from Petronas TVS Racing, riding an NTORQ 124, is back in the limelight in the championship while locking horns with the leader Pinkesh Thakkar from JB Racing, who could finish only

VINAY PRASAD RK WINNER OF SUPER BIKE EXPERT GROUP A

NARESH VS WINNER SS 550 GROUP B

fourth this round astride an Aprilia SR150. Shamim finished on top with a total time of 32min 36sec, a second ahead of his teammate Karthik N also on a NTORQ 124. Venkatesh Shetty, a

privateer from Mumbai, riding an Aprilia SR150 secured third position with a difference of 35 seconds. Pinkesh finished fourth with a further 7­sec difference.

Subramanya T, also from JB

Racing riding an Aprilia SR150, came fifth a further seven seconds behind. Syed Asif Ali from Petronas TVS Racing, riding a NTORQ 124, was sixth with another 23­sec difference.

SABARISH R WINNER OF GROUP D UPTO 450CC JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 15

RACING NATIONALS

SAI SANJAY ENROUTE TO VICTORY IN MRF F2000 RACE 1

Justin Singh, Zahan Commissariat post wins; Arjun Balu sparkles

PHOTO BY: ANAND PHILAR / SHAHJAHAN

B

engaluru teenager Chirag Ghorpade, Salem's Sai Sanjay won a race each in MRF F2000 class while Thrissur's Diljith Shaji took the honours in the Formula LGB 1300 class. Coimbatore veteran Arjun Balu from Race Concepts put in near­flawless performances for commanding win in the ITC class before heavy rains led to abandonment on Day 2 of the first round of

the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Car Racing Championship 2022 at the Madras International Circuit recently. Continuous rains from 12.30 pm onwards on Day 2 forced the organisers to cancel the remaining races.

MRF F2000: Race 1, Sai Sanjay 19 from Salem, started from P2 on the grid and after a good start, moved into

16 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

the lead. He then defended his position with aplomb despite coming under pressure from Agra's Shahan Ali Mohsin for much of the 10­lap race for a deserving win. Shahan Ali, last year's MRF F1600 champion, had to be content with second place after starting from P4 while Yash Aradhya came in third, holding off pole­sitter and fellow­ Bengalurean Rishon Rajeev, as Rishon crawled at the start.

In Race 2, Bengaluru boy Chirag, 17, led from the front after starting from pole position on the reverse grid and barely had to look in the rear view mirrors as he opened up a big gap in the very first lap. Such was his pace that was not apparent in Race­1 where he finished eighth. He made an untroubled progress through the 12 laps that were briefly interrupted by a Safety Car period. Chirag made a well­

CHENNAI

ZAHAN COMMISSARIAT WINNER OF MRF SALOON

timed getaway on restart and eventually spared four seconds to second­placed Rishon Rajeev from Bengaluru with Chennai's Dillon Thomas Zachariah finishing third.

LGB 1300: The eight­lapper, after much jostling in the early stages, settled down with the 29­year Diljith from Thrissur representing DTS Racing forging his way to the front followed by his teammate Viswas Vijayaraj from Nellore in second position with a difference of 4sec. Bengaluru's Arjun Nair from Momentum Motorsports was third, who did well to make four spots after starting from P7.

ITC: Coimbatore ace Arjun Balu, 47, the defending champion from Race Concepts (Bengaluru) stable, set the pace in the premier Indian Touring Cars category, by qualifying for pole position with a hot lap of 01min, 50.000secs. He was well ahead of 2017 winner, Arjun Narendran (01:52.560), also from Coimbatore, and who is returning to full­time racing after a five­year break.

respectively, some 2.9 seconds off Balu's pace.

In Race 1, it was an Arjun Balu show in the Saloon cars race that was run on a combined 27­ car grid comprising all three categories – the premier Indian Touring Cars, Indian Junior Touring Cars and Super Stock.

Balu, starting from pole, briefly slipped to second behind 2017 champion Arjun Narendran from Arka Motorsports, also from Coimbatore, after missing a gear­shift at the start. However, he swiftly moved to the front and increased the gap gradually for a comfortable win despite

WINNERS OF MRF 2000 RACE 2

TEJAS GS IN ACTION IN FLGB 1300

ARJUN BALU WINNER OF ITC IN ACTION

The two Volkswagen Virtus cars, making their debut in the championship, and driven by Jeet Jhabakh from Hyderabad and Sandeep Kumar from Chennai were fourth and fifth, JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 17

CHENNAI

RALLY

COFFEEDAY

WINNERS OF MRF F2000 RACE 1

AMAN NAGDEV IN FLGB 1300

alternator failure and the car running only on battery power. Narendran finished second ahead of Rayo Racing's Jeet Jhabakh from Hyderabad who was in the brand new Volkswagen Virtus which made its debut in the championship this weekend.

following post­race scrutiny for a “technical infringement”. Chennai's Anand Prasad from Performance Racing, thus, moved from third to first, ahead of team­mate K Srinivas Teja and Charen Chandran from Arka Motorsports in second and third respectively.

IJTC: Chennai veteran Gurunath Meyyappan from Race Concepts, staging a return to racing after a prolonged break, took pole position in the Indian Junior Touring Cars category.

Gurunath racing in the championship for the first time since 1999, topped the category, followed by team­mate Diana Pundole from Pune. However, both were disqualified

Super Stock: Chennai driver Ritesh Rai from Performance Racing won followed by DB Motorsports pair of Jason Deepak Saldanha from Mangaluru in second and Jarshan Anand from Chennai in third.

MRF Saloon cars (Toyota Etios): Race1: In the day's last race, Justin Singh from

DILJITH SHAJI NO. 44 TAKING THE INNER LINE ­ WINNER FORMULA LGB RACE 1 18 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

Gurugram, claimed the honours with a lights­ to­flag win ahead of Pune's Diana Pundole and Angad Matharoo from Chandigarh.

Race 2: The day's other winner was Mumbai youngster Zahan Commissariat who claimed the honours which was red­flagged after five laps due to heavy rains. Angad Matharoo finished second while Jai Prashanth Venkat from Coimbatore completed the podium.

Special awards were given to lady drivers Diana Pundole from Pune and Tarushi Vikram from Chikkamagalur for Race 1 and for Race 2. Shravanthika Lakshmi from Coimbatore and Tarushi were also honoured.

RALLY

COFFEEDAY

TSD RALLY

1300

2500

OO autotrack.ind.in AUGUST 2022

AUGUST 2022 autotrack.ind.in 00

INDIAN RACING LEAGUE

Akhil Rabindra is inaugural IRL Driver Champion

PHOTO BY: SHAHJAHAN / SHAMEEM / AKHIL / ABINASH Racing League saw wet weather in he 4­week long inaugural edition of Hyderabad but the wet race did not dampen the Indian Racing League saw the spirits of the racers or the attending GodSpeed Kochi emerge as the audience as palpable excitement and tension overall champions of the league that in the pits led to an epic finale. In the drivers' concluded in December at the Street Circuit championship, it was Akhil Rabindra on top, in Hyderabad. They managed to defeat hot followed by Neel Jani in second and Alister favourites and hitherto leaders till the final Yoong finishing third. round, the Black Birds Hyderabad, who went into the finals without their leading driver Overnight rains which continued on the final Neel Jani. day of the race saw the Qualifying 1 run under

T

The fourth and the final leg of the Indian

2O autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

very wet conditions as the pair from

Godspeed Kochi Nikhil Bohra and Ruhaan Alva finishing within the same second and were on top as Anshul Gandhi from Bengaluru Speedsters managed to be third, with a photo finish difference of 0.011sec over fourth qualifier Shahan Ali Mohsin from Speed Demons Delhi and Kevin Mirocha from Goa Aces was in fifth with over 2­sec deficit.

Qualifying 2 was under a bit less wetter conditions, which once again saw GodSpeed Kochi taking the pole and second pole

HYDERABAD

position, with their drivers Alister Yoong and Fabienne Wohlwend finishing in the same second. The further four drivers qualified in the next second with Thomas Canning from Black Birds Hyderabad qualifying third. Sohil Shah and Gabriela Jilkova, both from Goa Aces, qualified in fourth and fifth while Akash Gowda from Speed Demons Delhi was fifth.

DRIVERS CHAMPIONS 2. NEEL JANI (COLLECTED BY ANINDITH) 1. AKHIL RABINDRA 3. ALISTER YOONG

TEAM GOD SPEED KOCHI WINNERS

TOP TOLLYWOOD ACTOR RAMCHARAN

FEATURE RACE WINNERS BEFORE PENALTIES

Sprint:

Race1 was the wettest race of the day and had 10 vehicles on the grid from six teams with Alister Yoong from GodSpeed Kochi on pole followed by Gabriela Jilkova from Goa Aces in P2. Akash Gowda from Speed Demons Delhi was in P3.

As the race began, in the very first lap Akash Gowda had issues with his car which slowed down and managed to restart and rejoin the race and fell back, but in the very next instance Rishon Rajeev from Bangalore Speedsters crashed against the barrier on a left hander and the safety car was brought in, which helped Akash to close the gap behind Sandeep Kumar from Chennai Turbo Riders and with 10 minutes left, he managed to go past him on a left hander.

It was not good news for GodSpeed Kochi as Fabienne Wohlwend's car stalled and had to pull out with 6 minutes of racing left. Meanwhile at the back, a tough battle between Sohil Shah from Goa Aces and Thomas Canning from Black Birds Hyderabad was underway and Sohil managed to go past him in the same lap to secure third position. The very next minute Celia Martin from Speed Demons Delhi also pulled out.

Alister won the race followed by Gabriela in second and Sohil in third. Thomas and Akash finished in fourth and fifth positions respectively.

During Race 2, rain started subsidising and the track was drying up with ten cars on the grid led by Nikhil Bohra from JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 21

INDIAN RACING LEAGUE

BLACK BIRDS HYDERABAD DURING PRACTICE

GodSpeed Kochi on pole followed by his teammate Ruhaan Alva in P2. Kevin Mirocha from Goa Aces was third on the grid.

When the race began Nikhil and Ruhaan were the leaders as Akhil Rabindra from Black Birds Hyderabad and Amir Sayed from Goa Aces followed them ahead of Kevin Mirocha from Goa Aces. With 11min left, Mitchell managed to overtake Anindith Reddy from Black Birds Hyderabad to run in seventh position. But in the seventh lap, Shahan Ali Mohsin from Speed Demons Delhi and his teammate Mitchell Gilbert both retired. Ruhaan fell back to sixth position as he had mechanical issues and rejoined behind Jon Lancaster from Chennai Turbo Riders.

Meanwhile, Kevin managed to go past Amir and within a short span even Jon climbed one position up. With three minutes left Akhil, Kevin, Jon and Ruhaan were locked in a fierce battle and in the final stages Anindith had to pull out which led to yellow flag.

Looking at this Akhil and Kevin cut on their speed, thus giving way for Ruhaan and Kevin both to come out of the rush at a right hander. In the same lap, Jon also went past Akhil and Ruhaan managed to pass by Kevin to his earlier running position in second. Jon in couple of occasions tried to go past Kevin but he was denied a passage. Nikhil finished 22 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

on top followed by Ruhaan in second and Kevin completed the podium, Jon and Akhil had to settle for fourth and fifth position.

Feature Race:

The race was run with wet tyres in dry conditions as the track had a few wet patches.

This 35min+1 Lap race began with two false starts. In the first instance, it was Akhil Rabindra's car and in the second occasion pole setter Nikhil's vehicle stalled and restarted. But the race was restarted after red flag and the time was reduced to 30min+1 Lap. Nikhil got off to a good start followed by

GOA ACES IN FRONT DURING FORMATION LAP

Ruhaan, Kevin Mirocha, Amir Sayed and Akhil Rabindra. In the very next minute Akhil had climbed up to fourth position and by the end of the 4th minute, Akhil spun and was helped out to rejoin with Marshal's assistance.

Rishon Rajeev who climbed up the order to fifth by overtaking Nicole Havrda and then he faded out. With 22min left Akhil had to retire and with about 20 minutes left Ruhaan Alva from GodSpeed Kochi was called into the pits for the compulsory 3min stop and driver changeover.

With 16min left Goa Aces driver Sohil took charge from Amir while Parth Ghorpade from

HYDERABAD

MANDATORY PIT STOP GOA ACES

MANDATORY PIT STOP CHENNAI TURBO RIDERS

Chennai Turbo Riders replaced Nicole Havrda with 13min left.

Kevin Mriocha's charge was taken over by Gabriela Jilkova from Goa Aces.

Anindith Reddy had to come into the pits and did a mandatory wait­and­go after 3minutes as his teammate Lola was unwell and he continued the second stint too. As a result of this he was participating with 50percent of the points. Sohil returned back to the pits to retire with about 9minutes remaining.

Jon Lancaster from Chennai Turbo Riders gave charge to Sandeep Kumar with just 9 minutes left and he finished on top which was short lived as 30­ second penalty was added for causing an avoidable collision,

which turned the tables and the final results allowed Alister Yoong and Nikhil Bohra pair from Godspeed Kochi take the much­needed victory that got them the championship. Goa Aces duo of Kevin Mirocha and Gabriela Jilkova came in second while Anindith Reddy finished third. Reddy climbed up from 8th position in the start. Jon and Sandeep finished fourth while Ruhaan Alva and Fabienne Wohlwend from Godspeed Kochi were penalised with 1min 10sec penalty for entering pits for changeover before the pit window was open, which pulled him down to sixth. Nicole Havrda and Parth Ghoprade from Chennai Turbo Riders finished fifth.

SPRINT RACE 2 WINNERS

SPRINT RACE 1 WINNERS TEAM GODSPEED KOCHI LEADING

SPRINT RACE 2 ACTION JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 23

KARTING N AT I O N A L S

ROHAAN MADESH WINNER OF SENIOR MAX

Madesh brothers, Raju top final round Peregrine Racing sweeps the honours in all three classes PHOTO BY: SHAHJAHAN

B

engaluru boys Rohaan Madesh, Ishaan Madesh and Nikhilesh Raju, all from Peregrine Racing team, won their respective classes in Round­5 of the MECO FMSCI National Rotax Max Karting Championship 2022 held at the Meco Kartopia in Bengaluru recently.

24 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

Senior Max:

Bengaluru boy Rohaan Madesh from Peregrine Racing was the winner of the final round. He had a best lap time of 55.323 as he managed to stay on top with an advantage of 1.393sec to the finish ahead of second­ placed teammate Akshat Misra. Mumbai Karter from Rayo Racing, Aditya Patnaik, missed the higher position by a narrow

margin of 0.755sec and secured third position. Nigel Abraham, also from Peregrine Racing, was slower by 0.706sec to miss the podium and settled for fourth position. Rayo Racing's Raiden Ron Samervel with further 0.818sec deficit finished fifth. Rishon Rajeev from Birel Art was sixth. Neythan McPherson from Crest Motorsport and Krish Gupta from Rayo Racing were lined up in seventh and

BENGALURU

YUG JAIN AHEAD OF ANUJ ARUN IN MICRO MAX

ADITYA PANTNAIK 2ND RUNNER­UP SENIOR MAX

eighth places in that order.

Junior Max:

The younger of the two siblings, Ishaan Madesh from Bengaluru, representing Peregrine Racing won the final round in the Junior Max class. With a fastest lap tie of 55.503, he clocked a total time of 13:06.653 to win the class in the finals. The MSport karter, Anshul Sai Shiva Kumar from Bengaluru, came second, six seconds six seconds behind the leader. Adhithiya Arvind from Chennai, also representing Peregrine Racing, finished third, a further three seconds later.

MSport karter Sai Shiva Makesh Sankaran needed to be quicker by over a second to be on the podium but could only finish fourth. Leapfrog Racing's Aarav Dewan came fifth. Peregrine Racing karter Nikhilesh Raju D from Bengaluru finished in sixth as Ranvir Singh from Momentum Motorsports and Varun Hari Praveen from Peregrine racing settled for seventh and eighth positions respectively. Shriya Lohia was given a 10­sec penalty for causing collusion. Likewise, a

similar penalty was awarded to Abhay M for 'pushing out' while Adhithiya and Shrili Mistry were awarded 5­sec penalty each for a false start and a 'front bumper' issues.

NIKHILESH RAJU D WINNER OF MICRO MAX

Micro Max:

Nikhilesh Raju D from Bengaluru representing Peregrine Racing won the Micro Max class in the fifth and final round. In the finals, he clocked a total time of 12:26.290. Madurai boy Anuj Arun from MSport finished second one second behind and Yug Jain from Gujarat representing Erda's Racing came third a further 0.200sec later. Zephaan Ardeshir from Pune, representing Rayo Racing, missed the podium by over a second and stood fourth. The two MSport karters. Rivaan Dev Preetham and Eshanth Vengatesan finished in the same second to take fifth and sixth positions respectively, over three seconds behind their immediate racers. Zephaan Rehan Khan from Momentum Motorsport, and Yatharth Gaur from Leapfrog Racing, finished seventh and eighth in that order.

ISHAAN MADESH WINNER OF JUNIOR MAX

WINNERS GROUP PHOTOGRAPH JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 25

RALLY

NATIONALS

Karna Kadur, Nikhil Pai

The Bengaluru pair win maiden K1000

OVERALL WINNERS KARNA KADUR AND NIKHIL PAI

PHOTO BY: KRISHANU CHATERJEE AND VIKRAM SUNDARMOORTHY

T

he Bengaluru pair of Karna Kadur and co­driver Nikhil V Pai of Arka Motorsports supported by MRF clinched their maiden Overall Karnataka­ 1000 title by finishing first in the Prasaditya 46th Karnataka­1000 Rally, a round of the

26 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

Blueband FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship 2022 despite suffering heavy damage to their car after clipping a rock in the second stage at Tumakuru in December.

Karna Kadur and Nikhil Pai scored their second Overall INRC victory with a round to

spare as they took an unbeatable lead in the points table following the exit of Gaurav Gill and Musa Sherif.

The two­day rally was flagged off from the Glass House of Tumakuru by former Minister S Shivanna. The 65 participants from across

India took part in the 224­km rally which included 119.1km of competitive distance forming 10 special stages. The Day 1 schedule was shortened to four Special Stages as against the

scheduled six, following a delayed start due to a technical hitch.

Finishing second, over a minute and 14sec behind Kadur was Mangaluru's Aroor Arjun Rao and co­driver Satish Rajagopal from Bengaluru of Mandovi Racing, also supported by MRF, while another pair supported

by MRF, Delhi's Philippos Matthai and Harish Gowda from Bengaluru, who returned to rallying after a long break, finished third Overall with a further difference of over 1min 43sec.

The pair of Suhem Kabeer from Virajpet and Jeeva Rathinam from Bengaluru, supported by JK Tyres, managed to stay close in spite of loosing time due to flat tyre and missed the podium by three seconds. Maninder Singh Prince and Vinay Padmashali, supported by JK Tyres, were fifth another 26seconds behind. The Bengaluru pair of Rahul Kanthraj and Vivek Y Bhatt from Arka Motorsports, supported by MRF, took sixth with another 5­sec difference.

The pull­out of JK Tyre supported driver, the seven­time National champion Gaurav Gill was a huge disappointment as fans and spectators from the adjacent villagers gathered in large numbers to watch his action and drifts. After pulling out a kilometre into the start on Day 1 due to drive shaft issues, Gill restarted Day 2 and as usual, he clocked the fastest stage time.

Villagers rushed to Stage 2 to watch him but this was short lived. Once again, he had to retire about 3 kms from the start of the second stage due to a broken front right knuckle. The pair of Fabid Ahmer and Sanath G had already started to cut down the difference by a second in Stage 1 of Day 2, with a late call he overshot and got stuck in a ditch and had to pull out just 1km from the start of Special Stage 2.

With this Arjun Rao was elevated to second position but he was unable to cut down the Day 1 difference of 1min 1sec.

TUMAKURU

OVERALL WINNERS KARNA KADUR AND NIKHIL PAI

INRC 2 WINNERS SUHEM KABEER AND JEEVA RATHINAM

JINRC WINNERS ARNAV PRATAP SINGH AND ARJUN SSB

INRC4 WINNERS AEMAN AHMED AND SAGAR MALLAPPA JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 27

RALLY

NATIONALS

D

Racing to go for a win. They chalked out a facile win beating the pair of Rakshith Iyer from Mysuru and Avinash CA from Bengaluru by 3min 29sec. The winning pair managed to extend their Day 1 lead of 20seconds to a handsome gap of over 3min.

The DC Racing pair of Deepak Chandra and Raghuram CG from Bengaluru finished third with a further difference of 12min 18sec. The pair of Jagbir Nirwan from Patiala and Karanpreet Mattur from Kurukshetra were unable to hold on to their Day 1 third position.

INRC 3 WINNERS AND THIRD OVERALL PHILIPPOS MATHAI AND HARISH KN

espite a damaged car, Karna managed to increase his lead by 13sec on Day 2. The pair of Dean Mascarenhas and Gagan Karumbaiah had to pull out on Day 1 after damaging their radiator in the second stream crossing in Stage 2 but on Day 2, they were the fastest with a leg time of 37min 35sec.

Karna was 18sec behind them. The pair of Chetan Shivram and Dilip Sharan had to pull out on Day 1 at the same second stream crossing.

INRC­2 The pair of Suhem Kabeer and Jeeva Rathinam, supported by JK Tyre, won the class with a margin of 31sec over the Bengaluru pair of Rahul Kanthraj and Vivek Y Bhatt. Harkrishan Wadia from Delhi and Amber Udasi from Chandigarh, supported by JK Tyre, driving for Arka Motorsports rejoined Day 2 and with over 7­min difference managed to hold on to the last podium place. Suhem began Day 2 in second position behind the Day 1 leader Fabid, who had to retire in second stage of Day 2. Thus Suhem topped the class. Aditya Thakur from Solan and Virender Kashyap from Shimla, supported by MRF representing Chettinad Sporting, were in third position on Day 1 but retired on the final day.

INRC­3 The pair of Philippos Mathai from New Delhi and Harish KN from Bengaluru, representing Arka Motorsports and supported by MRF, won the class beating the JK Tyre­supported pair of Maninder Singh Prince from New Delhi and Suraj Keshava Prasad from Bengaluru 29 seconds. These top two pairs were tied in leg one with same penalties. Arnav Singh Pratap from Delhi and Arjun SSB from Bengaluru representing SNAP Racing were behind by 2min 26sec and managed to be on the podium in third place. The pair of Kuber Sharma and Kunal Kashyap began Day 2 with 8sec difference but had to pull out.

INRC­4 Nothing stopped the pair of Aeman Ahmed from Chikkamagaluru and Sagar Mallappa from Bengaluru representing Ammyfied 28 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

Junior INRC The pair of Arnav Pratap Singh from Delhi and Arjun SSB from Bengaluru representing SNAP Racing won the class with a

WINNERS OF JINRC ARNAV PRATAP SINGH AND ARJUN SSB

WINNERS OF GYPSY CHALLENGE SAMRAT YADAV AND CHANDRASHEKAR

WINNERS OF INRC4 AEMAN AHMED AND SAGAR MALLAPPA

TUMAKURU

FIRST RUNNER­UP ARJUN RAO AND SATISH RAJGOPAL IN ACTION

margin of 21sec over the Bengaluru pair of Pragathi Gowda and Trisha Alonkar, who finished second. Ajay Sankar from Kollam and Rohit Gowda from Bengaluru finished third with a difference of over 1min 7sec as they managed to decrease the lead by 26sec from Day 1.

Gypsy Challenge (Non­ Championship) Ammyfied Rallying team dominated the Gypsy class winning all the podium places and the fight was between the

second. Nikeetaa Takkale from Pune along with Deeksha Balakrishna from Bengaluru finished in third position.

Superfast mechs shape Karna's win: The 34­year old Kadur, who enjoyed a comfortable lead after Leg­1 on Saturday, kept his wits about him after suffering some heavy damage to the sump guard in Sunday's second Stage when he clipped a rock. His mechanics carried out the necessary repairs in 20 minutes flat during the service break which enabled Kadur to continue

"We checked into parc ferme with just 30 seconds to spare. All kudos to our team who did a tremendous job. Yes, a pretty emotional moment. My dad (late Prakash Kadur) never won a K­1000 Rally and so, I am first in the family.” teammates. The unchallenged pair Samrat Yadav from Chandigarh and Chandrashekar M from Bengaluru held on to the top slot by extending their Day 1 lead of 2min 40 sec to win the class with a comfortable margin of 3min 35sec over their teammates Himanshu Arora from Delhi and Vikram Thakur from Chandigarh. The third pair of Kariappa Mekerira from Kodagu and Supreeth Sagar from Bengaluru had to settle for third place with a further difference of 4min 5sec. This pair further lost time from their Day 1 deficit of below 3min.

All­Women Open The MRF supported driver Pragathi Gowda along with Trisha Alonkar won the class while the mother and daughter pair of Dr Shivani Pruthvi and Dr Deepti Pruthvi from Davangere, supported by JK Tyre, finished and finish the second loop

WINNERS OF INRC 2 SUHEM KABEER AND JEEVA RATHINAM

LADIES CLASS WINNERS PRAGATI GOWDA AND TRISHA ALONKAR

without much ado.

Reflecting on the weekend, Kadur said: “It (the win) still hasn't sunk in but I am very happy that we won our first K­1000 Rally. We had a fairly smooth run yesterday but this morning, we had a scare when we clipped a rock in the second Stage.”

“The damage was pretty bad in the front because the sump guard got cut. I managed to come back to service and the boys did a tremendous job in carrying out the necessary repairs, including some cutting, chopping and welding, besides fabricating and fitting a new sump guard, all in 20 minutes flat.

"We checked into parc ferme with just 30 seconds to spare. All kudos to our team who did a tremendous job. Yes, a pretty emotional moment. My dad (late Prakash Kadur) never won a K­ 1000 Rally and so, I am first in the family.”

WINNERS OF GYPSY CHALLENGE SAMRAT YADAV AND CHANDRASHEKAR

LADIES CLASS WINNERS PRAGATHI AND TRISHA IN ACTION

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 29

NATIONAL SUPERCROSS

RUGVED BARGUJE BEST RIDER

Sarthak sparkles in 2 classes, Akshat Hupale wins Junior section

W

ith four podium finishes Sarthak Chavan from Pune won two classes while Rugved Barguje, also from Pune, with a double victory in the top class, the SX1, won the 'Best­Rider' tag in the final round of the MRF FMSCI Mogrip National Supercross Championship 2022 held in Bengaluru in November.

SX1 GROUP A:

It was a double victory for the Pune rider Rugved Barguje as Petronas TVS Racing riders dominated and captured the

top­four positions. CD Jinan with 32 points finished second and Ikshan Shanbhag finished third bagging 30 points. Prajwal V took 28 points for fourth and privateer Shlok Ghorpade from Satara came fifth garnering 21points.

In Moto 1, it was a clean start for Rugved and he pulled up a lead right from the start and managed to stay ahead despite his teammate Jinan on his neck from the start. It was a straight fight between the Petronas TVS Racing riders for the top four

3O autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

slots. A crash at the second corner gave these riders a no­ look­back situation. In between, there were situations were the top­two came close but it was Rugved who handled the pressure well and Jinan was very close at the finish but had to settle for second spot.

Meanwhile, Prajwal V from Bengaluru, was running third right from the start and on a couple of occasions, he was seen very close to Jinan. But in the middle of the 4th lap, Ikshan tried to go past him from right side

before the left­hander. But this unsuccessful attempt by Ikshan took him out of the track over a mount and he had to rejoin losing ground but managed to finish fourth ahead of Shlok.

In Moto2, it was a top­four finish for Petronas TVS Racing. Jinan was unable to hold on to the pressure from his teammate Rugved. In the third lap, Jinan over shot and gave way for Rugved to reach the top position and there on, there was no looking back for Rugved, who finished on top for the second

ahead of him in flash. Jinan managed to be on the podium in third while Prajwal finished fourth and Sarthak was fifth.

In the Group C, Indian Experts class too, the top­four positions were secured by Petronas TVS Racing riders. Imran Pasha had a very good start and his teammate Nataraj R was behind him. Privateer Arun T from Hassan, who was putting up a great fight with Nataraj all along, crashed in the penultimate lap.

Meanwhile, Sachin D managed to climb up positions from the very first lap as he came past Yuva Kumar. Then in the third lap, he further gained position going past privateer Paomin from Shillong and was behind just behind Arun. But the championship leader Arun, defended his position for sometime but Sachin went past him into third and was behind Nataraj, with a lap to go. Nataraj, in an unsuccessful attempt to overtake Imran, lost ground, allowed Sachin to close the gap.

Then Sachin went Nataraj in the final lap to take second place behind Imran while Nataraj finished third. Benteilang Jerwa had a fall right in the first corner and was running last but by the

With a dominating show, Sarthak Chavan from Pune, won both the motos and bagged 40 points.

Shlok Ghorpade from Satara came second with 32 points and tied up for the second spot, for the second time this round with Jinendra Sangave from Kolhapur, who also notched up 32 points. Anastya Pol from Bengaluru finished fourth.

INDIAN EXPERT GROUP C:

IMRAN PASHA WINNER PRIVATE EXPERT UPTO 260CC

BANTEILANG JERWA WINNER NOVICE UPTO 260CC

time in a row.

Prajwal V, who was running third till the fifth lap, was taken by surprise

by Ikshan who was behind him and overtook him in a jiffy. Jinan was also shaken by similar situation in the final jump as Ikshan finished

SARTHAK CHAVAN WINNER OF JRSX1

BENGALURU

end of fourth lap, he recovered to fifth and managed to finish fourth in the end. Paomin came fifth.

JUNIOR SX1:

In Moto1, Sarthak Chavan from Pune got off to a good start and started extending his lead while Kolhapur rider Jinendra started losing ground initially. Anastya from Bengaluru was running third at that stage as Shlok, the championship leader, had a fall before the first corner. In the third lap Shlok, managed to reach third position and with three more laps to spare, he was literally on Jinendra's neck till the end. But Jinendra put up a very good fight and defended his second position till the last. For a moment, he appeared to lose his position while overlapping Anastya but skilfully managed to stay in second and Shlok had to be content with a third place.

Anastya finished fourth.

PRAJWAL V AND IKSHAN SHANBHAG

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 31

NATIONAL SUPERCROSS

AKSHAT HUPALE WINNER OF JRSX2

I

n Moto2, for the second time Sarthak was unstoppable. After an initial struggle alongside Jinendra, Sarthak built up a decisive lead with Jinendra on a defensive mode but could hold on Shlok, only for three more laps and slipped to third position. Shlok increased his lead in remaining three laps and finished second. Anastya came fourth.

LOCAL CLASS:

In the class for local riders, Yogesh P got off to a good start but was unable to hold on for a long time as Arun T was on his neck. In the very second lap, Arun overtook him for the lead. By then, in the very next lap, there was no looking back for Sachin, who left behind Subramanya T, and managed to go past Yogesh into the second place. With three more laps to go, he mounted a very tight fight but Arun defended his top position stubbornly, but only till the last lap. With three corners to go, he finally gave up and Sachin took a deserving victory. Yogesh came third followed by Sanjay Somasekhar in fourth and Subramanya in fifth.

WINNERS OF JR SX2

second place. Jinendra from Kolhapur finished third while Shlok from Satara elevated himself from sixth, at the start, to finish fourth. Manikandan from Coimbatore finished fifth.

In Moto2, Sarthak had a comfortable lead right from the start till the fourth lap, where he was stuck on the mount. But with Shlok about to take him, he managed to pull out ahead of Shlok and kept his lead. There on Sarthak was very closely followed by Shlok but managed to finish on top with a hard­ fought victory. Earlier, Manikandan was unable to hold on to his second position and gave way to Shlok who ultimately finished second. Jinendra, initially had a good fight with Shlok, but fell back mid­way and settled for third , followed by Manikandan in fourth.

In JR SX2:

SX2, GROUP A:

Akshat Hupale from Pune won the Junior SX2 class with 37 points followed by Sujan J from Bengaluru in second place with 35 points.

Bhairav C from Bengaluru came with 32 points. Waldo K from Coimbatore was fourth with 26 points.

In Moto1, it was the Pune youngster Sarthak, who once again finishing on the top. He stood his ground right from the start and Ajay Srinivas from Bengaluru took a comfortable

In Moto2, Akshat Hupale led from the start but was not safe till the finish as he had to defend Sujan J, who was behind him in second right from the start. But Bhairav C, who was not far behind, tried at least tried four times to go past Sujan unsuccessfully.

With two straight wins Sarthak Chavan from Pune topped the class with 40points. Shlok Ghorpade from Satara came second in this round with 30 points while Jinendra Sangave from Kolhapur, also with 30 points, was third.

Manikandan from Coimbatore came fourth with 24 points and Ajay Srinivas from Bengaluru, with 21points, finished fifth.

32 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

In Moto1, Sujan J from Coimbatore won the race followed by championship leader Akshat Hupale from Pune in second position.

Bengaluru youngster Bhairav C completed the podium in third place.

Waldo from Coimbatore finished fourth.

WINNERS OF JR SX1

Finally in the very last corner, Bhairav managed to go past Sujan to finish second behind Hupale.

PRIVATE EXPERT:

Arun T from Hassan won the Private Expert class. He was running third in the first lap but managed to reach the front position in the third lap and thereafter, extended his lead despite surviving a crash following a difficult jump. Karan Kumar from Coimbatore finished second. Subramanya T from Bengaluru was unable to capitalise on the early lead but finally managed to complete the podium in third. Yuva Kumar was consistently running third but had a fall in the sixth lap and lost many places. Shailesh Kumar from Coimbatore finished fourth while Paomin from Shillong ended fifth.

NOVICE CLASS:

Paomin's good start was short lived as Banteilang Jerwa from Petronas TVS Racing mounted immense pressure and took the lead. Later, Paomin had to give way to privateer Arun T from Hassan, too.

Meanwhile, Sachin D found way from fourth to join behind Arun. Thereafter, it was a fierce battle between the top three. Arun had almost caught on with Jerwa at the top, but the Shillong rider defended well and the fight went on till the last. Jerwa took a hard­fought win followed by Arun in second and Sachin in third.

Demonstration Class: Mysuru kids Mohammed Arman and Armman Khan finished one and two respectively, as Vismay Ram from Bengaluru finished third and Sham Aditya from Coimbatore came fourth.

BENGALURU / VADODARA

Heroic feat after a fall, gets injured Rugved a victory in Moto2

PRAJWAL V BEST RIDER AND RUGVED BARGUJE JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 33

NATIONAL SUPERCROSS

JINENDRA SANGAVE FIRST RUNNER­UP JRSX1

SHLOK GHORPADE WINNER OF UPTO 500CC GROUP A AND JRSX1

P

rajwal Vishwanath from Bengaluru emerged as the Best Rider of Round 3 in the MRF Mogrip FMSCI National Supercross Championship promoted by GodSpeed at Vadodara recently.

Bengaluru's Prajwal from Petronas TVS Racing team won the honours as he managed to top the combined results in Round 3 with a total of 37 points after taking a victory and a second place in the two motos of the feature class. His teammate Ikshan Shanbhag from Satara was second with 32 points after coming second in the first moto and third in the second moto.

Rugved Barguje of Pune, the frontline contender for the championship, had a fall and dislocated his shoulder but got up and bravely finished the first moto in fifth place and went on to win the second moto with a strapped shoulder. With his heroic performance, Rugved further closed down the championship gap with table leader CD Jinan who finished fourth in Round 3, three points behind the Pune rider. Shlok Ghorpade from Satara finished

fifth, another 4 points behind Jinan.

Group A SX1 upto 500cc: In Moto1, Prajwal took a well­ fought win over Ikshan and the championship leader Jinan from Thrissur finished third.

Shlok came fourth and Rugved managed to bag valuable points with a fifth place as he got up and continued after the fall.

In Moto2, it was Rugved who despite the painful shoulder, finished on top and Prajwal had to be content playing second fiddle. Ikshan came third and, Jinan and Shlok followed in fourth and fifth positions respectively.

Group A SX2 upto 500cc: Shlok Ghorpade from Satara was in good form and won both the motos to bag 40 points.

Kolhapur rider Jinendra Sangave came second in both the motos to garner 34 points and stood second in the class in this round.

Manikandan from Coimbatore was third, six points behind. Jay Jadhav and Adiraj Shah with 26 and 21 points, both from Vadodara, finished in fourth and fifth positions respectively.

34 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

DEMONSTRATION CLASS KARAN KUMAR FIRST RUNNER­UP PRIVATE EXPERT

VADODARA

OVERALL WINNERS

ARUN T WINNER OF PRIVATE EXPERT GROUP C UPTO 260CC

Group C Novice upto 260cc: Banteilang Jerwa from Petronas TVS Racing won the class beating Hassan privateer Arun T who finished in second position ahead of Sachin D from Petronas TVS Racing in third. Shahrukh from Jaipur and Jinendra, also from Petronas TVS Racing, finished in fourth and fifth positions respectively.

Locals class upto 260cc: Mustafa Namdar won the Locals class followed by Moazam Pathan in second even as Karim Shaikh finished third. Priyank Mahadik and Shaikh Zuber finished in fourth and fifth respectively.

Indian Experts Group C upto 260cc: Petronas TVS Racing rider Imran Pasha dominated the class followed by his teammate Kali Mohan in second position. A privateer from Hassan, Arun T, finished third. Fourth and fifth positions were bagged by the Petronas TVS Racing riders Nataraj R and Jinendra Sangave respectively.

Private Experts Group C upto 260cc: Arun T from Hassan won the Private Experts class, as the Coimbatore boy Karan Kumar finished second and Shahrukh Khan from Jaipur finished third.

Mustafa Namdar from Vadodara

was fourth and Sohilsha Diwan, also from Vadodara, finished fifth.

JR SX1 Group A upto 260cc: The two­moto race was bagged by the Satara boy Shlok Ghorpade with 40 points from two wins. Jinendra Sangave from Kolhapur with 34 points with two second placed finishes stood second. Akshat Hupale from Pune with two third positions finished third. Anastya Pol from Bengaluru, missed the podium with four points, and settled for fourth as she finished fourth in both the races. Finishing fifth in both the races Pune rider Faiz Sayyed stood fifth.

In JR SX2 Group A upto 100cc class Akshat Hupale from Pune won with two straight wins and 40 points. Sujan J from Coimbatore finished second with 32 points from one second and one third finish. Bhairav from Kolar also with similar 32 points from one second and one third finish settled for third.

Chaitanya Joshi from Pune finished fourth with 26 points while Darshit Chavan, also from Pune, finished fifth.

Demonstration class: The winner in the was Vismay Ram from Bengaluru and Rida Sayyed from Pune finished second.

WINNERS OF JR SX1

WINNERS OF INDIAN EXPERTS GROUP C UPTO 260CC

IMRAN PASHA WINNER OF INDIAN EXPERTS GROUP C UPTO 260CC JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 35

INDIAN RACING LEAGUE

SHAHAN ALI MOHSIN FROM SPEED DEMONS DELHI WINNER OF SPRINT RACE 2

Neel Jani, Akhil Rabindra put Black Birds on top Alister Yoong and Shahan Ali Mohsin win a Sprint Race each

PHOTO BY: SHAHJAHAN

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eel Jani and Akhil Rabindra of Hyderabad Black Birds won the Feature Race of Round 3 of the Indian Racing League 2022 held at MIC, Chennai in December to put the Hyderabad team on top of the standings while Alister Yoong of Godspeed Kochi and Shahan Ali Mohsin of Speed Demons Delhi won the two Sprint races of the penultimate round.

Sprint Race 1 saw a clean start but within 6 minutes, Celia Martin from Speed Demons Delhi who was running fourth had a spin and pulled out. Sohil Shah from Goa Aces also pulled out due to car issues. In the 8th minute, Rishon Rajeev from Bangalore Speedsters managed to go past Ruhaan Alva from God 36 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

Speed Kochi and stayed in third position and extended his lead to over a second.

Meanwhile, both Ruhaan and Gabriela were under investigation for a false start. In the same minute, Akash Gowda from Speed Demons Delhi slipped from third to sixth position. In 10th minute, Anshul Gandhi from Bangalore Speedsters was sandwiched between the two Chennai Turbo Riders drivers Nicole Havrda and Sandeep Kumar and spun. There on Sandeep was on Nicole's neck but unexpected heavy rains in one section of the track, forced the race to run for two laps under safety car before being red flagged 6 minutes before the schedule finish.

During this Akhil Rabindra from from Hyderabad Black Birds who was running in second position veered into the grass land and lost places as the safety car was in process. Pole Sitter Alister Yoong from Godspeed Kochi was the winner. Rishon Rajeev from Bangalore Speedsters finished in second position and Lola Lovinfosse from Black Birds Hyderabad completed the podium. Akash Gowda from Speed Demons Delhi took fourth place and Akhil Rabindra from Black Birds Hyderabad finished fifth.

In Sprint Race 2, pole­sitter Shahan Ali Mohsin from Speed Demons Delhi held on to his advantage. Kevin Mirocha from Goa Aces

in the very first corner overshot into the runoff area and rejoined.

In the third minute, Anindith Reddy from Hyderabad Black Birds climbed one position up.

By the end of sixth minute, Neel Jani from Hyderabad Black Birds overtook Fabienne Wohlwend from Godspeed Kochi and in the seventh minute Fabienne tried to regain her position by taking the inner line and spun in front of Neel and collided. Neel started gaining momentum and he clocked the fastest lap time and began to close in on his teammate in about two minutes and with 8 minutes to spare, he managed to go past Anindith on a right hander.

Jon Lancaster from Chennai Turbo Riders started to close the gap on the leader Shahan bringing down the difference to about 1.2 seconds. With 4 min

left, Nikhil Bohra also started closing down on Bianca Bustamante from Bangalore Speedsters, who was running third. He tried on a couple of occasions to go past her but with her good straight line speed she managed to stay ahead. With desperate moves in some corners, Nikhil started losing ground. With about three minutes left, he once again regained the lost ground and in the last lap, he was exhibiting his frustration as his attempts to overtake were not successful.

All kudos to the Filipina driver Bianca for defending her podium place for the final five challenging minutes and a lap.

But she ran out of luck and was penalised for false start which brought her down to eighth and Nikhil managed to complete the podium.

CHENNAI

SPRINT RACE 2 WINNERS

SPRINT RACE 1 WINNERS

ALISTER YOONG FROM GODSPEED KOCHI WINNER OF SPRINT RACE 1

RISHON RAJEEV FROM BANGALORE SPEEDSTERS

NEEL JAANI / AKHIL RABINDRA FROM BLACK BIRDS HYDERABAD WINNERS OF FEATURE RACE JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 37

INDIAN RACING LEAGUE

Meanwhile, Jon had also closed down the gap to about 0.7sec on Shahan. But Shahan defended his top position till the last minute to win Race 2. Amir Sayed who had dropped to sixth, from fifth during the last lap had Neel on his neck but he managed to hold on to his ground. Neel finished behind him. Mitchell Gilbert from Speed Demons Delhi who started from last finally managed to finish fourth.

Amir Sayed finished fifth.

Feature Race:

It was a clean start and in the very first lap, Anshul Gandhi from Bangalore Speedsters who was running fifth, had a spin and rejoined but had lost time. Celia Martin from Speed Demons Delhi took the inner line to go past Goa Aces driver Kevin Mirocha and made contact on the right hander. Both the drivers went off the track. And Celia headed back straight but due to the spin Kevin had to rejoin only after all the vehicles passed by.

In the fifth minute with the damaged car, Kevin managed to move ahead of Celia, who had also damaged her car.

Alister from Godspeed Kochi with a fastest lap time in the sixth minute of the race was closing on Amir Sayed from Goa Aces.

Trying to overtake, Alister had almost lost control at the final corner but was lucky enough to control his car from sliding out.

Akhil Rabindra from Black Birds Hyderabad was also very closely engaging with Alister. Amir while defending his position, was inching close to Bianca Bustamante with 25minutes left.

Kevin was shown black flag, thus had to come into pits to change his damaged engine cover with 22min left. With pit window opening after 13th minute of the race drivers started rushing in for mandatory driver change. While the top three drivers, Shahan, Jon and Akhil (clocked the fastest lap) held on to the track for some more time. With 16 minutes left, Lola's car came to a standstill and thus forced the Safety Car to come in. With 14 minutes left, all the top three drivers came in for driver change while the race was under Safety Car. With less than 7 minutes to go, the Safety Car was out of the track and all three drivers Sandeep, Akash and Neel joined behind all the cars.

Within a few ,seconds Neel managed to go past Sandeep to occupy the top slot, while Akash was running third. Sandeep had to go past his teammate to follow the new leader but during this Nicole spun and Sandeep had to slow down. Thus, Akash closed the gap and tried going past him. Only two minutes were left, to bring the top three in the front, Safety Car had to come into picture and allow the tail enders to go past them and join from behind. After the Safety Car

38 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

CHENNAI

JON LANCASTER FROM CHENNAI TURBO RIDERS 1ST RUNNEER­UP IN SPRINT RACE 2

FEATURE RACE WINNERS

was supposed to go out two final laps were listed. By then, Sandeep Kumar's car came to a standstill and thus the race had to finish in the same order after the Safety Car's exit.

Neel Jani from Hyderabad Black Birds was the winner followed

by Akash Gowda from Speed Demons Delhi in second position. Amir Sayed from Goa Aces finished third. Nikhil Bohra and Ruhaan Alva both from Godspeed Kochi finished in fourth and fifth positions respectively.

INTERNATIONAL

RALLY

COFFEEDAY

th

Verstappen closes dominant season with 15 win

Charles Leclerc holds off Sergio Perez to seal second place in Drivers' Championship

R

ed Bull Racing's Max Verstappen romped to a dominant 15th victory of the season at the 2022 FIA Formula 1 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, as Ferrari's Charles Leclerc held off Sergio Pérez to seal second place in the Drivers' Championship 2022.

Max Verstappen had earlier clinched the 2022 championship. In the end, he garnered 454 points while Leclerc took the second spot with 308 points edging out Perez (305) to third spot. Ferrari also took the second place with 554 points in the Constructors' Championship behind Red Bull Racing team (759) and Mercedes finished third with 515 points.

After leading away from pole position, Verstappen was headed for just a single lap during the 58­lap race, with Leclerc briefly in the lead as the double champion made his sole pit stop of the race. With Verstappen in complete control, the focus turned to the battle between Pérez and Leclerc for the runners­up spot in the Drivers' standings.

And in the opening stages of the race, Pérez appeared well­placed to take P2 in the race and the championship bragging rights.

Starting alongside Verstappen on the front row, Pérez got away well to slot in behind his team­mate and in the opening stint the Red Bull pair began to pull away from the pack. By lap 10 Verstappen was 2.6s ahead of his team­mate and Pérez had almost three­ seconds in hand over third­place Leclerc.

Pérez was the first of the frontrunners to stop and he made his way towards the pit lane on lap 16. He switched to Hard compound tyres in 2.4s and after dismissing Alpine's Fernando Alono's Alpine and Aston Martin's Sebastian Vettel he climbed to fifth place and then rose to third as Ferrari's Carlos Sainz and Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton pitted.

Verstappen then made his sole pit stop, for Hard tyres, on lap 21 and Leclerc took the lead for a single lap. The Ferrari driver then made his first pit stop and Verstappen and Pérez resumed control the race.

However, as the second stint evolved, Leclerc gradually began to edge closer to Pérez and on lap 30 the Ferrari driver was just 2.2s behind the Mexican racer. Red Bull then chose to pit Pérez on lap 34 and soon after rejoining he found himself in fourth behind Hamilton. He was now 18 seconds back from one­stopping Leclerc who was now second.

The Mexican chased down the Mercedes driver but lost time in passing Hamilton and with 10 laps to go he was 10 seconds behind the Monegasque driver.

With five laps left Checo had narrowed the gap to just over four seconds and ahead of the final lap he closed to within two seconds of the Ferrari. But the Ferrari driver's tyres were just holding on and though Checo pushed all the way to the flag he ran out of time and laps to mount an attack and second place in the Championship ebbed away.

At the front, Verstappen took a record­ breaking 15th win of the season with almost nine seconds in hand over Lelerc. The Ferrari driver's second place, just 1.3 second ahead of the hard­charging Checo sealed P2 in the standings, three points ahead of the Red Bull driver who claimed his 11th podium finish of the season.

Behind them, Carlos Sainz took fourth place for Ferrari after Hamilton was forced to retire his Mercedes with a suspected hydraulics failure late in the race. George Russell, in the second Mercedes, finished fifth, while McLaren's Lando Norris fought off a late charge by Alpine's Esteban Ocon to seal sixth by 1.0s.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 39

ATMA’S AMBITIOUS NATURAL RUBBER PROJECT Chairman ATMA ­ Satish Sharma inspecting plantation under ATMA Project near Guwahati

40 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

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ver 1.65 crore rubber plants have been successfully planted in the Northeast under a project launched by the Automotive Tyre Manufacturers' Association (ATMA) in collaboration with Rubber Board for developing 200,000 hectares of rubber plantation over a period of 5 years involving an outlay of Rs 1100 crore. The plantation also involves planting material of 55 lakh successfully transported from Kerala to the North East by rakes over the last year despite logistic challenges. “In one of the biggest such projects anywhere in the world, planting material in such large quantities has been transported overcoming all logistical challenges.

ATMA NR Project is truly a collaborative exercise with the Rubber consuming industry, the Rubber Board of India and all the stakeholders working in unison to realize the vision of an Atma Nirbhar Bharat in rubber production”, said Mr Satish Sharma, Chairman ATMA. “Raw material security has been reckoned as a major area of importance for any country in the new world order. Given the importance of such strategic raw material, the country needs to focus on increasing the domestic NR production so as to become self­reliant and avoid dependence on import of this critical raw material to the maximum extent possible”, said Dr K N Raghavan, Executive director Rubber Board.

TSD RALLY GUWAHATI

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 41

RACING NATIONALS

Maiden Championship crown for Jagruti Penkar, Sarvesh Balappa

PHOTO BY: ADITYA BEDRE

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n a day of drama and suspense, veteran Rajini Krishnan, Mathana Kumar, Jagruti Penkar and Sarvesh Balappa clinched the titles in their respective categories as the fifth and final round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2022 concluded recently at the Madras International Circuit.

Pro­Stock 165cc Open category Petronas TVS Racing's Jagan Kumar notched his second win of the season but not before surviving a hectic scramble in the last lap.

Idemitsu Honda SK69 Racing's Rajiv Sethu edged out championship leader Mathana Kumar from Pacer Yamaha for second place with just about 0.200th of a second to narrow the points deficit to 14 with one more race remaining. Jagan also had a brilliant outing in Race 2 that he won in style ahead of Rajiv Sethu with below one­second lead and over

44 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

two seconds on Senthil Kumar, for a grand double.

National champion: Mathana Kumar (Trichy, Pacer Yamaha); Team championship: Team Pacer Yamaha; Manufacturers title: Yamaha.

Pro­Stock 301­400cc Open Pole­sitter Ahamed led a 1­2 finish for his team Petronas TVS Racing with Deepak Ravikumar in tow while Rajini Krishnan from RACR Castrol Power1, starting from P4, struggled with a clutch pedal issue but used his vast experience to good effect and managed to scramble to third position, a second behind Deepak. The result means that defending champion Rajini needs just one point from the next concluding race to seal his 11th career National title. Ahamed trails the champion by 25 points with Ravikumar in third, a further eight points behind.

Meanwhile, Rajini did likewise in the

concluding race as he was content to follow the Petronas TVS Racing's trio of KY Ahamed, Jagan Kumar and Deepak Ravikumar.

Incidentally, Ahamed completed a double but Rajini won the championship for 2022 in the class.

“I took no chances today. After all, I needed just one more point to win the championship.

So, I was happy to stay in fourth position throughout the race behind the TVS boys,” said 41­year old Rajini who, incidentally, had the best lap (01:53.099) of the race.

National champion: Rajini Krishnan (Chennai, RACR Castrol Power1); Team championship: Petronas TVS Racing; Manufacturers championship: Yamaha Novice (Stock 165cc) category Coimbatore's Rohan Ramesh fashioned a 1­2 for Axor Sparks Racing ahead of Kayan Zubin Patel from Mumbai with Vignesh Goud, a

PRO­STOCK UPTO 165 OPEN CLASS WINNERS

NOVICE CLASS WINNERS

privateer from Hyderabad, in third. Hubballi's Sarvesh Balappa, also of Axor Sparks Racing, came fourth but he has effectively clinched the title in this category as he led by 54 points going into Race­2.

Balappa, who had taken unassailable lead coming into the final round, kept it clean and avoided close battles for a fourth place. His team­mates Kayan Zubin Patel and Rohan Ramesh came in first and second ahead of Chiranth Vishwanath from Rookies Racing.

National champion: Sarvesh Balappa (Hubballi, Axor Sparks Racing). Team championship: Axor Sparks Racing.

Manufacturers championship: Yamaha.

Girls Stock 165cc: Jagruti from Axor Sparks Racing, the 21­year old Science graduate from Mumbai, was kept guessing before confirmation came that she indeed was the winner, her maiden title, following disqualification of race winner, Lani Zena Fernandez from RACR Castrol Power1. Jagruti finished on 81 points to Ann Jennifer's Alpha Racing 80.

Until the post­race scrutiny leading to the disqualification, Jagruti was second in the championship behind Alpha Racing's Ann Jennifer on count­ back after the pair had tied on points, but the latter clinching the issue having won two races to the Mumbai girl's none.

However, the situation turned on its head after Lani was

CHENNAI

disqualified. All finishers moved up a spot, pushing Ryhana Bee from Pacer Yamaha to first, Jagruti to second and Aditi Krishnan from Winverve Apex Racing to third, while Ann Jennifer ended up sixth.

National champion: Jagruti Penkar; Team championship: Alpha Racing. Manufacturers championship: Yamaha Support race (Stock 301­400cc, Novice): Ashwin R from Race Abilities was the winner followed by privateer Naresh Shobha Kaname in second position with a difference of 6 seconds and Jayanth Prathipati, also a privateer, finished third with a further difference of over one second.

Chiranth, Aditi Krishnan, Rahil Pillarisetty win TVS one­make title Girls Apache RTR 200: The five­ lap race was won by Nithila Das from Bengaluru by clocking 10:59.765. Ananya Awasthi from Chennai was 22­sec behind in second place while Aditi Krishnan also from Bengaluru completed the podium another 11 seconds later but that was enough for Aditi to clinch the TVS one­make Girls title.

Rookie Apache RTR 200: Bengaluru youngster Chiranth Vishwanath was on the top step of the podium for the ninth time this season with a total time of 12:46.968 in Race 1. Another youngster Jinendra K Sangave from Kolhapur was ten seconds behind in second and Abdul

GIRLS CLASS WINNERS

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 45

PRO STOCK 301 TO 400CC OPEN WINNERS

RALLY

Basim RS from Chennai with a further 19­sec difference stood third. In Race 2, it was a tenth win this season for Chiranth but this time it was a closely fought battle with Jinendra as the difference was reduced to less than a second. Savion Sabu from Bengaluru was further behind by 15sec to finish third.

Apache RR 310 open class: Race 1 was bagged by Rahil Pillarisetty from Hyderabad. he with a Rahil led Race 1, and won by a second beating Chennai rider Manoj Yesuadiyan to second position.

Ananthraj also from Chennai was about 0.200th second behind to finish third. In Race 2, it was Rahil once again as he beat Ananthraj by 100th of a second. Manoj also was just over a second slower to finish in third position. Rahil clinched the RR 310 Open class one­make championship.

Media Apache RTR 200: Ishan Lee won the Media class championship. In the final race, with over 7­second advantage, he managed to edge out Karan Singh who finished in second position. Mandar Sheela Sawant with 17­sec difference came third.

COFFEEDAY

Sarthak wins NSF 250 Open crown; Raheesh clinches CBR 150 Novice title Mumbai's Raheesh Mudassar in the Novice CBR 150 category of the Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup created a buzz by winning all 10 races this season to clinch the Honda one­make championship.

NSF 250 Open: Sarthak Shrikant

Chavan, the youngster from Pune, was the winner of Race 1 as he managed to stay ahead and beat Mohsin Paramban from Mallappuram by a second.

Shyam Sundar from Chennai finished third. In Race 2, Mohsin was the winner with over one second lead on the second position finisher Shyam.

Rakshith Dave from Chennai was third with over 23sec difference.

However, Sarthak clinched the one­make title in this class.

Novice CBR 150: Raheesh Mudassar Khatri from Mumbai was the winner of Race 1 as Harshith V Bogar from Bengaluru with 8­sec difference settled for second position.

Siddesh Sawant from Kolhapur was third with a margin less than 0.200th of a second. Raheesh won Race 2 as well, this time with over 19­sec difference over the second finisher Harshith.

Siddesh was once again third this time with just over a second difference. Raheesh won the one­make title in this class with an all­win record.

Support Race – Honda Hornet 2.0: Localite G Balaji finished Race 1 with a timing of 13:37.031 to win the class. With a difference of 9sec Kayan Zubin Patel from Mumbai came in second and T Ramakrishnana from Valliyor completed the podium 300th of a second behind Patel. It was Balaji once again finishing on top in Race 2 as localites Romario John and Prabhu V finished in second and third positions respectively.

CHENNAI

ROOKIE PARTICIPANTS JINENDRA AND CHIRANTH

TEAM PACER YAMAHA CELEBRATION TIME

HONDA ONE MAKE ACTION

SELFIE TIME TEAM PETRONAS TVS RACING 46 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

KY AHAMED AND DEEPAK RAVI KUMAR IN PRO­STOCK 301 TO 400CC

PUNE

DRAG RACING

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ver 500 participants in 52 classes took part in the 3­day 10th Edition of the Valley Run held at the Aamby Valley City air strip in November.

second behind and Sumit Upaskar finished third.

In the 166 to 375cc class, Atahulla Baig clocked the class' best timing of 13.013 to be the topper followed by Salman Khan in second and Venkatesh Jacklati in third.

4 Stroke:

Jagan Kumar from TVS Racing was the fastest rider on an Indian bike while Mohammad Riyaz was the quickest in Super Bikes class, and Imran Majid was declared as the fastest driver.

Jagan Kumar won the Open upto 395cc class by clocking 11.523 while his teammate KY Ahmed came second in 11.996. Sonu Khan finished third by clocking 12.324.

The upto­165cc class was bagged by Aiyaz who clocked 13.246 while Shahrukh Khan followed him in second, by about 200th of a

In the Unrestricted 396 to 550cc class, Mohammed Rafiq with a timing of 12.451 was the winner of the class followed by Aymaan Baig in second and Siddharth Parmar in third.

2 Stroke:

In the Unrestricted above 551cc class, Mohammad Riyaz was the winner on a Suzuki Hayabusa clocking 9.716, the fastest time among all classes in this edition. Hafizulla Khan also on a Hayabusa, came second in 10.026 and Sundeep Singh Sokhi clocked 10.027 for third, a thousandth of a second behind.

In Naked Bike Open class upto 950cc, Ashpak Anwar won beating Devunuri Pavan Kalyan to second and Dr Riddhish Patil settled for third.

In the Naked Bike above­951cc class, Zubair Ali Jung was the victory as he defeated Shivdeep Deokar and Athahulla Baig came third.

By clocking 14.513 Goutham R won the upto JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 47

DRAG RACING

165cc class and Abdul Shaikh came second timing 14.521. Mujahid Pasha finished third.

Ali Husain Jahur Ali Shaikh won the 166 to 225cc class with a time of 13.367. Omkar Gyaneshwar Kadam finished second and Snehal Gohil was third.

The 226 to 360cc class Abdul Shaikh won the class with just above 13sec timing. Aadil Patel finished second and Mohammed Arfath came third.

Siddharth Parmar, Hussain Khan an Shahrukh all the three finished over the 12­sec band, in that order in the 361 to 550cc class.

In the 551 to 850cc Sport Inline class, Saurabh Parab won with a time of 10.873 followed by Siddharth Parmar and Mirza Jehangir Baig finished third.

Lani Zena Fernandez clocked a best time of 12.282 to win the 551 to 750cc class with Single/Twin cylinder. Surya Servai finished second and Narinder Chanana was third.

In the above 751cc class, Atharva Udawant was the inner followed

by Zubair Ali Jung in second and Sanam Sekhon in third.

Sean Rogers astride a BMW S1000RR clocked 9.873 seconds in one of the top feature classes for Super bikes, the 851 to 1050cc class. Mohammed Riyaz timed 10.085 on an Yamaha R1 while Parvez Inamdar came third in 10.152, also riding a BMW S1000RR. In the other Feature race of 1051 to 1650cc class, Atahulla Baig was the winner clocking 9.756sec. Hafizulla Khan finished second in 10.052 followed by Mujahid Pasha, who clocked 10.264 for was third. All the riders

were on a Suzuki Hayabusa.

In above 1650cc class, Sundeep Singh Sokhi won clocking 10.223 on a Kawasaki ZX followed by Alimon Saidalvi who timed 11.312 on a Ninja H2, in a far second.

4Wheelers: Novice:

Aniket Dattatray Bhoj won the upto 1150cc class and Anish Kamalasan was second. Sunny Biswas came third.

Tanmay Hotkar won the 1151 to 1450cc class followed by Biten Jagasia in second and Kshitij Ranjan in third.

The 1451 to 1650cc class was bagged by Yash Pawar while Arpit Mason finished second and Gabriel Bhagat came third.

Krish Mehta won the 1651 to 2050cc class. Mohammed

48 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

Professionals class:

PUNE

Arra Ravi Chandra won the 2551 to 3050 class followed by Mohammad in second and Tejas took third. Abhishek R won the 3061 to 4000cc class followed by Alok Khandelwal and Abhinav Sharma in second and third respectively. Mikhail Merchant won the 4001 to 5100c class and Jiko Haider came second while Adithya Raj finished third. In above 5101cc class, Imran Majid was the winner followed by Vivek Ramchander in second and Biren Pithawala in third.

Diesel open class: Sahil Tyagi won the 1151 to 1450cc class while Vincent Yalangi won the 1451 to 1650cc class and the 1651 to 2050 class was bagged

by Abhishek Nigam. Mehul Mistry was the winner of 2051 to 2550 class.

Shaariq Mirza finished second and Omkar Mhatre third.

Dhruv Shah won the 2051 to 2550cc class while Sagar Dangal managed to stay second. Tanay Nellari in thrid.

Arbaaz Inamdar, Parvez Inamdar and Shashant Shetty finished in the same order in the 2551 to 3050cc class.

In above 3060cc class, Alok Khandelwal was the winner followed by Ameya Walavalkar in second and Latesh Shetty in third.

Pro­Stock:

Nishant Naik won the upto 1150cc class while Biten Jagasia won the 1151 to 1450cc class.

In 1451 to 1650c class, Swajit Achrekar was the winner followed by Raj Kadam in second and Akshay Gaikwad finished third.

Sai Sarang was the winner of 1651 to 2050cc class followed by Fazeel Khan and Ashpak Anwar

in second and third positions respectively. Kamlesh Parmar won the 2051 to 2550cc class.

The 2551 to 3060cc class was won by Uvarshi Kannadasan Balajeyanthi while Tarun Manchanda finished second and Anant Pithawalla was third.

In 3061 to 4000cc class, Dhana Sreeram Chowdary was the winner followed by Abhishek R in second and Alok Khandelwal in third. In 4001 to 5100 class, Mazen Mody driving a Lamborghini Huracan was the winner. Imran Majid won the above 5101cc class.

Open class:

Uvashri won the Indian class upto 3060cc class followed by Pithawalla in second and Artani in third. The above­3061cc class was bagged by Sreeram Kasaraneni and Vikram Walla came second. Yug Italiya finished third. The Unrestricted class was bagged by Imran while Biren Pithawalla finished second and Vivek Ramachander came in third.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 49

AUTOCROSS

OVERALL WINNER AND BEST RIDER SUHAIL AHMED

Suhail Ahmed sparkles winning multiple classes

PHOTO BY: RANADIP MONDOL he third edition of the JK Tyre Bengal Speed Fest 2022 witnessed a huge excitement at Haldia with close to 200 entries including three women.

The event was a combination of 4­Wheeler Autocross, Gymkhana and 2­Wheeler Dirt Track races as support events for the East Zone Qualifier of Indian National Autocross Championship. There were six types of events in this JK Tyre Bengal Speed Fest 2022.

T

In 4W Indian National Autocross Championship Qualifier Sk. Saddam Ali won clocking the fastest time of 1 min 32.020 50 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

seconds. Suhail Ahmed clocked the fastest time in the 2­W Dirt Track race.

Upto 165cc Group B: Indrasheesh Shyam Roy was the winner of this class with a time of 01:52.110 followed by Manmet Singh Dhanjal in second and Shivam Thakur in third. Suhail Ahmed and Dwairath Manna finished fourth and fifth respectively.

Upto 260cc Group B: Suhail Ahmed won this class beating Shivam Thakur, who came second followed by veteran Uday Ganguli in third place.

Group B 165 to 550cc: Suhail Ahmed managed to pip past Shivam Thakur for the

second time in a row to take a fine victory while behind them Uday Ganguli claimed one more third place.

Open upto 260cc Group D: Suhail continued his domination claiming victory in one more class and pushed out Shivam and Indrasheesh to fight between themselves.

Shivam came second followed by Indrasheesh in third.

Group B upto 260cc Open: Suhail clinched one more class followed by Shivam in second and Uday Ganguli who managed to keep Indrasheesh in fourth, 4 seconds behind.

Upto 550cc Group B: Suhail was unstoppable

dishing out his winning performance again and won the class with ease. Kaustab Choudhury was 9sec behind in second and Rameez Mullick came third, a further 14sec later.

EV Group: This invitational class saw Suhail stamped his final race with a win as Shivam finished second and Dwairath Manna finished in third position.

Local Expert Upto 165cc GroupB: Dwairath Manna was the winner as Indrasheesh Shyam Roy with just half a second difference finished second and Sisir Kumar Raha finished third. Diptjyoti Ghodh and Manmet Singh Dhanjal finished in fourth and fifth position.

AUTOCROSS NATIONALS:

Ibrahim Ali, Sourabh dominate

INAC3: Upto 1650cc class: Sk Ibrahim Ali won the class defeating Avik

S a h a b y t wo s e c o n d s an d Souradeep Dutta finished third, a further less than a second difference.

Ladies Open: Sk Alivia managed to hold on the top position beating Sunita Prasad by a narrow difference of 0.240th of a second.

INAC2: Upto 1400cc: Sourabh Choudhuri was the winner of upto 1400cc class after a close battle between the top­three.

Souradeep Dutta stood second with a 2­sec difference and Sk Ibrahim Ali completed the podium in third. Arindam Ghosh was edged out by a narrow margin to fourth place.

Upto 1650cc class was bagged

by Sourabh and Souradeep finished second. Arindam managed to hold on to the podium in third with a difference of 0.250th of a second. Jogendra Jaiswal finished behind him in fourth.

KOLKATA

INDRASHEESH SHYAM ROY IN ACTION

INAC2 WINNERS UPTO 1400CC

SK SADDAM ALI WINNER OF INAC 2 OPEN JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 51

KOLKATA

RALLY

Open class was won by Ibrahim and Sourabh finished second.

INAC1 The INAC1 Open class once again was in Ibrahim's kitty as Mazdayar Vatcha with less than two seconds difference came second.

Regional Autocross: INAC3 The Local Open class was bagged by Barun Choudhury. SK Alivia came second three seconds behind and Sunita Prasad finished third another 4 seconds later.

Ibrahim won the Open class beating Souradeep SK Aniruddha came third.

The Upto 1400cc class belonged to Avik Saha. Aniruddha finished second and Souradeep came third.

INAC2 In the Open class, SK Saddam Ali won pushing aside Sourabh to second and Souradeep was third.

In the Upto 1400cc class, Souradeep was the topper followed by Saddam in second and Sourabh in third. All the three winners in this category, were seen on the podium in almost all the classes.

INAC4 The Open class was bagged by Avik Saha. Sunny Meherotra came second while Sujatya Kole completed the podium.

COFFEEDAY

SOURADEEP DUTTA WINNER INAC2 UPTO 1400CC

CLASS1 GROUP B WINNERS SOURADEEP CHATTERJEE WINNER GYMKHANA OPEN UPTO 1400CC

52 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

SUHAIL AHMED IN ACTION

In upto 1400cc class, it was Avik back on top of the podium followed by Sunny in second and Subhamoy Roy in third.

Gymkhana Upto 1400cc: Avik Saha managed to win the class with a lead of over one second on Ibrahim as Saddam finished third with a seven seconds difference.

In the Open class, Sauradeep was the topper followed by Jogendra Jaiswal in second and Akash Gupts finished third.

Upto 2000cc: Winner of the class was Saddam followed by Souradeep in second and Ibrahim in third. Akash Gupta beat Sauradeep to win the Open class. Sunny Meherotra came third.

BMW presents JOYTOWN

India's first-ever music and driving festival

Convergence of automotive thrills, music, gastronomy and BMW, MINI and BMW Motorrad. Drift Showcase and Motorrad Stunts, BMW M Adrenaline Laps, BMW xDrive Offroad Adventure and the Gymkhana experience. Groove to the tunes of India's favourite artists. BMW launches the first­ ever BMW XM, the new BMW M 340i and the all­new BMW S 1000 RR at the Joytown, Delhi's Jawahar Lal Nehru Stadium.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 53

GLORIOUS JOURNEY

For Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL), the year 2022 has been eventful for multiple reasons. The carmaker completes 40 years in India and also introduced a number of products – both upgrades and new launches in India. Mr Shashank Srivastava, ED, Marketing & Sales, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd shared his association with the MSIL, their products, the opportunities and challenges, the industry and the future plans of the company. Our contributing editor, Akshaya M presents an interesting interview with Mr Srivastava for Auto Track readers.

Mr Shashank Srivastava, ED, Marketing & Sales, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd

Q: How has the road to 40 years of MSIL been?

A: When we started, the auto industry in India was very small, around 40 thousand cars annually. The market being small, the motorization of our country had not happened yet. When Maruti brought in the Maruti Suzuki 800, it quickly became an icon, starting the journey forward. Motorization, which started with Maruti Suzuki, implies not just production and sales but also the development of logistics, vendor management, component manufacturers and even exports, which started in 1986­87. Personally, I have been associated with the company for almost 33 years and am proud to have worked with all them.

54 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

Q: It has been an action­packed year for new and upgraded products, tell us more about that.

A: In the last 7­8 months, we have introduced several new products including the launch of the new Celerio, new Baleno, new Wagon R, new S­Presso, new XL6, new Brezza, new Ertiga and finally the new Grand Vitara. All these new products are a testimony to the confidence that Maruti Suzuki has in the Indian market going forward. We know that India is a growing country and we have a very positive outlook on the Indian automotive industry.

Q: Brezza is No. 1 in the compact SUV segment, and now with its new

look and upgrades is getting strong bookings, meanwhile there is also the entry into the mid­size SUV with the Grand Vitara. Tell us more about these two products.

A: In the last few years, the SUV segment has been growing, it is the largest segment in the industry making up 40 per cent of the passenger vehicles being sold in India.

The SUVs are composed of further segments: the entry SUV and the mid SUV forming a very large part around 22 per cent and 18 per cent of the market respectively. The Brezza, the Venue and the Sonet fall under the entry SUV category where Brezza created this segment with its launch and has brought the market share

from hardly 3­4 per cent to the current 22 per cent. It has been the market leader since its launch and we are happy with the progress.

While we did not have a presence in the mid­ SUV segment and it is a huge section which had sales of almost 5.5 lakh last year. We thought we must introduce something new in this segment and that is how Grand Vitara came in. With the launch of the Grand Vitara, we should be able to shore up our market share in the SUV segment. In the non­SUV segment, our market share is upward of 65 per cent but the SUV segment has brought us down a little bit, largely because we only have one product for the 42 others in this segment.

One of the big needs for Maruti Suzuki was to introduce more SUVs and going forward, there will be more products in this category.

Q: Last year, Maruti's market share came down below 50 per cent, do you believe that these two products will bring its position back up?

less than 30 per thousand people as opposed to more than 600­700 per thousand in some developed countries. So, there is a lot of upside to motorization in the Indian market and Maruti Suzuki intends to capture half that market.

Q: Being with Maruti for as long as 3 decades, how do you see your association with the company?

A: It is a nostalgic journey for me. As recent as last week, I was training the new joiners to the company and incidentally, it was the same room where I was inducted while being on the other side of the table. It has been a great and happy journey for me; I have learnt a lot, been to new places and played many roles.

Hopefully, there will be new learning and new experiences to follow.

Q: You mentioned how Maruti has grown from Maruti 800 to Grand Vitara while

INTERVIEW

the ancillary businesses also grow tremendously.

Q: Auto industry plays a major role as a growth driver of the Indian economic forces, how do you see Maruti's contribution towards this?

A: 40 years ago, the auto industry's contribution towards the Indian economy was minuscule. Today, the industry contributes 7.5­8 per cent and the target set by the Government for the future is around 12 per cent in the next few years. The importance of this industry for the overall economy is very high, in India as well as many countries which have automobile manufacturing. In fact, 16 per cent of the GST collected in our country is contributed by the auto industry. The employment generated is around 37­38 million in auto manufacturing and associated businesses and is only seen to grow further.

"We did not have a presence in the mid­SUV segment and it is a huge section which had sales of almost 5.5 lakh last year. We thought we must introduce something new in this segment and that is how Grand Vitara came in. With the launch of the Grand Vitara, we should be able to shore up our market share in the SUV segment. In the non­SUV segment, our market share is upward of 65 per cent but the SUV segment has brought us down a little bit, largely because we only have one product for the 42 others in this segment.

One of the big needs for Maruti Suzuki was to introduce more SUVs and going forward, there will be more products in this category."Shashank Srivastava A: Absolutely, as I mentioned before, our market share has been pulled down due to our lack of presence in the SUV segment. So, the new entrants and the new models should give us additional volumes and help increase our market share.

Q: Going forward, how do you see Maruti's role in the Indian car market?

A: We are quite bullish towards the Indian car markets. Currently, motorization in India is

bringing other businesses along on the growth journey. Could speak to that further?

Q: As a market leader in the sector, when can we expect electric vehicles in the Maruti Suzuki portfolio?

A: That is correct. Maruti Suzuki has been instrumental in bringing the entire ecosystem along with it. It is not just about Maruti Suzuki's vehicles but also about the component manufacturers, the suppliers, the logistics providers, the accessories, the financing and insurance. As seen over the years, as the auto industry grows with Maruti,

A: We have announced that we will bring it sometime in FY 2024­25. Meanwhile, we are working on developing the ecosystem which includes the current impediments preventing the growth of EV adoption in India. The charging infrastructure and the battery localisation are areas we are working on currently.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 55

th

Rins wins but Bagnaia clinches MotoGP crown with 9

MotoGP wrap: History made & Champions crowned in a dramatic decider in Valencia

I

t was tense, it was close, it was emotional and it was a stunning finale for the 2022 season. As Ducati Lenovo Team's Francesco Bagnaia took the crown with ninth place and Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP) came home fourth, it was Alex Rins (Team Suzuki Ecstar) who gave the Hamamatsu factory an emotional send off with a stunning final victory in blue. Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) came to within one single point of the top five overall as he absolutely stormed to second, with Jorge Martin (Prima Pramac Racing) completing the podium from pole.

Rins qualified on the middle of Row 2 but made a brilliant start and led the field to the first corner, ahead of pole­sitter Martin and Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team). Quartararo took a wide berth at the Turn 2 braking zone, emerging behind Marc Marquez (Repsol 56 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

Honda Team) and in a battle for fifth with none other than Bagnaia. When Marquez attacked Miller for third on the opening lap, Quartararo squeezed his Yamaha down the inside of the Australian's Ducati at Turn 8 as well, and he was up to fourth.

Miller hit back at the start of Lap 2, forcing Quartararo to pick up his YZR­M1 at Turn 2 with a pass which incentivised Bagnaia to also have a look. The title contenders made contact which pulled a wing off the factory Ducati in a sudden pulse of adrenaline, but Bagnaia was ahead of his key rival. It stayed that way until Lap 4, when Quartararo was down the inside at Turn 6 and back into fifth – but facing a task to catch the top four.

In said top four, Miller moved back into the podium positions when he passed Marquez on Lap 6 at Turn 1, before the eight­time World Champion crashed out altogether four

laps later at Turn 8. In the meantime, Quartararo had shaken Bagnaia, who, due to some combination of caution and the damage from his contact with 'El Diablo', was on the fade. He had already been overtaken for sixth by Brad Binder when he gave Joan Mir (Team Suzuki Ecstar) an easy position on Lap 13 at Turn 14.

It was dramatic in the battle for the podium places too, with Binder going past his own future teammate, Miller, on Lap 23 at Turn 2, then setting after Martin. Halfway around the lap at Turn 11, Miller's last race with Ducati came to a premature end when he crashed out, handing over fourth spot to Quartararo again.

Rins had not quite been able to drop the field like he might have hoped, but was still nine tenths of a second to the good when Binder overtook Martin for second at Turn 4 on the

penultimate lap. The South African threw a few more kitchen sinks at it but they would take the chequered flag 0.396 seconds apart as Rins delivered the final win for Suzuki in its current stint in MotoGP, with Binder P2 and Martin getting home just over a second from victory. Quartararo was nine tenths further back after a valiant fight to the flag.

Oliveira would pass Mir for fifth, with the 2020 World Champion therefore classified sixth, ahead of Marini and Bastianini.

Bagnaia found himself under pressure from Quartararo's Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP teammate Franco Morbidelli in the final laps but beat him to ninth position.

Bagnaia can now celebrate his first MotoGP Championship crown, and Ducati's first riders' title in 15 long years, but before the off­season, we have the Valencia Test back at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo on Tuesday.

Farewell to those off to pastures new, those retiring for a third time, those heading for the intermediate class... and good luck to everyone taking on new challenges next season. First, the Awards. Then, the tests. And then? Sprint races are GO. Join us in March as Portugal hosts the first Grand Prix of a new era... we can't wait!

Augusto Fernandez wins Moto2 title

In a tense Moto2 showdown in Valencia, Red Bull KTM Ajo ruled.

Pedro Acosta came out on top to win the final race of the season

INTERNATIONAL

and secure himself the title of Rookie of the Year, and teammate Augusto Fernandez shadowed him home to become the 2022 Moto2 World Champion. Ai Ogura (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia) crashed out of second place on Lap 8, after which Fernandez went full gas for an attack on the win but couldn't quite overhaul Acosta.

Tony Arbolino (Elf Marc VDS Racing Team) led for much of the 25­lap race but would eventually complete the podium at the Circuit Ricardo Tormo.

Izan Guevara Moto3 champ

The final Moto3 race of the season was a spectacular farewell, with a duel for the win going right to the wire. The battle saw reigning Champion Izan Guevara (Valresa GASGAS Aspar Team) go toe­to­toe with Deniz Öncü (Red Bull KTM Tech3) throughout the final lap, with the Turkish rider ahead into the final corner and Guevara going wide to gas it to the line ­ and come out on top to sign off from the lightweight class in some style. Gloves off, and show spectacular to the flag.

Earlier, Izan Guevara (Gaviota GASGAS Aspar Team) became the 2022 Moto3 World Champion in Australia. The Majorcan took a stunning win in the Animoca Brands Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix to wrap up the crown, taking himself more than the requisite 50 points clear with two rounds remaining.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 57

BIKING

CHALLENGE

Rakesh, Gidyun in top-three; Olesya Dias, best female rider

M

otorsport rally star from Chikkamagaluru, Asad Khan, was crowned as the first­ever Hero Dirt Biking Challenge champion in India following the finals held here for the top­20, who came through multiple stages of competition, after a five month­long rigorous contest that began with over 1 lakh registered riders vying for honours from across the country. It concluded in Jaipur on November 4.

Rakesh N and Gidyun Benjamin were first and second runners­up respectively. Olesya Dias emerged as the best female rider and in

58 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

keeping with its firm commitment to promote multiple sports and sportspersons, Hero MotoCorp, the world's largest manufacturer of motorcycles and scooters, crowned the Off­Road Riding Champion in India and other winners.

It was a big moment for Asad Khan, the Bengaluru­based privateer from the Coffee Land, who was crowned champion and was also awarded a Hero Xpulse 200 4V bike and a sponsorship contract worth Rs 10 lakh.

Rakesh N, who came second, also received an Xpulse 200 4V and sponsorships contracts

worth Rs. 6 lakhs while Gidyun Benjamin got Rs. 4 lakh sponsorship and a similar bike too.

Olesya Dias was recognised as the 'Best Female off­Road Rider' in the country for her rousing performance across all the rounds.

The HDBC was telecast over MTV and streamed over Voot.

Asad Khan first topped his zone at the Kodman Motopark in Mangaluru, where 60 riders took part in the preliminaries and five were selected for the next stage. The others are Ishan Chandra, Suhail Ahmed, Safwan Hussain (all Mangaluru) and Samson from Mysuru. Later after three more stages, Khan

riders reached the Zonal round.

Following a 4­day Zonal round, the National Team of Hero MotoSports trained participants before the top­20 Dirt­Biking Heroes made it to the finale.

The finale week was held in and around Hero MotoCorp's world­ class R&D hub, the centre of Innovation and Technology, (CIT), in Jaipur. The entire race and participation experience was designed at par with top international rally events. The entire finale week was curated by the Hero MotoSports Team Rally.

Huge response

From July, over 100,000 participants registered for the HDBC and after a rigorous nationwide contest that ran across four stages and 41 cities 20 finalist who were short listed took part in the final Jaipur event.

Ranjivjit Singh, Chief Growth Officer, Hero MotoCorp, said: “The massive excitement and participation in Hero Dirt Biking Challenge is proof that the off­ road riding segment is growing in the country. Xpulse is a favourite of riders and HDBC is a one­of­its­kind initiative in the country that opened doors for riding enthusiasts to achieve glory. We congratulate the

JAIPUR

winners and wish all the finalist the best for the future.”

Dr Arun Jaura, Chief Technology Officer, Hero MotoCorp, said: “The Hero MotoSports Team Rally is the flag­bearer of Indian off­road racing. With superior technology, the Xpulse 200 4V is the ideal bike for riders to get into the sport, pursue their passion and go beyond boundaries. Congratulations to the winners. Hero MotoSports will continue to support national talent in the future too.”

Hero MotoSports Team Rally, one of the top international teams, is the rally­racing team of Hero MotoCorp and the only Indian team ever to win a stage at the Dakar Rally. Team riders Ross Branch, Joaquim Rodrigues, Sebastian Buhler and Franco Caimi worked with the top participants in a Residential Bootcamp, and provided them with invaluable coaching.

The Hero Dirt Biking Challenge is the first­of­its­kind pan­India talent­hunt program by an OEM (original equipment manufacturer) which provided a platform for budding riders, enthusiasts and amateurs who want to pursue off­road racing and the response for the maiden edition was amazing.

got into the National camp for the top 100, the last step before the final test for the top­20.

Different stages

The Hero Dirt Biking Challenge (HDBC), which was launched in July 2022, concluded with the final race where only the 20 winners that came through different stages of competition fought for the top prize to become the first HDBC champion. Earlier, clearing the city and regional rounds, 90 JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 59

HIMALAYAN DRIVE 2022 - a tribute to rally champ Jayant Shah

T

The Drive retraces the historic 1982 Himalayan Rally route

he Himalayan Drive 2022 drove into Mussoorie on Nov 4 evening from Rishikesh via Dhanaulti retracing the 1982 Himalayan Rally route.

The first car that was flagged off from Delhi on 31st October , The Mahindra XUV 700 driven by the family of former Himalayan Rally champion Jayant Shah was flagged off first from Delhi on October 31.

The drive was a tribute to the legendary rally champion, Shah. Over 40 participants took part tracing the original route of the 1982 Himalayan Rally.

60 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

The first car into the WelcomHotel Savoy was car No. 1 with Jayant Shah's daughters Prina Soni and Priya and their brother Kalpesh, who came to celebrate their father's wins in this historic event.

The second car was a Mahindra Thar driven by Surinder Thatthi from Kenya. This car finished Overall 3rd in the 1982 Himalayan Rally.

"We are extremely delighted and honoured to be here for the Himalayan Drive and to celebrate dad for his 1982 rally victory.

Delighted that my sister, brother, and my husband joined me here at this celebration. To be able to ride the route and to experience through his eyes the memories during this event is special. I am happy to meet like­minded people and rally participants to have come together to hear all the wonderful stories of rallyists who took part in the actual event back in 1982. A special thanks to the organizers for giving us a wonderful car to drive on the route," said Prina.

DRIVE

"I am totally at loss of words how my late father and you rallyists actually drove at top speeds on these scenic mountain roads. It's not only scary but extremely challenging. We just enjoyed the scenic beauty of the Himalayas," she added.

Dhaualagiri to Dhanaulti. A very unused track with no traffic, it was another classic rally route that kept everyone spell bound on the last day's run . All the cars completed the route including the two classic cars, a Mahindra CJ 3B and a Mahindra Classic.

The first day of the Drive ended at Bhimtal. Next day started early for the run to Rudraprayag, a very challenging 250 km through the mountains via Almora, Bageshwar, Kausani and Gwaldam. The participants saw the majestic views of the snow­clad peaks at Kausani and Gwaldam Forest Rest House which was the venue for the lunch break.

There were also many lady drivers who drove their cars on the whole route. A special word of appreciation to Ayushi Amin, Snigdha Palchoudhri, Shaneen Parikh, Meena Dalal, Deepa, Lakshmi Narayanan, Rekha Niranjan and Kanchana Rajsekhar.

Mahindra Adventure was the presenting sponsor, supported by Bridgestone India, Haridarshan and WelcomHotel Savoy who rolled out the red carpet for the participants with the Gala Farewell Dinner, a sumptous delight with cocktails and an outstanding 'Live Band'.

The third day's drive retraced the exact 1982 rally route through Karnaparyag, Gopeshwar, Chopta, Tilwara before branching off to Rishikesh via Devprayag, giving a photo op at the Alaknanda confluence. The highlight of the day was the lunch halt at Chopta at 9500 ft with a truly magnificent view of the snow clad Kedranath and Badrinath Ranges. No words can describe the breathtaking beauty of the snow clad Himalayan peaks.

The final day's flag off ceremony saw Mr Kaya, owner of the Savoy, and Mr Kidwai of WelcomHotel do the honours as the cars headed back to Delhi on a clear morning with another final view of the snow­clad ranges.

A two­night halt was on the cards at Rishikesh where the free day was spent on River Rafting and the Ganga Aarti which was another surreal experience. The final day's run to Mussoorie on Nov 4th went through

International participants from Kenya, UK and USA, and from all over India were of the opinion that the Alps is no match for the pristine beauty of the snow­clad Himalayan Ranges.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 61

DESERT STORM

OVERALL WINNER YUVA KUMAR IN ACTION

Y

uva Kumar dominated the Moto class while Gaurav Chirpal and Karan Arya won the Xtreme class in the Desert Storm 2022 held in Jaisalmer in September.

The stages of about 1500 kms including transport were spread around Jaisalmer. the first six of the seven stages were held during the day while the final stage, was a night 62 autotrack.ind.in JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023

stage only for 4­wheelers. Stage 4 was cancelled for two wheelers as most of the riders crossed MPL in the first run.

Xtreme overall: In the Xtreme overall class, Gaurav Chirpal and Karan Arya were the unchallenged right from Day 1. They kept the momentum flowing as they led Day 1 with over 7­minute lead and later, they increased the lead and

clocked a total time of 9hr 58min 32sec to emerge winners.

Balinder Singh Dhillon and Amber Udasi who were running 4th on Day 1 managed to climb up steadily from SS5 onwards and completed the rally in second position. They were 2hr 01min 4sec behind the winners. Jeevan Singh Dadwal and M Chandrashekar had a shaky start on Day 1 and finally with a further

JAISALMER

T1: In the below 1350cc class, the pair of Balinder Singh Dhillon and Amber Udasi were the winners followed by Jeevan Singh Dadwal and M Chandrashekar in second. Major Arpit Kapila and Capt. Namrata completed the podium in third.

In the 1350 to 1850cc class, Team Army Adventure pair of Udaiveer Chopra and Zenith Bohra won followed by the pair of Parth Beniwal and Sagar Mallappa in second.

T2: In the below 1350cc class, Deepak Sachdeva and Rajit

Singh were the winners and Sanjay Jadon and Udit Kumar Singh from Team Army Adventure came second.

The pair of Devendra Singh Rathode and Uday Bhatnakar were the lone winners of the above 1350cc class.

difference of 1:05.27sec completed the podium. Major Arpit Kapila and Capt. Namrata from Team Army Adventure finished fourth with a further difference of 1:04.46. Deepak Sachdeva and Rajit Singh with a difference of 20min 27sec finished fifth. Udai Veer Chopra and Zenith Bohra, also from Team Army Adventure, finished sixth.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023 autotrack.ind.in 63

DESERT STORM

JAISALMER

JEEVAN SINGH DADWAL AND M CHANDRASHEKAR 1ST RUNNER­UP IN BELOW 1350CC

Moto Category:

Experienced Yuva Kumar from Hero MotoSports Team Rally won the Moto category. He was fastest amongst the four out of five stages. The Stage 4 which was a repeat of Stage 1 was cancelled since a lot of participants either failed to complete, or a major portion of them logged MPL. Teammate Sathyaraj Arumugam came second, 7min 38seconds behind. Privateer Adnaan Ahamed from Mangaluru was third as he took another 13min 38sec to complete the course.

Arun, on his debut event with Hero MotoSports Team Rally, clocked the fastest time in one of the stages but had to settle for fourth position missing the podium by 6min 30sec. Happy Verma finished in fifth position a further 33min 57sec behind while Uday Ganguli from Project SR came sixth.

Group B upto 250cc: Yuva Kumar from Hero MotoSports Team Rally was the winner of the class followed in second place

by Adnaan Ahamed from Mangaluru who was behind by 21.16sec. Arun from Hero

MotoSports Team Rally finished third with a difference of 27.46sec with the leader.

Group C 165 to 210cc: Sathyaraj Arumugam from Hero MotoSports Team Rally was the winner of the class. He clocked 6:18.12. Shivam Thakur from Project SR finished second. Nitin Singh came third. Lakhweer Singh Rathore finished fourth while Nitinjit Singh Bawa, also from Project SR, and Jagadeesh G, a privateer, finished in fifth and sixth positions respectively.

Group A 250 to 450cc: Uday Ganguli from Project SR defeated Jatin Jain from Nagpur by 14min to claim the class victory. Vignesh Rangaswamy a further 16min behind came third.

Ashwini Kataria was the lone participant in the Group B 250 to 500cc class and was declared as the winner.

second. Lt Col AS Sidhu along with Havaldar OK Singh finished third with 34min 18sec

difference to the leader. Parth Bhradwaj, along with Shobhit Yadav, finished fourth.

GAURAV CHIRIPAL AND KARAN ARYA WINNERS EXTREME OVERALL UDAIVEER CHOPRA AND ZENITH BOHRA WINNERS OF 1350 TO 1850CC

Endure class:

Vivek Vikram Singh along with three others, Sabatulla Khan, Kunal Singhania and SK Anirudhha were the winners of the class with a total time of 55min 09sec. The pair of Raja Singh and Shantanu Grover with a 22min 43sec difference came

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