May - June 2022

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CD JINAN wins MRF Supercross R1

Shardul tops SJOBA Rally

JK TYRE

JK RACING

4X4 FURY

DAMBUK

KARNA KADUR NIKHIL PAI WIN SEASON OPENER BLUE BAND 4W INRC ‘22

HIMACHAL PA I R O F

ADITYA VIRENDER

2021 4W INRC NATIONAL CHAMPS

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AJGAR ALI MUSTAFA NATIONAL CHAMPIONS JK TYRE INRRC 2021

EDITORIAL / IMPRINT

Hi,

Our New Look.

AUTO TRACK is on a new track...

I

t was quite an early beginning for the 2022 season! The final round of the 2021 INRC for 4­wheelers concluded on March 27 with the South India Rally, which was also an APRC round with no international drivers but only a few Indian entries. The 2022 season began in April with the same event. The back­to­ back rallies with the same route saw a few drivers skip due to budgetary issues and a few new drivers, were added to the list. With the new promoter in place for the INRC 4­wheelers, a lot of adjustment had to be done and they were not prepared and equipped to take on the Round 1 due to the short notice and their prior international assignments. Within days after being named the promoter, they had to run the first round in a hurry, to avoid the round clashing with monsoon rains. The downpour would have made the terrain impossible to drive, specially the second stage. The other five rounds are expected to begin from July.

With three more championships adding up this season, the calendar will be filled with events and excitement. The fmsci ran two championships for 2021, the INRC and INRRC for 4­wheelers. Both got two new promoters from this year.

The 2022 season saw three championships taking off in the first two months. First, was the Blue Band Sports INRC for 4­wheelers and then came the MRF Supercross with the MRF INRC for 2­wheelers following suit. The month of June will witness the newly­promoted Autocross for 4­wheelers. But the racing calendar which always begins from July onwards, continues as usual with the dates and venues of each championships reflecting on the FMSCI calendar, which is revised frequently.

All the championships which already commenced will find some breathing space till June or July. There on, it should be a regular show! With monsoon already active, the first two INRC 2­wheeler rounds had its damp influence like the previous year.

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

O1 autotrack.ind.in MAY / JUNE 2022

IMPRINT

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

Staff Photographers: Nirav Mehta Prakash Rawat, Noorulla Managing Editor: Roopa A. Tiwari

Sr. Correspondent: S. Nithyanand

Correspondent: K. Manjunath Ghanshyam A Tiwari Spl. Correspondent: David Bodapati

Western Region: autotrack.west@gmail.com Mob: 09757176958

Northern Region: autotrack.north@gmail.com Mob: 09871765886 Editorial Office:

Auto Track 7/3-1, Lalitha Engineering Building, Subbanna Garden Main Road, Vijayanagar, Bangalore-40 autotrack.editor@gmail.com www.autotrack.ind.in For Subscription, contact: 9845296190

For Advertisement, E: ashok.autotrack@gmail.com The Publisher makes every effort to ensure that the magazine’s contents are accurate. However, he accepts no responsibility of any effects arising therefrom. Printed at Raj Hans Enterprises, Rajajinagar Industrial Town, Bangalore-560044.

Published by S. Ashok Kumar Tiwari At # 7/3-1, Lalitha Engineering Building, Subbanna Garden Main Road, Vijayanagar, Bangalore - 560040

VOLUME 15, ISSUE 4

CONTENTS

NEW DELHI

MAY / JUNE 2022

34 10

50 50 JK INRRC: 06

APRC , Chennai : 10

K1000: 16

JK Tyre 4x4 Fury : 22

WIAA Womes Valley drive: 26

Vintage and Classic Car Rally: 28

MRF Natl Supercross, Nashik: 30

28 12

44

ATMA: 34

MRF Supercross, Raipur: 38

Hero Motocorp womens ride: 42

Ace of Dirt: 44

Maruti Ertiga XL6: 46

SJOBA Rally: 50

26

South India Rally 2022: 52

International F1: 57

International MotoGP: 59

30

06 08

46 30

16

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30

56

We pray for a full season...

Surely you can expect a full season, provided no more COVID scare occurs. Even the previous year, the season was short but most of the championships were run as usual for six rounds. To facilitate these rounds, the 2021 season was extended till March 2022 which proved to be ideal and most of them ran back­to­back rounds to complete the championships. This year early monsoon, especially in southern India, will force many wet races, which is expected. This year with most of the rounds are expected to get a fair amount of time to evenly distribute the rounds and venues.

Nice to see all the format of sports under promoters...

Yes, fmsci did manage to run two championships in 2021 season. While the INRRC had JK Tyre as a sponsor and each

round went on well and across India, the INRC 4­wheeler championship was under promoter Champions Yacht Club, which goofed up the entire championship. In the very first round of the season which was to be run on tarmac, the promoter pretended to have managed the necessary permissions to run the Vizag round. But ultimately the entire fraternity who landed in the Port city were fooled without a valid police permission to run the event. Ultimately, the cancellation saw close to about 2 crore estimated loss to the participants and related teams.

So, the federation had to step in and run the three rounds in Coimbatore, Chennai and

Bengaluru to complete the championship with the remaining funds. The shortened rally calendar, went off successfully and during this period, a new promoter was finalised for the next three years.

Will dirt track come back...

It is long years since the Dirt track championship was organised.

Since there were no takers, it was let loose and there on a couple of organisers ran it for some time and a few were unable to run and later on it failed to take off.

But now since it has a new promoter, it looks there will be a good beginning from this season onwards. The spectator sport which draws huge crowd after Supercr eagerly awaited.

T h e calendar is due to come up shortly.

TROPHIES

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Our trophies are made toJANUARY feel O4 autotrack.ind.in / FEBRUARY 2022 good in your hands curated by

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INTERNATIONAL

NEWS

FORMULA 2

Jehan Daruvala shows strong pace at Imola F2 weekend The Indian becomes only driver to take podium in every round

I

ndia's Jehan Daruvala followed up his Saturday's podium with a points­ paying finish in Sunday's Formula 2 Feature race. The Red Bull­backed racer showed blistering pace to bounce back from an ill­timed safety car, at Imola .

The 23­year­old, who finished second in Saturday's Sprint race, had started on the harder prime tyre which would have put him in the fight for the win in the latter stages of the race. But an early safety car, which allowed rivals starting on the more fragile option tyres to make a free pit

stop, went against Jehan, who had to make his own mandatory stop under full racing conditions and as a result finished ninth.

Despite the safety car misfortune, Jehan remained unfazed and proved he had the pace to win. Having started eighth, he moved into the lead on Lap 9. Once in clear air, he reeled off a series of consecutive fastest laps, lighting up the timing screens with successive 'purple' sectors.

He stayed in the lead for more than half the 35­lap race and charged back up to ninth, after his pit stop had dropped him down to 14th while also bagging

the extra point for fastest lap along the way.

His searing display of pace capped a strong weekend for the Prema team driver, who leaves Imola third in the overall standings, having gone into the weekend sixth.

The only driver to have to have finished on the podium in every round this season, Jehan is now the lead Red Bull junior in the standings.

Jehan said, “After the fighting for the win yesterday, I was obviously hoping for more. It's a real shame the safety car came out when it did because we clearly had the pace to win. The car felt great, I was able to get into a really good rhythm and I felt very comfortable in the lead.

You can always dwell on the what­ifs but my focus now is very much on carrying this momentum into the next round in Barcelona.”

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INRRC INRRC FFIINNAALLSS

Ajgar-Musthafa duo emerges champions JK Tyre Indian National Regularity Run concludes at Darjeeling

A

fter three days of intense battle which tested the mettle of humans and machines, the team of Sk Ajgar Ali and Md Musthafa were crowned champions of JK Tyre Indian National Regulatory Run Championship (INRRC) 2021 at Darjeeling on March 27.

JK Tyre Himalayan Drive 8 (HD8), which was the Grand Finale of INRRC 2021 started from Siliguri and culminated in Darjeeling a O6 autotrack.ind.in MAY / JUNE 2022

three­day run on Sunday. Seven all­ladies teams were among the 24 teams in fray.

Several big names in this format of motorsports locked horns in their bid for the coveted crown.

The competitors had to navigate through tough terrain, including dirt tracks, river beds and hilly regions. The river beds on the first two legs of the rally proved to be challenging with many vehicles getting bogged down in

the sand, gravel and rocks and sought assistance from the recovery team and were pulled out.

JK Tyre INRRC category

The JK Tyre INRRC category was run as a separate class where concurrently the Himalayan Drive was also held. The classification was given for both event. In the JK Tyre INRRC, the pair of SK Ajgar Ali, along

with Mohammad Musthafa, participating in the Pro­class secured 24 points to win the championship. They claimed the victory with eight points from Leg 1, 10 points from Leg 2 and eight points from Leg 3.

Aniruddha and Raj Kumar Mundra came second with 20 points while the pair of Subir Roy and Nirav Mehta stood third with 18 points. Deep Dutta and Chandan Sen with 12 points finished fourth. Sandip

TSD RALLY

expensive for them. They went down in points table in Leg 2 with 346 but managed to hold on to second position. Later, they improved a lot in the final leg with least points but it was not sufficient to gain a position. They finished second with a total of 958 points.

Sandeep Mukherjee and Prakash Muthusamy lost lot of points with 1132 in Leg 1. They made a good comeback in Leg 2 with least points and contained points well in the final stage too.

But the very high Leg 1 points forced them to settle for third position with a total of 1494.

Adarsh Tiwari and Chirag Thakur also consumed over 1104 points in Leg 1. So there was no scope of recovery but with 372 points in Leg 2, and then with 92 points in final leg they pooled 1568 and held on to fourth position.

Mukherjee and Prakash Muthusamy with 11 points finished fifth and Rohit Kashyap and Shailenda Singh with 8 points were sixth.

In the JK Tyre INRRC Ladies cup, Sheena Sabharwal and Trupti Gupta came out victorious with a total of 28 points followed by Jasmeet Kaur and Jyothi Iyengar in second with 26 points. Nilasha Das and Ipsita Das with 17 points completed the podium.

Alivia SK and Sunita Prasad finished fourth with 14 points while the pair of Aparna Pathak and Lalita Gowda were fifth with 12 points.

Deep Dutta and Chandan Sen were running second after Leg 1 with 686 points. But they lost out after a bad Leg 2 which forced them with 1150 points. The 70 points in final leg brought them fifth place with a difference of 338 points.

Overall winners Ajgar and Musthafa Overall winners Ajgar and Musthafa

Professional Class Ajgar and Musthafa looked shaky on Day 1 but there was no looking back after that. They garnered 312 points thereafter as they were at their best in the night leg and rose from 72 points, the lowest, to a commanding position. In the third and final leg they took 76 points to head the points table with a total of 460 points and were declared as the leader.

The Kolkata pair of Subir Roy and Nirav Mehta logged 558 points in Leg 1 and it proved too MAY / JUNE 2022 autotrack.ind.in 07

INRRC

They got a bit more expensive piling points in the final leg but stood the ground to lead with a total of 1870 points. Jasmeet Kaur from Gurugram and Jyothi Iyengar from Mumbai with 968 points in Leg 1 and 1044 points in Leg 2, came back well in the final leg with 270 points but were no match to the winners and had to settle for second position with a total of 2282 points.

FINALS

The mother­and­daughter pair from Kolkata, Nilasha Das and Ipsita Das, with a total of 6874 points completed the podium.

Aparna Pathak and Lalita Gowda lost out in the very first leg and it was a point of no return as they had to settle for fourth position with a total of 7288 points.

Old timer Jogendra Jaiswal and Suvrajit Dutta retired in Leg 1 due to a clogged gearbox. Even Leg 2 was not favourable for them as the fuel line gave up and they had to pull out. But they did manage to finish the final leg.

Adventure Class Jit Mitra and K Dinly Varghese won the Adventure class with least penalties of 1704 in Leg. Leg 2 saw them log 394 points and it kept them in top position.

08 autotrack.ind.in MAY / JUNE 2022

Finally with a total of 2410 points they were crowned the winners.

Abhijit Singh and Ibrahim Ali Shaikh were consistently running second and finished in the same position with a total of 3840 points. Nisan Choudhury and Chandrasish Roy with 4128 points in Leg 1 were lucky enough to be on the podium.

They were more stable in the remaining two legs and with a total of 4530 points came third.

Vikash Toshniwal and Sumit Mukherjee with 6682 settled for fourth and Subhomoy Roy and Debargha Mukherjee finished fifth with a difference of 2724 points.

Ladies Class The Pune pair of Sheena Sabharwal and Trupti Gupta were the winners of the Ladies class. They began their day very well with the least points of 646 in Leg 1 and 768 points in Leg 2.

The duo of Sk Aniruddha and Raj Kumar Mundra finished second while the driver­navigator team of Subir Roy and Nirav Mehta took the final step of the podium.

The local class was bagged by the team of Pranjal More and Milindo Paul.

JK Tyre Himalayan Drive 8 was ceremonially flagged off from Siliguri's City Centre by North Bengal Inspector General of Police Devendra Prakash Singh and Siliguri Deputy Mayor

TSD RALLY

Ranjan Sarkar in the presence of senior police and civil administration officials and corporate bigwigs. Ajoy Shah, JK Tyre, Head of Training, was also present.

On the first day of the rally run on March 24, the competitors started from City Centre and sped down a highway before entering a dirt track that took them past a tea garden and then on to a river bed. This river bed took a toll on the vehicles with six of them requiring assistance from the recovery team.

The second leg on March 25 was equally challenging. After being flagged off from Murti, the competitors, including the duo of Jaiswal and Dutta, got their vehicle back in action and drove down to Jaldhaka river bed. The river bed presented a tricky loop which had even the most­ experienced rallyists in a fix.

Many competitors, including some top­league names, were seen making mistakes, thereby picking up penalty points. A few vehicles also required help from the recovery team.

Once out of the river bed, the competitors drove through verdant forests and picturesque hamlets nestled in the Himalayan foothills. The second day's run also took them through many popular tourist spots like

Lataguri, Damdim, Gorubathan and Chalsa, as well as several tea gardens en route to Murti where the leg culminated.

The final leg of the rally on Saturday, March 26, saw the competitors being flagged off from Murti in the morning to drive through the dense forests of Gorumara and Chapramari before entering the narrow roads through Matelli Tea Estate and driving past scenic spots like Samsing and Gorubathan.

“

Ajgar Ali­ Overall winner

It's a huge achievement for me & hard to put this feeling into words. Being honest, the journey towards the championship was not easy; in fact it was very difficult.

Mainly proper execution helps us opportunity to achieve the goal. As a political stakeholder over the past few years, I have learned more than I could have ever imagined. Some words I would like to tell everyone in every filed that "Those waiting for opportunities (which they also rarely capitalise on) are just looking for excuses to delay action & failure is natural to our life, when we fail, we must not stop working hard."

During this leg, the competitors crossed the 81­year­old Coronation Bridge over the Teesta to start climbing the Himalayan mountains through narrow and winding roads with hairpin bends. They drove past Mungpoo, Jore bunglow and Ghoom to ultimately reach Darjeeling in the evening.

The prize distribution ceremony was held at Bhanu Bhavan in Darjeeling on March 27. An array of dignitaries including the General Officer Commanding (GOC) of the Sukhna­headquartered 33 Corps, Lieutenant General Tarun Kumar Aich and his wife Saswati Aich, 123 Mountain Brigade Commander Vikas Batra and his wife Pallavi Batra, former Darjeeling MLA Amar Singh Rai and Darjeeling Municipality Chairman Ritesh Portel gave away the coveted trophies to the winners.

Apart from the three winners of the JK INRRC 2021, trophies were also awarded to three winners of the INRRC Adventure category, Himalayan Drive 8 Ladies Cup and the winners of the six zonal qualifying rounds.

“

Once successfully past the river bed, the competitors drove through more dirt sections and challenging terrains to reach Gajoldoba where the first part of Leg 1 culminated at a resort called Bhorer Alo. The night section of the Leg 1 started around 7pm and the competitors then drove through a long river embankment to reach Malbazar and Chalsa before going into village roads to arrive at Murti where the day's run culminated. At the end of Day 1, the team of Sk Aniruddha and Raj Kumar Mundra were leading, closely followed by last year's champions Sk Ajgar Ali and Mohammed Musthafa.

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RALLY

NATIONALS

KARNA KADUR wins South India Rally, the APRC round

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R3, CHENNAI

Aditya Thakur emerges National Champion 2021 PHOTO BY: KRISHANU CHATTERJEE / SATHYA

B

engaluru pair of Karna Kadur and co­driver Nikhil Pai, supported

by MRF Tyres, kept their nerves to win the 44th South India Rally, which is a round of the FIA Asia­ Pacific Rally Championship (Asia Cup) and the third and final round of the FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship 2021 which concluded in Chennai on March 27, with MRF Tyres as the Associate Sponsor.

Even as Kadur and Pai celebrated their Asia Cup (India leg) victory on their APRC debut, Himachal's Aditya Thakur and co­driver

Virender Kashyap (Chettinad Sporting) clinched their maiden National championship title, a creditable Overall victory.

Meanwhile, three­times APRC champion Gaurav Gill (Musa Sherif), who had retired on Saturday with a mechanical failure but restarted on Sunday, eventually finished second behind Kadur.

Kadur also topped the South India Rally, organised by the Madras Motor Sports Club, to claim the Overall honours ahead of Dean Mascarenhas (Gagan Karumbaiah) and Thakur. The

Overall winners MAY / JUNE 2022 autotrack.ind.in 11

RALLY

NATIONALS

third­place finish was sufficient for Thakur to em erge the National champion.

FIA Asia­Pacific Rally Championship (Asia Cup, India round): The Bengaluru pair of Karna Kadur and Nikhil Pai supported

by MRF Tyres representing India were the winners with a total time of 01hr:50min:04.500sec.

They carried forward their Day­1 dominance. Gaurav Gill and Musa Sherif, supported by JK Tyre and representing India, finished second with a 17­min difference after they rejoined on Day 2. Gill had suffered mechanical issues and could not complete SS4 on Day 1 but by

then he was the leader with over 37sec lead. Amittrajit Ghosh and Ashwin Naik supported by JK Tyre driving a Mahindra XUV300 had to pull out in the very last stage of the rally due lower­arm issues. Same was the fate of Kerala driver Younus llyas, who withdrew in the final stage of the day. The highlight of the day was Gaurav's drive after rejoining the Day 2 as he was the fastest in all the five stages and was 2­min faster than others. He was given a scratch time, which is 10­min plus the fastest time of that stage and still he managed to take a second place on Sunday.

Day 1: Karna was the leader on Day 1 with over 19­seconds lead followed by Younus llyas and Aniruddha Ranganekar in second with margin of 0.500th of a second over the pair of Amittrajit Ghosh and Ashwin Naik.

The FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship: Overall / INRC: Karna Kadur and Nikhil Pai both from Bengaluru, supported by MRF Tyres, won the rally with a total time of 1:50:04.500 were the winners followed in second

by JK Tyre­supported driver Dean Mascarenhas from Mangaluru and Gagan Karumbaiah from Kodagu, who came in 1min 4sec behind.

Aditya Thakur and Virender Kashyap both from Himachal, supported by MRF Tyres, came in a further 1min 8sec later but managed to be on the podium in third.

Fabid Ahmer and Sanath G, supported by JK Tyre, finished fourth with just one­second deficit. They were reeling with a puncture on Day 1 but were in full swing on Day 2. They made up a good chunk of time

on Aditya but missed the championship by a mere one­ second deficit. Syed Salman Ahmed from Mysuru and Rishabh BK from Mangaluru, supported by JK Tyre, finished fifth. The results were subject to the outcome of an appeal pending before the Indian Motor Sports Appeal Court.

Day 1: Karna was leading after Gaurav Gill DNF in fourth stage.

Dean was 19 seconds behind in second. Younus llyas from Kollam and Aniruddha Ranganekar from Pune were in third with 0.200th difference.

INRC 2: Dean Mascarenhas from Mangaluru and Gagan K aru m b ai ah f ro m K o d ag u , supported by JK Tyre, were the winners of INRC2 class with a total time of 01:51:08.900. They were unable to extend their Day 1 lead of 1min 14seconds but

INRC 2 winners Dean Mascarenhas and Gagan Karumbaiah 12 autotrack.ind.in MAY / JUNE 2022

R3, CHENNAI

INRC3 winners Aditya Thakur and Virender Kashyap

managed to hold on to their position with a 1­min 9­sec lead.

Fabid Ahmer and Sanath G both from Palakkad finished second.

The Bengaluru pair of Rahul Kanthraj and Vivek Bhatt were third another 3min 54sec behind.

Aroor Vikram Rao and Somayya AG managed to finish fourth while Suhem Kabeer and Jeevarithanam settled for fifth.

Day 1: Dean was the leader followed by Fabid in second.

Bengaluru Brothers Chetan Shivram and Dilip Sharan, supported by Yokohama Tyres, were running third with one­ second deficit.

INRC­3: The Himachal boys, supported

by MRF Tyres, Aditya Thakur and Virender Kashyap won the class apart from winning the overall championship. They extended the Day­1 lead by clocking a timing of 01:52:16.100. The JK Tyre­supported pair of Syed

Salman Ahmed from Mysuru and BK Rishabh from Mangaluru finished second with a difference of 2min 37sec. The second Himachal pair of Kuber Sharma and Kunal Kashyap were further 39­sec behind to take third on the podium.

Harkrishan Wadia and Amber Udasi, supported by JK Tyre, finished fourth as they missed the podium by 8seconds.

Chandan KM and Suraj M from Bengaluru were in fifth position as they took another 39seconds to finish the course. Aravind KP and Varun Satyanarayan survived a crash and managed to finish sixth with a further 40sec difference. The ladies team of Pragathi Gowda and Trisha Jagannath were another 43­sec behind in seventh.

Day 1: Aditya was the leader with 1min 19sec lead over Salman in second and Kuber was running third with a 16­sec difference.

INRC 3 winners

INRC 2 winners MAY / JUNE 2022 autotrack.ind.in 13

RALLY

NATIONALS

Fabid Ahmer and Sanath G first runner up INRC 2

FMSCI Gypsy Challenge winners

Junior INRC winners

Junior INRC winners Pragati Gowda and Trisha Alonkar

INRC­4: Mujeeb Rehman from Kasargod and Ravindra Kumar from Bengaluru with a total time of 01:59:08.600 won INRC4 class as they increased their 1min 03sec Day­1 lead to 1min 57sec to beat second­place finishers Prakhyat Shirole and Arjun SSB both from Bengaluru. Deepak Chandra and Raghuram CG, also from Bengaluru, finished third with a further difference of 11min 32sec. Shivani Parmar and Vani Parmar missed the podium by 15 sec. Shahin Aziz and Lenin Jose finished fifth with a further difference of 6min 40sec.

Vaibhav had to pull out b in the third stage of the day.

14 autotrack.ind.in MAY / JUNE 2022

Day 1: Mujeeb had a five­ second lead over Vaibhav Marathe and Prakhyat was in third with another 58­second deficit behind Marathe.

Junior INRC: The all­ladies team from Bengaluru Pragati Gowda and Trisha Alonkar, supported by MRF Tyres, dominated the class with a total time of 01:57:42.300.

Raghuram Saminathan from Coimbatore and Bharath Sargur from Bengaluru finished about 2min 12sec later in second position. Jahaan Singh Gill from Chandigarh and Sheeraz Ahmed from Chikkamgaluru were in third with a further difference of 32min 19sec. Shivani had to pull out in the penultimate stage.

R3, CHENNAI

Salman Ahmed and BK Rishabh first runner­up INRC 3

Day 1: Pragati was 1min 17sec ahead of Saminathan in second while the pair of Shivani Pruthvi from Davangere and Ruthvik Praveen from Tiptur were in third.

FMSCI Gypsy Challenge: Samrat Yadav from Chandigarh and M Chandrashekar from Bengaluru, supported by Yokohama, were the winners of the Gypsy class. They extended the Day­1 lead and with a difference of 6min they were the toppers. Rupender Sheoran from Gurugram and Mohit Mallik from Faridabad finished second. The third position was bagged by MR Venkatapathy and Santosh Kumar Selvaraj both from Coimbatore with a difference of 1min 21sec.

Lone participants in the SUV Challenge Ritesh Rai from Chennai and Venu Ramesh Kumar from Coimbatore clocked 02:05:20.00.

Reflecting on his victory, Kadur said: “This is my first win since 2018 and I am very happy to break a jinx. This is my first win in Chennai and it is my first APRC victory too. I cannot ask for anything better. As always, there is last­minute drama and with lower­arm bush popping out today, we were lucky to finish.

We have learnt a lot in the last two rallies (both DNFs) and this the turn around we needed.

INRC 4 winners

“Till 2018, we won all the sub­ categories we entered. And only in 2019 we started getting the budgets and the backing to go Overall. From there, we were

developing the car, thanks to Mr Leelakrishnan and the whole team at Arka. Thanks also to the Volkswagen Motorsport team who have been continuously

supporting me. The MRF Tyres certainly gave us the edge as the difference was only in seconds after the first stage but it is the Tyres that allowed us to push the limits.”

An ecstatic and emotional Thakur said: “Right now I can't express how happy I am today. It is a dream come true. I never expected to become a National champion in such a short time after making my INRC debut in 2018. There are so many emotions and thoughts going through my mind. A big thanks to my co­driver Virender who is always spot­on.

“I want to thank MRF Tyres and Volkswagen Motorsport for all the support. It is a dream come true that I am driving for such a wonderful rally car. I am indebted to my team Chettinad Sporting, Team PPTS and Lionnoil, that keeps my car cool every time I go out.”

Gill was disappointed with the result. “It was the same in Coimbatore where we had a DNF (Did Not Finish) and in K­1000 that we won. Here too, we were the quickest, but a mechanical issue cut short our rally yesterday. However, on restart, we had a good run today.

Overall, I am quite happy with our performance,” said Gill, who plans to compete in APRC's Japan and Australia legs this season.

Gypsy Challenge winners Samrat Yadav and M Chandrashekar

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RALLY

NATIONALS

PHOTO BY: KRISHANU CHATTERJEE, SRI HARSHA NADIGER, RANJIT

Gaurav Gill th clinches 7 K1000 title

Fabid Ahmer, Aditya Thakur top respective categories 16 autotrack.ind.in MAY / JUNE 2022

Tyres as the Associate Sponsor, near the town of Gubbi, about 100 kms from Bengaluru on March 13. The delayed 2021 season which is extended till 31 March 2022 completed two rounds with the third round, the South India Rally scheduled to run in April.

The Delhi­based Gill, a seven­ time National champion and thrice winner of the FIA Asia­ Pacific Rally, exercised all his experience and driving skills to bring the Mahindra XUV 300 back to the Parc Ferme, something he couldn't in the first round at Coimbatore last month. In the process, the Arjuna Award winner successfully countered a strong challenge from Younus Ilyas (Anirudha Ranganekar) of Race Concepts who finished Overall second, about 15 seconds behind, while Fabid Ahmer (Sanath G) was placed third.

It was Gill's seventh K­1000 title while for Sherif, from Kasargod, it was a memorable victory that marked his 300th Rally milestone.

“Undoubtedly, today's win is very satisfying considering the difficult weekend we had and the non­finish in the Coimbatore

K1000, BENGALURU

First runner­up Younus Ilyas and Anirudha Ranganekar

round. We had electrical problems, a damaged windscreen when the bonnet flew open in the very first Stage.

So, we lost a bit of time as we had to stop and lock the bonnet.

Then, in the last Stage, I had to negotiate the last six­seven kms without brakes which again cost us time. But in the end, I am happy we finished the Rally and won,” said Gill.

Chandigarh's Samrat Yadav (M Chandrashekar, Bengaluru) emerged champion in the non­ championship FMSCI Gypsy Challenge category.

Of the 53 entrants, 31 completed the two­day Rally. The first day saw SS­4 interrupted twice after a few cars blocked the route due to crashes and mechanical failures. The final day's proceedings were delayed due to interruptions of SS­8 following mishaps. Restart took place after recovering Aravind KP's car which had blocked the route. It consumed a lot of time, which in turn delayed the Prize distribution.

Overall / INRC: The pair of Gaurav Gill from Delhi and Musa Sherif from Kasargod

Honourable Education Minister of Karnataka BC Nagesh honoured INRC winners

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damaged windscreen, electrical and turbo issues besides brake failure did not stop Gaurav Gill and co­driver Musa Sherif, who were supported by JK Tyre, from winning the 45th Karnataka­1000 Rally, the second round of the FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship 2021 with MRF MAY / JUNE 2022 autotrack.ind.in 17

INRC 3 winners Aditya Thakur and Virender Kashyap

INRC 2 first runner­up Sahil Khanna and Harish KN

INRC 2 winners

supported by JK Tyre with a total time of 01hr, 38min, 37.800secs were the winners. They kept the momentum right from the start, followed by Younus llyas from Kollam and Anirudha Ranganekar from Pune in second with a difference of 16seconds. Fabid Ahmer and Sanath G both from Palakkad supported by JK Tyre finished third. Amittrajit was going good but had to pull out in the second stage of the day. Similar was the case of Karna, in the very first stage of the day he pulled out due to gearbox issue. Arjun Rao 18 autotrack.ind.in MAY / JUNE 2022

and Satish Rajagopal never took a start on Day 2.

Day 1: Early in the day, seven­ time National champion Gill set a hot pace and at the end of the first loop of the two Stages, had opened a comfortable lead. But in the second run, his Mahindra XUV 300 developed a turbo problem that cost him some precious time as the focus shifted to nursing the vehicle to the finish.

Despite this problem which led to a noticeable drop in pace, Gaurav finished the day with a comfortable lead of over 29sec over Karna Kadur and Nikhil Pai both from Bengaluru who were supported by MRF Tyres. Younus was in third with a further 10­sec difference. In fourth place with a further 27sec behind were the pair of Amittrajit Ghosh from Kolkata and Ashwin Naik from Mangaluru in yellow colours of JK Tyre, though the entry was private. Dean Mascarenhas from Mangaluru and Gagan Karumbaiah from Virajpet, also supported by JK Tyre, were in fifth position. The other pair from Kerala, also supported by JK Tyre, Fabid Ahmer and Sanath G finished sixth.

INRC­2: The Palakkad pair of Fabid Ahmer and Sanath G, privateers supported by JK Tyre, clocked a

total time of 01:46:21.600 to win the class. Sahil Khanna from Gurugram and Harish KN from Bengaluru with 2min 31sec difference settled for second position. Lakshay Veer Dabas from Delhi and Arjun Dheerendra from Bengaluru were further slower by 5min 12sec but managed to complete the podium. Day 1 leader Dean Mascarenhas with multiple issues slipped down to fifth.

Ritesh Guttedar and Lokaranjan of Bengaluru a further 37sec behind were fourth. The Bengaluru pair of Rahul Kanthraj and Vivek Bhatt finished sixth.

Three major drop outs of the day were Vikram Rao Aroor in third

INRC 3 second runner­up Sanampreet Sekhon and Suhan Kabeer

stage of the day, Dhruva Chandrashekar and Suhem Kabeer in second stage of the day.

Day One: Top­three positions were dominated by JK Tyre supported drivers, Dean Mascarenhas and Gagan, who were the leaders with a 13­sec lead over Fabid and Suhem Kabeer from Virajpet and Jeeva Rathinam from Bengaluru,who were in third with a 51­sec difference.

INRC­3: The Himachal pair of Aditya Thakur and Virender Kashyap, supported by MRF Tyres, won the INRC­3 class beating state­ mates Kuber Sharma and Karan Aukta by 52 seconds.

FMSCI Gypsy Challenge winners Samrat Yadav and M Chandrasekhar MAY / JUNE 2022 autotrack.ind.in 19

RALLY

NATIONALS

Sanampreet Sekhon from Chandigarh and Suhan Kabeer Kodagu came third a further 44­sec in third. Vishakh and Anil Abbas were far behind taking another 6min 14sec but finished the course in fourth ahead of Harkrishan Wadis and Amber Udasi, who were adrift by another 3 minutes in fifth. The pair of Chandan KM and Suraj K were sixth, a further 2min 20sec behind.

Pragathi Gowda and Trisha Jagannath, the all­woman team, also

Gaurav Gill in action

Deepak Chandra and CG Raghuram first runner­up INRC 4

Lanusanen and Rohit in action

supported by MRF Tyres, had to pull out in the third stage of the day. The final stage saw Syed Salman and Rishabh BK, supported by JK Tyre, pull out and after them, within a short distance, Aravind KP of Big Boss Kannada fame, along with co­ driver Varun Sathyanarayan had their car stuck in a narrow stretch. The resultant melee saw a few cars line­up behind them and recovery of these vehicles took some time before the rally was resumed. Later, the participants were brought back in a convoy.

Day 1 had the same line­up in lead as Day 2. Aditya pulled off a 28­sec lead over Kuber, who also opened up a 45­second lead 2O autotrack.ind.in MAY / JUNE 2022

K1000, BENGALURU

second position with 1min 17sec difference. Shivani with1min 56sec difference was third.

Junior INRC: Upcoming driver Raghuram Saminathan from Coimbatore and Bharath SM from Bengaluru were the toppers with 2:02:07.300. Dr. Shivani Pruthvi from Davangere and Ruthvik Praveen from Tiptur were 12min behind to finish second.

Winners of INRC 4 Shivani Parmar and Vani Parmar

over third­placed Sanampreet.

INRC­4: The mother­daughter pair of Shivani Parmar and Vani Parmar from Mumbai won the class with a total time of 02:14:56.700.

Bengaluru boys Deepak Chandra and CG Raghuram fell short of 1min 5sec and had to finish in second position. The second Bengaluru pair of Prakhyat Shirole and Arjun SSD finished third another 1min 18sec behind.

Krishnakanth Yadav and Jibrah Ahmed finished fourth with a further difference of 4min 14sec.

Renuka Gajendran and Goutham CP were fifth as they took another 8min 2sec to finish the stage.

The two front­runners of Day 1 who had to pull out were Mujeeb Rahman from Kasargod and Ravinder Kumar from Bengaluru.

In the very first stage on Day 2, the suffered issues. Vaibhav Marathe from Goa and Harsha Vardhana SN from Bengaluru, supported by MRF Tyres, also met the same fate in the very next stage.

Earlier on Day 1, Mujeeb by clocking 56:48.960 was on top followed by Vaibhav Marathe in

Second runner­up in INRC 3 Kuber Sharma and Karan Aukta

FMSCI Gypsy Challenge: Samrat Yadav from Chandigarh and M Chandrashekar from Bengaluru, supported by Yokohama Tyres, won with a total time of 1:49:49.000.

Rupender Sheoran from Gurugram and Mohit Malik from Faridabad were 7min 12sec behind them to take second position. The pair of Venkatapathy Mettuchetty and Santosh Kumar Selvaraj both from Coimbatore came third a further 2min 40sec behind.

Day 1: Samrat was in a comfortable position at the top and Rupender was running second a little under 4 minutes. and Abhishek Gowda from Chikkamagaluru and Dheeraj Manae from Bengaluru were in third with a 17­sec difference.

Lakshay Veer Dabas and Arjun Dheerendra second runner­up INRC 2 MAY / JUNE 2022 autotrack.ind.in 21

JK TYRE 4X4 FURY

22 autotrack.ind.in MAY / JUNE 2022

DAMBUK, ARUNACHAL

Team Gulf First wins

Dambuk Valley in Arunachal th hosts the 7 edition successfully

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eam Gulf First won the 7th edition of JK Tyre Orange 4X4 Fury, billed as one of India's toughest and most­exciting off­road competitions which concluded at Dambuk Valley, Arunachal Pradesh, recently.

The two­day event had many natural obstacles to be cleared for the title and the team, Gulf First, consisted of two vehicles with Shemi Musthafa, along with Rajeev Lal in one vehicle and Mohd Fahed VP and Harman Siraj, in the second. They won their maiden title with a total time of 05:05.05.

.

The defending champions from MOCA Namsai Arunachal led by Chow Tsengtsing Mein and Chow Jenindra Mantaw in first vehicle and Khanseng Mein and Purbajyoti Choudhury in second vehicle came second with 50­second difference.

MAY / JUNE 2022 autotrack.ind.in 23

JK TYRE 4X4 FURY

The team NIOC from Delhi NCR consisting of Bijender Singh and Gajender Singh in first vehicle while Eric Benny and Akash Gupta in second, came third a further 32 seconds behind. With a further difference of 1min 38sec, the team Hoot consisting of Rambabu Mareedu and Anvesh along with Venkat Devineni and Mahinder finished of local teams from the North­ Eastern region also fought for the coveted trophy. The edition was momentous with the first women participant, Aparna Umesh from Kerala challenging the stalwarts.

fourth.

The team of Jitender Singh and Sunny Jain in the first vehicle along with Rajat Tyagi and Daljit Singh in the second from NIOC, Delhi NCR finished fifth with a further difference of 42 seconds.

The team from Kottayam, R&T Offroad Club came sixth taking

24 autotrack.ind.in MAY / JUNE 2022

another 14 seconds to finish the course. The team was led by Gireesh Mathai and Manu Neerakal in first vehicle and Tijo Naduvakkadan and Niju Lal piloted the second.

Held in the back­drop of the famous 'Orange Festival of Adventure & Music' at Dambuk

in Arunachal Pradesh's Lower Dibang Valley, the two­day competition saw 12 teams participating from various parts like Kerala, Telangana, Karnataka, Chandigarh and Delhi in Open category which comprised of extreme­specified vehicles. An impressive number

Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu while giving away the awards said, “Orange Festival is an opportunity to showcase and promote eco­tourism activities which will ultimately help develop infrastructure of the region. On behalf of the state, I thank JK Tyre for promoting the rich heritage of not only Dambuk but of Arunachal Pradesh.”

The two­day event was flagged off by Abu Tayeng , Director Tourism, along with Gum Tayeng, MLA Dambuk. The festival strives to showcase Arunachal Pradesh as a tourist destination. The 4x4 Fury saw

DAMBUK, ARUNACHAL

teams negotiate natural obstacles like swamps, steep riverbanks, boulder­filled river beds and tracks through rainforests. Such was the route that on the first day itself, almost 80 per cent of the cars broke down and they all struggled to beat the boulders and rocks.

Intermittent rains and tracks along dry river beds added to the excitement and made it more challenging. Out of 24 cars, only 6 finished.

Aparna said: “Off­roading has always been perceived to be a male domain. This is a dream come true for me but it is yet

to sink in. We faced some mechanical issues due to which I couldn't do Stage 2 and 3. But nevertheless it was thrilling and I will be back again.”

This edition had a mass flag­off start to increase the competition and challenges in the fury. With every season the terrain changed and the stages have become more challenging due to the natural obstacles.

The night of Orange festival concluded with mesmerizing performances by local artistes.

Orange Festival is the first of its kind, where speed meets the music.

MAY / JUNE 2022 autotrack.ind.in 25

RALLY

WOMEN

WIAA WOMEN'S RALLY

RALLY TO THE VALLEY D

26 autotrack.ind.in MAY /JUNE 2022

C

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s usual, the Western India Automobile Association's (WIAA) annual rally coincided with the International Women's Day attracting major participation from women across the society. The theme of the rally was 'Be Strong, Be Safe'. JK Tyre presented the event. The rally was flagged off by Shri P S Ravi, ED, Retail I/C BPCL from Jio World, Bandra, Mumbai.

WIAA women's TSD car rally to the valley 2022 supports the cause of

MUMBAI TO NASHIK

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A: First flag was flagged off by Mrs. Zita Goenka, Mr Vivek Goenka, Preident WIAA, Shri Nitin Dossa­ Executive Chairman WIAA, Shri Pankaj Kumar­ Director Offshore ONGC; Mr. Sandeep Singh, Zonal Trade Manager, JK Tyre; Mr. PS Ravi, Executive Director, Retail UFILL­BPCL.

women's safety since this is an issue that needs urgent attention due to the number of growing attacks on women in recent times. The aim is to help women voice their safety concerns, to demand a safe city and create awareness amongst the people of the country to build a protective society for women.

The event saw women in action, not only in the rally but also taking an active part in fun and entertainment activities at the end of the rally organised by WIAA. What better way to celebrate the spirit of womanhood on International Women's Day.

B: Shri Kulwant Kumar Sarangal IPS­ Addl. Director General of Police Maharashtra awarded to the Special category Awards winner Ms. Jayeshree Shinde and team.

C: Shri Kulwant Kumar Sarangal IPS­ Addl. Director General of Police Maharashtra awarded the 1st Prize Winners WIAA Women's car TSD Rally Champions, Competition No. 19, Ms. Manisha Rishi Gaind­ Driver, Navigator­ Mallu Gupta & Vyshaley Thaker.

D: Shri Nitin Dossa­ Executive Chairman Western Indian Automobile Association awarded to Competition No. 4 for the Most Enthusiast Team

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RALLY

V I N TA G E

VINTAGE AND CLASSIC CAR RALLY

28 autotrack.ind.in MAY /JUNE 2022

MUMBAI

BEAUTIES ON MUMBAI STREETS T

he recently concluded Vintage and Classic fiesta was a treat to watch as automotive lovers caught a glimpse of the convoy of these beauties of vintage and classic cars and motorbikes as they zoomed past the streets of Mumbai was sponsored by MTDC. Vintage & Classic Car Club of India (VCCCI) annual Vintage Car Fiesta was held on 10th April 2022 at World Trade Centre, Mumbai.

Aaditya Thackeray, Hon. Minister of Tourism, Government of Maharashtra was present to grace the occasion and flagged off the event. The annual Vintage Car Fiesta is supported by Maharashtra Tourism in Association with the Western India Automobile Association (WIAA). A total of 186 Vintage and Classic vehicles participated in the event.

MAY / JUNE 2022 autotrack.ind.in 29

N AT L

SUPERCROSS

CD Jinan

hogs limelight in the Supercross Nationals

The MRF MoGrip Championship begins with a bang after a 2-year COVID break PHOTOGRAPHY : DIVYESH

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he much­awaited MRF Supercross took off after a span of two years with Petronas TVS Racing Rider CD Jinan winning the Round 1 of the MRF Mogrip Supercross Championship organised by God Speed Racing took at Nashik recently.

SX1 Group A 2/4 stroke upto 500cc:

Keralite CD Jinan from Petronas TVS Racing, riding a TVS RTR300, 3O autotrack.ind.in MAY / JUNE 2022

won with 37 points from two motos beating his teammate Rugved Barguje who garnered 33 points. Mahesh VM, a privateer from Thrissur, with 30 points completed the podium.

Bengaluru boy representing Petronas TVS Racing Prajwal V with 28 points finished fourth while his teammate Ikshan Shanbhag from Satara with 24 points was fifth.

In Moto1, Rugved Barguje astride a TVS RTR 300 from

Petronas TVS Racing in his home state won the class, followed by his team mate CD Jinan in second position also on a TVS RTR 300. Mahesh VM from Thrissur finished third riding a KX 250F. Petronas TVS Racing team's Ikshan Shanbhag from Satara had a bad start and further saw two riders crash ahead of him which forced him to lose places. However, he started taking on the riders in front of him and finished fourth ahead of Prajwal V from

Bengaluru who finished fifth despite a crash in one of the jumps.

In Moto 2, CD Jinan managed to take the top slot while the young and upcoming rider from Bengaluru, Prajwal began in sixth position after a bad start. But Prajwal managed to overtake everyone ahead hi except the Keralite and finished second.

Mahesh VM finished third for the second time in a row. Moto 1 winner Rugved had a crash

R1, NASHIK

Winner CD Jinan

alongside Ikshan in the first lap and managed to join again but could only finish fourth. Ikshan Shanbhag finished fifth.

SX2, Group A 2/4 stroke upto 500cc:

Ajay Srinivas from Bengaluru, riding a KX 250, was the winner with 32 points. Jinendra Sahgave, the rider from Khalkaranji riding a KX 250, came

second, slipping the top slot by a mere one point. Dwayne Johannes from Mumbai, riding a Honda CR, came third with 28 points. Manikandan, riding a KX 250 from Coimbatore finished fourth with 24 points. Bhumic Lalwani from Mount Abu riding a KX 250 finished in fifth position with 21 points.

In Moto1, Jinendra was the winner of this moto followed by

Mahesh VM and Dwayne Johannes in action in class 2

Manikanadan in second position while Ajay completed the podium. Dwayne finished fourth and Bhumic finished seventh. In Moto 2 Ajay finished in second position. Dwayne finished third.

Bhumic came fourth and Moto 1 winner, Jinendra, had a fall at the start and then had to ignite the stalled bike and move on. He could only manage to climb up the position from last to fifth.

Manikandan finished eighth.

Ajay Srinivas MAY / JUNE 2022 autotrack.ind.in 31

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SUPERCROSS

Class 2 action Dwayne and Manikandan

Novice Group C 2/4 stroke upto 260cc:

Banteilang Jerwa from Petronas TVS riding a TVS RTR 200 won the class followed by Abhi S Nath from Thrissur on a Hero Impulse.

Arun T from Hassan, astride a Hero Impulse finished third.

Sachin D from Petronas TVS Racing riding a TVS RTR 200 finished fourth. Karan Kumar M, riding a Hero Impulse, from Coimbatore finished fifth.

Locals Group B 2/4 stroke upto 260cc:

Jinendra Sangave from Petronas TVS Racing team, riding a TVS RTR 200, was the winner followed by Pinkesh Thakkar from Pune, astride a Hero

Impulse. Russel Jossy from Mumbai, riding a Hero Xpulse, managed to finish the podium.

Shaikh Jibran on a Hero Impulse, from Aurangabad, finished fourth while Rajesh Swami, also riding a Hero Impulse finished fifth.

Indian Expert Group C 2/4 stroke upto 260cc:

Bengaluru boy Sachin D from Petronas TVS racing on an RTR 300 won the race. Asaruddin S from Coimbatore, riding a Hero Impulse, finished second.

Another rider from Coimbatore on a Hero Impulse, Karan Kumar M, finished third. Abhi S Nath from Thrissur, also riding a Hero Impulse, stood fourth. Nataraj R,

Shlok Ghorpade winner class 7 32 autotrack.ind.in MAY / JUNE 2022

Arun T winner class 6

Aleena Shaikh first runner­up class 8

Asaruddin and Karan Kumar

R1, NASHIK

third. Anastya came fourth. In the second Moto, Shlok finished first followed by Jinendra and Anastya in that order. Sujan settled for fourth.

JR SX2 Group A 2/4 stroke Upto 100cc:

Darshit Chavan and Yash Shinde in class 8

from Petronas TVS, riding an RTR 200, was running third but had a vehicle stalled in front of him in the first corner before the jump and he had nowhere to go and finished in fifth position.

Private Experts Group C 2/4 stroke upto 260cc:

Arun T from Hassan won the class. All the riders were riding a Hero Impulse in this class.

Asaruddin S from Coimbatore finished second. Abhi S Nath from Thrissur finished third.

Sabrish R from Coimbatore came fourth and Karan Kumar, also from Coimbatore, took fifth place.

Class 1 action CD Jinan and Rugved Barguje

Akshat Hupale from Pune, riding a KTMSX 85, won with 33 points.

Aleena Shaikh from Bengaluru, astride a Hasquarna finished second with a difference two points. Bhairav C from Bengaluru, riding a KTM SX65, finished third with 30 points, just a point behind Aleena. Darshit Chavan from Pune with 28 points came fourth on a KTM SX65.

Yash Shinde from Pune with 25 points came fourth riding a KTM Sx65. In Moto 1, Aleena finished on top followed by Bhairav who scaled up after starting from 5th in the first corner. Akshat finished in fourth position.

Darshit finished fifth followed by Yash in sixth.

In Moto2, Akshat was the winner followed by Darshit in second while Yash finished third.

Bhairav, who was running first till the last lap had a crash in the last corner but recovered to finished fourth ahead of Aleena, who saw her vehicle stall at the start gate itself. After struggling with push start, somehow she managed to start and finished fifth.

JR SX1 Group A 2.4 stroke upto 250cc:

Satara Rider Shlok Ghorpade, riding a KTM125, won both the Motos to top with 40 points.

Jinendra Sangave from Khal Karanji, astride a KX250 without any seat time, finished second with 34 points. He is yet to get used to the bike. Anastya Pol from Bengaluru, riding a KX100, came third with 28 points. Sujan J from Coimbatore, on a KX100, finished fourth with 28 points.

In first Moto, Shlok was the topper followed by Jinendra in second while Sujan finished

Class 3 Abhi S Nath MAY / JUNE 2022 autotrack.ind.in 33

RCPSDC

Encouraging

response by Industries to RCPSDC Skill Meet

T

he Skill Meet organized

by Rubber, Chemical and Petrochemical Skill Development Council (RCPSDC) elicited keen interest from the participating industries in fulfilling the requirements of skilled individuals across all three verticals.

Dr Ashrita Tripathi, Head Training & QA at RCPSDC provided an overview of the role of RCPSDC as a sector skill council in terms of skilling and upskilling. Especially, she apprised the attending delegates on projects involving Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL), National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS) and CSR projects where the industry has benefited to a large extent.

34 autotrack.ind.in MAY / JUNE 2022

Ms Deepmala Moorjani who leads the Industry Engagements at RCPSDC said "So far over 7,000 apprentices have been enrolled in nearly 600 rubber

establishments in the country.

Gujarat, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Karnataka are the five leading states where rubber manufacturing units

have hired the maximum number of apprentices. Ms Moorjani encouraged the industries to engage with RCPSDC for Industry paid RPL

programs and CSR projects. She also described the flagship programs of RCPSDC. Firstly, the RPL project 'Saamarth' which has been a trailblazer of sorts. Over one lakh people have been reskilled under the Saamarth project in the job role of “Tyre Service and Maintenance” leading to unique outcomes. Another flagship program, 'Utthaan', aims at upskilling the workforce in plastic waste segregation, processing and recycling job roles through Mobile Skill Vans.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Jan Ebben, Apprenticeship Advisor, NSDC advocated strongly in favour of apprenticeship.

According to him, Apprenticeship establishes an internal pool of skilled candidates, reduces the cost of external recruitment and results in high productivity and high retention.

SKILL MEET

RCPSDC

Showcases 2.5 lakh Skill trainings in the National Rubber Conference 2022

Dr A K Mathur, Vice Chairman at Indian Rubber Institute said that “RCPSDC is playing an important role by helping the candidates to get trained and certified in the appropriate skills, leading to employment opportunities in the Rubber or allied industry. Also, the placement portal launched by RCPSDC is a much required tool at this hour which will benefit the entire Rubber & Plastic ecosystem.”

The Skill Meet at Faridabad was done in association with the Prerna Group. During the meet, RCPSDC also exchanged an MoU with Prerna Group for the training of candidates under RPL Paid programs for various job roles of the Rubber & Plastic sector across the country.

R

CPSDC has completed over 2.5 lakh skill trainings in 9 years of its existence. As the organization steps up its skilling drive in the 10th year, rubber industries especially the MSME sector is poised to be the largest beneficiary, said Ms Deepmala Moorjani, Senior Manager­ Industry Engagement, RCPSDC while presenting a session on Skilling opportunities in the Rubber sector at National Rubber Conference (NRC) 2022 held in Gurgaon

by AlRIA. A large number of Rubber Industry CEOs and top managers attending the NRC expressed keen interest in understanding various opportunities available to upskill their workforce and the positive spinoffs. Through extensive deliberations with the industry and understanding their needs acutely, RCPSDC has developed 116 National Occupational Standards (NOS) for manufacturing job roles (for Tyre, Non­

Tyre & Tyre Service segments) and 32 NOS for Natural Rubber Plantation Segment.

Skill Gap Analysis is fundamental to the launch of relevant training programmes.

Skill Gap Analysis has been conducted

by RCPSDC across 21 states in the Manufacturing and Plantation sectors.

Acting as a bridge between academia and the industry, RCPSDC has facilitated the launch of Bachelor in Vocational Studies (B. Voc) in Rubber Technology and Dual Certification courses across 15 colleges & universities.

During the session, Ms Deepmala urged the assembled corporates to partner with RCPSDC for CSR projects aimed at skill training. She discussed at length a few such projects successfully executed by certain corporates leading to contribute to nation­building besides national recognition.

MAY / JUNE 2022 autotrack.ind.in 35

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ATMA

ith pandemic restrictions waning and mobility levels reaching pre­Covid levels, Tyre Industry has stepped up Tyre Care & Safety drives across the country . New associations have been forged by Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA) with some of the leading organisations for spread of Tyre Safety amongst the motorists.

Indian Tyre Technical Advisory Committee (ITTAC), the technical arm of ATMA has been taking the lead in these drives.

“As more people take to roads with road traffic reminiscent of pre­Covid days, we have resumed activity to reach out to motorists in some of India's leading organisations to sensitise them on the importance of tyres”, said Mr V K Misra, Chairman ITTAC.

V K Misra, Chairman ITTAC

ATMA-ITTAC step up tyre safety drives as mobility levels go up Tyre Safety Session underway at SSPU 36 autotrack.ind.in MAY / JUNE 2022

A large number of students of Symbiosis Skills and Professional University (SSPU) Pune assembled for an interactive session on Tyre Care & safety. For students of Automotive engineering, the session on tyres and tyre safety held special importance. “ Tyres are critical for safety on the roads but unfortunately one of the most overlooked components in a vehicle. The session by ATMA & ITTAC helped in elevating the stature of tyres as pivotal components, said Dr. Charudatta Subhash Pathak, Professor &

TYRE SAFETY DRIVE

Director of School of Automobile Engineering at SSPU.

Mr. Sudershan S Gusain, Vice Chairman – ITTAC and Convener Safety Sub­Committee of ATMA was the principal speaker who held the interest of young students through a stimulating presentation followed by quiz and Q&A.

In another mega outreach exercise, nearly 400 engineers of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's software major, took an afternoon off from software development to learn why tyres are 'mission critical' for safety. “Vehicle owners need to play their PART as far as tyre maintenance goes. PART is an acronym for Pressure, Alignment, Rotation and Tread, four vital aspects about tyres that could help make roads safer, journeys pleasant and boost fuel economy helping the environment”, said Mr Sudershan.

Instead of a theoretical presentation, the session progressed through a series of inquisitive questions such as “Where will you fit a pair of new tyres”, “When you should go for new tyres” leading to insightful understanding of tyres.

“The interest shown by TCS engineers and intelligent posers raised by them during tyre safety sessions, made the effort all the more worthwhile. We do hope more organisations will come on board”, said Mr Rajiv Budhraja, Director General ATMA.

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SUPERCROSS

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ugved Barguje of Petronas TVS Racing dominated the proceedings spearheading a successful TVS romp with a golden double in the feature event while young Jinendra Sangave and upcoming Prajwal Viswanath, too, bagged a brace in the MRF Mogrip National Supercross Bike Racing championship, a curtain raiser for the Nationals, which attracted a crowd of over 30,000 at the Budha Para Outdoor Stadium under floodlights in Chhattisgarh in March.

Passionately organised by Chhattisgarh Motor Sports Association (CGMSA) to promote tourism and adventure, the tiny state rose to the occasion and hosted a glittering gala as the cream of Supercross talent from all over the country descended on the State capital. The Chief Minister of Chhattisgrah, Bhupesh Baghel, who arrived on a motorcycle, into the packed stadium to a standing ovation, to inaugurate the mega event and, Supercross was back with a bang after a two­ year hiatus due to the pandemic.

Astride a TVS RTR 300, the 21­ year Barguje, took the hole shot in both the motos and withstood immense pressure from veteran CD Jinnan of Thrussur to bag the feature event with 40 points. The under­16 and 2016 Foreign Open champion, who graduated to the top class, won the first moto comfortably to lead the TVS campaign.

Rugved sparkles with a golden double

Chhattisgarh extravaganza brings back Supercross to life after a 2-year hiatus

38 autotrack.ind.in MAY / JUNE 2022

TVS Racing also bagged the prestigious Indian Experts class with Imran Pasha of Mysuru beating teammate and former National champion R Nataraj.

Arun T (Hassan) took the bronze to make it an all­Karnataka affair.

Jinendra Sangave, 12, from Kolhapur displayed his wares with superb bike control to not only win both the Junior SX1 but punched about his weight, getting a podium in the Foreign Open SX2 class. Bengaluru's Prajwal V, son of former bike

RAIPUR

managed to finish third pushing Ikshan to fourth.

champion TK Viswanath, got his golden double in the SX2, the Foreign Open class. Meanwhile, Akshat Hupale of Pune, making his debut in a major event, also claimed two gold in the Junior SX2 while Arun from Hassan, Banteiling from Shillong and Kamendra Saho from Raipur won their classes.

the government, made it a huge success,” Shyam Kothari, an yester­year star legend and 7­ time National champion, is the brain behind the Supercross championships in India.

Secretary, Chhattisgarh Motor Sports Association, Umesh Bansi said: “It is the endeavour of CGMSA to promote motorsports and, Supercross with freestyle jumps fitted the bill. Thanks to the support from the government, the event became a roaring success promoting tourism and adventure. We thank the Chief Minister, Tourism Department, MRF and all the riders and teams as Raipur establishes itself in the motorsports map of India.”

Rugved won Moto 1 with ease.

Right from the first corner, he dominated the class with a huge lead. From the third lap onwards, it was the fight for the second position between the young Prajwal and the experienced CD Jinan. In the next lap Jinan succeeded in going past him and with two laps to go, Prajwal had a fall and Javed Shaikh from Goa went past him to finish in third position. Prajwal recovered to finish fourth and young Ikshan Shanbhag finished fifth.

Russian Freestyle Motocross experts and stunt riders thrilled the spectators with amazing acrobatics and super stunts jumping over 50 feet in the sky.

Class 1 – SX Foreign Open Class (2 motos): Rugved Barguje from Pune representing TVS Racing won to fetch 40 points while his teammate from Thrissur, CD Jinnan, with 34 points finished second. Bengaluru boy Prajwal V, a privateer, finished third with 28 points.

“Indian motorsports has not seen an event of this magnitude.

It was meticulously organised and the we are having Super­ cross in an outdoor stadium after many years. The huge crowds and the enormous support from

In Moto 2, Rugved once again took off to a good start and won in the closely­fought race.

He was followed by Ikshan Shanbhag till the last two laps but the neck­and­neck fight between Ikshan and Jinan ended

in the last two laps as Jinan sneaked past Ikshan to take the second position. Meanwhile, Prajwal who was very closely mending ways with Jinan, started closing the gap on Ikshan and in the penultimate corner he

Class 2 – Novice Group C (1 Moto): Sachin D got a good start but Jerwa from Shillong rode past him in the very first corner and even Jayden took off well from the corner after the pileup, followed by Akib Zaman and Diganta Baruah. After the first crash, Akib and Diganta were locked with each other and in the second crash Jayden, who restarted after his vehicle stalled, had another incident with Darren and the vehicles jammed against each other. Jayden once again started but fell behind all.

Banteilang Jerwa representing TVS Racing won followed by his teammate Sachin D who was on his neck till the end and had to be content with a second place.

Anthony, also from Shillong, finished third. Anand Mesram and Mangal Patidar finished in fourth and fifth positions, respectively.

N AT L

SUPERCROSS

Class 3 – Junior SX2 (2 motos): Akshat Hupale from Pune won the Junior SX2 with 40 points followed by three riders who were tied on 28 points. Dev Agastya from Bengaluru, Yash Shinde from Pune and Aleena Shaikh from Bengaluru.

In Moto 1, Akshat Hupale from Pune took the hole shot and was comfortably taking the double jumps and won with a huge lead.

Aleena Shaikh from Bengaluru held on to her second position right from the start. Yash Shinde finished third while Dev Agastya finished fifth.

In Moto 2, Akshat Hupale dominated the race for the second time and won it with ease. He was followed by Dev Agastya in second and Bhairav Gowda completed the podium.

Yash Shinde was fourth and Aleena Shaikh came fifth.

Class 4 – Local Class Group B: The Local class was dominated

by Raipur riders. Kamendra Saho took the victory followed by Premnath Yadav in second position and Praveen Yadav in third.

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Class 5 – Indian Experts Class C Imran Pasha from Mysuru representing TVS Racing got off to a good start. Though he had his teammate R Nataraj on his neck till the finish, he never gave him an opportunity to overtake.

Imran, thus finished on top, followed by Nataraj from Bengaluru in second. Arun from Hassan was in third position right from the first corner but after the

third lap, he had Banteilang Jerwa alongside him for some time. But Jerwa in the process of overtaking crashed and there on Arun finished third. Kali Mohan from Coimbatore and Sachin D from Bengaluru finished in fourth and fifth positions .

Class 6 – Private Experts Group C (1 moto): Arun from Hassan was the winner in the Private

Experts class. He got off to a good start and held on to it.

Jayden WN from Shillong finished second and Darren DK, also from Shillong, finished third.

Class 7 – SX2 FOREIGN OPEN Class Group A (2 motos): Prajwal V from Bengaluru won both the Motos and with 40 points was the winner in this top

hold on to the threats from the youngsters who were after him. Prajwal managed to go past him in the very first lap and there on it was no looking back for the youngster. He comfortably increased his lead but the attention turned towards the fight for second position between Jatin and Jinendra for two laps. Finally in the third lap, Jinendra moved into second position and started closing in on Prajwal. But the winner, Prajwal managed to stay calm and crossed the finish line first. Jinendra Sangave finished second while Jatin Jain completed the podium. Tanika Shanbagh, the lone girl in the class, managed to finish fourth.

class. Jinendra Sangave from Kolhapur with 32 points stood second and the Nagpur rider Jatin Jain finished third.

In first Moto, Jatin began well but was unable to

In Moto 2, Ajay Srinivas took the lead in the first lap but there was a great fight between Ajay, Prajwal and Jinendra. Prajwal was successful in the second lap to go past Ajay and lead the race there on. He also extended the lead. Later, the real thrill of the day was the fight for second position between Ajay and Jinendra, which went on till the end. Jinendra tried to overtake a couple of times but was not successful and had to finish behind Ajay in third place.

RAIPUR

Jatin Jain finished fourth and Tanika Shanbhag finished fifth.

Class 8 – Junior SX1 (2 Motos): Jinendra Sangave, a privateer from Kolhapur, won both the motos and with 40 points topped the class. Jayden WN from Shillong finished second with 34 points and Mangal Patidar from Indore finished third with 28 points.

In Moto 1, Jinendra had a good start and in the very first jump he took on Jayden and started extending the lead. By the end, he had established in a very comfortable position for the win. Jayden was also at his best and finished in second position.

Bengaluru girl, Anastya Paul, finished in third position. Mangal Patidar finished fourth followed by Akshat Hupale in fifth position.

In Moto 2, Jinendra Sangave from Kolhapur won as he held on to this position right from start. Jayden finished second and Mangal Patidar followed him in third.

Akshat Hupale missed the podium and finished fourth and Anastya Pol had to be content with fifth.

MAY / JUNE 2022 autotrack.ind.in 41

RIDE

An Event to Smash Stereotypes

"Hero" has been a part of our lives for more than 2 decades. With its first CD100 motorcycle under the brand name "Hero Honda", they've always attempted to cater to the masses. They aim to make commuting easy and affordable for all. But what makes Hero Motocorp a great brand is that they've always strived to break barriers. It is a company with a 46% market share in the two­wheeler sector, a massive number for a country of 1.39 billion population. In the past few years, they've managed to make an enormous difference in the life of the Indian Woman.

They have made Indian women bold and independent by introducing a 42 autotrack.ind.in MAY /JUNE 2022

#ladkichalarahihai campaign to make sure that Indian roads are safe and judgment­free for women riders.

This year marks the completion of 21 years of Good Life. They organised an International Women's Day ride exclusively for women riders to celebrate their achievements. A 21 km rally with 21 women riders in 21 cities across India.

Women are mostly considered to be a pillion. This was an effort to bring the women riders to the limelight and gear through the roads of India.

One such rider from Vadodara leads the rally on their Hero Xpluse.

Tejaswita Joshi was the lead rider for

INTL, WOMEN’S DAY

presence cannot be ignored on the road. The focus was on creating awareness about road safety by informing about the precautions and safety measures that should be considered while riding a two­wheeler. And above all, the idea of enjoying and being independent without worrying about the opinions of society was promoted.

In the male­dominated motorbiking industry, Hero Motocorp is breaking the barriers by celebrating the women who believe in bringing a change by crushing the gender stereotypes.

the Vadodara city event. A lady with an igniting passion for motorbiking is an army officer's wife, a mother of 2 kids, with a full­time job as an HR manager with an international firm. What started off as a weekend hobby, she's on her way to touring the different parts of the country on her geared two­wheeler.

It's not just her. This event brought many such women riders together on their geared and non geared two wheelers to celebrate their achievements.

Irrespective of their background, class, and religion, every woman rider needs to be applauded for showing courage and making progress to make a difference.

Whether getting from home to the office or dropping off the kids at school, women riders'

Women are mostly considered to be a pillion. This was an effort to bring the women riders to the limelight and gear through the roads of India.

But what makes Hero Motocorp a great brand is that they've always strived to break barriers. It is a company with a 46% market share in the two­wheeler sector, a massive number for a country of 1.39 billion population. In the past few years, they've managed to make an enormous difference in the life of the Indian Woman.

DIRT

OBSTACLES

Shardul, only Indian on podium

Peru Arbulu wins the RedBull Ace of Dirt event at Big Rock

I

nternational rider Peru Irazola Arbulu, who was part of the event won while Sandra Gomez Cantero finished second and Indian rider Shardul finished third in the third edition of REDBULL Ace of Dirt that opened to international riders for the first time at the Big Rock facility in Kolar, near Bengaluru, in March end.

The 2­km route with multiple back­to­back created obstacles had also some natural barriers that were part of the menu for the two­day event. The obstacles for completing the lap were really tough and challenging and were filled with boulders too.

Peru had a comfortable race clocking a total time of 18min 44 autotrack.ind.in MAY / JUNE 2022

Yuva Kumar in action

KOLAR

Lady rider Sandra with fans

49.578sec for a deserved victory.

He also clocked the fastest lap time twice at an identical 1:56.238 in the second lap and the last lap. Lady rider Sandra was the fastest in one of the laps with 01:50.621 and managed to complete in second position with a total time of 21:59.117.

She was consistent, within just over 2 min, but once she even slipped over three minutes for a lap, despite which she came second.

Shardul, the only Indian rider managed to be on the podium with a total time of 22:49.156. He finish third. Arunas Gelazninkas, who took another 30sec to complete the course settled for fourth. He finished one of the laps in 05:39.141 which proved costly for his placing.

Hero Motosports rider Sathyaraj, finished fifth with a difference of 2min 38sec. Samuel Abraham was a further 30­sec behind and had to settle for sixth. Yuva Kumar from Hero Motosports finished seventh. Sanjay Somashekar took another 57 seconds to finish the race in eighth place. Asad Khan was ninth while the remaining six riders failed to finish (DNF).

Adnan Ahmed, Mahesh VM, Amal Vargheese, Arun T, Pavan BK, Yogesh and Mohammed Israr were all in that group.

Adnan, Mal and Yogesh were the first to pull out. Mahesh had to exit in third lap. Arun T withdrew in 5th lap, Pavan in 6th lap and Israr fell out in 8th lap.

After the Day 1 practice, the final day initial qualifying had ten participants. Each of the six qualifiers had to be shortlisted into four heats of eight each to be part of the 16 finalists.

In the two­lap second qualifying session, it was once again Peru on top with a best lap time of 01:51.265. Sandra with the second­best lap tied at 01:56.914 finished second.

Arunas was two seconds behind.

Yuva Kumar was a further four seconds away while Mahesh VM took another eight seconds to qualify in top­five and they were part of the pre­final 32.

Heat 1: Nine participants were part of this heat. Peru was on top of the five­lap event, finishing the laps in just below ten

Winners Peru Arbulu, Sandra and Shardul

minutes. Sathyaraj and Mahesh were just above 11min and Arun T was in his 12th minute. All the above four were amongst the finalists. Five riders logged a DNF (Did not finish).

Heat 2: Sandra Gomez topped clocking under 11­minute time.

Sanjay Somashekar timed above 11 minutes. Amal Vargheese and Pavan BK finished above 13 minutes and there were five DNFs. Naresh VS pulled out after completing three laps.

Annefloor in the third lap, Pravith Pavithran and Ishaan Chandra in the very first lap also dropped out.

Heat 3: Arunas Gelazninkas was the quickest with an 11­minute

finish. Shardul was one minute behind. Asad Khan and Yogesh took over 16 minutes. Shivam Thakur pulled out in the fifth lap while Aditya Rajesh dropped out in fourth lap. Gideon was out in second lap and Azmath withdrew in the very first lap.

Heat 4: Samuel Abraham came in first with just over 12 minutes followed by Yuva Kumar in 13 min. Adnan Ahmed took 17 minutes and Mohammed Israr finished in 19 minutes to qualify for the finals. Goutham Rao Kadam pulled out in the third lap.

Russel Jossy made his exit in the second lap while Pradeep and Nihal Ghadkey did not finish as they were out of race in the very first lap.

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DRIVE

Exhilarating

46 autotrack.ind.in MAY /JUNE 2022

Experience with XL6

BENGALURU

The all new LED tail lamps with smoke grey lens, quad chamber LED6 boasts a powerful exterior sporting a bold front grille with sweeping X-bar element, machine-finished two-tone alloy wheels, fender side garnish with chrome element, shark fin antenna,3D XL reflector headlamps complimented with convenient features including SmartPlay Pro touchscreen infotainment system, in-built Suzuki Connect and 360 degree camera view.

Maruti Suzuki offers a complete package for the tech-savvy driver TEXT: AKSHAYA M

PICTURES: BOOTHEM SM

MAY / JUNE 2022 autotrack.ind.in 47

DRIVE We attended the media drive for the all­new Maruti Suzuki XL6 near Nandi hills on the outskirts of Bengaluru and it was indulgent.

M

aruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) has been on a journey of upgrading its models packing a punch in both looks and features. Before the new XL6, other models that benefitted from a revamp were the Celerio, the Baleno and the Ertiga. The XL6 is the second in line to sport the NEXA's Crafted Futurism design badge. The model stands comparison against its sibling, the Maruti Suzuki Ertiga, and its rivals the Kia Carens, the Mahindra Marazzo and the pricier Toyota Innova Crysta in the multi­purpose vehicle (MPV) segment.

We arrived at the at JW Marriott Prestige Golf Shire resort for the exclusive media drive in the afternoon.

Soon, we were assigned our slot with the new XL6 and the experience was interesting. The external design wise, the car has minor differences from the older version. These include the refreshed grille, chrome bar joining the LED DRLs in the headlamps and on the

48 autotrack.ind.in MAY /JUNE 2022

boot lid. The rear tail lamps get a smoked look. The XL6 now has bigger 16­inch wheels with metal finishing that fills the wheel arches better giving a proportionate appearance.

The interiors impress better in terms of the new tech features added to this model.

The 7.0­inch touchscreen is updated to the SmartPlay Pro UI with a refreshed UI offering more functionality. In terms of the connectivity tech, the XL6 gets Suzuki Connect App support, which opens up 40 new functions controlled from the comfort of the smartphone, along with Amazon Alexa integration, which includes a 'cool' feature like getting your car pre­cooled for you as it waits in the parking lot. The new TPMS (tyre pressure monitoring system) and the 360­degree camera are both very impressive as we tested in the rough gravelly road on the outskirts of Bengaluru. Despite all this, we still noticed the lack of more USB ports, there is just a single one at the front.

The 6­seater cabin with captain seats in the middle row add to

the premium­ness in the MPV. The steering has a handy mechanical improvement with a telescopic function, in addition to the tilt, which helps find a better driving position. The highlight is the ventilated front seats along with the perforated leatherette cooled seats. The second row gets roof mounted AC vents with large captain's chairs and ample legroom to stretch with a convenient headroom. While the ease of flexibility is also extended to the third and last row, there is an obvious lack of AC vents for the back row and could get stifling.

The boot area is a little cramped but can be extended by folding down the back seats and opening up the space to a practical 550 litres.

BENGALURU

The XL6 has improved safety function with four airbags as a standard across all variants along with ABS with EBD, ESP and hill­ hold assist. With bonus features like UV cut glass windows, foot lamp illumination, multi­ information instrument cluster, door courtesy lamp and auto ORVMs, the XL6 is targeting a premium class of customer and we appreciate that!

MAY / JUNE 2022 autotrack.ind.in 49

RALLY SJOBA

Shardul Sharma astride a Duke 500 triumphs Yuva Kumar fades out to second after dominating Day 1; Aakash Aithal finishes third

PHOTO: MANANVIR SINGH

S

hardul Sharma riding a KTM Duke 500 from Harjee Motorsports won the Moto Open A, B, C up to 500cc class with a total time of 01:41:41.000 in the SJOBA Rally at Chandigarh recently. The 130kms Competitive stages were cutting across Ropar, Hoshiarpur, Garhshankar and returned to Chandigarh.

Yuva Kumar, riding a Hero Xpulse from Hero Motosports, with a difference of 3min 40 seconds dominated Day 1 with a 14­sec lead but lost considerable amount of time, close to 10min on Day 2. And on the final day, he made up 2min 26sec but could not overcome the Day 2 loss of time and he had to finish in second position. Aakash Aithal

from Mangaluru, also riding a KTM Adventure 390, finished third with less than ten­minutes further deficit.

Prasanta Barik riding a Hero Xpulse with a 11min 24sec further difference came fourth.

Capt Jaipreet Joshi riding a Hero Karizma was another 16min 27sec behind in fifth. Rakesh Kumar from Bengaluru, riding a

Yuva Kumar in action

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Hero Impulse, with a further difference of 10min 38sec finished sixth.

C2 166cc­450cc: Mohit Thakur riding a Hero Xpulse from Harjee Motorsports won with a total time of 01:49:25.700 followed by Vijay Kumar Katoch, astride a Xpulse, 1min 40sec behind.

Sourab Handa, riding a Hero Xpulse, came third taking

CHANDIGARH

Class 1 winner

another 6min 39sec. He did well in the first and third day but lost over 6 minutes on the second day. Gagnesh Neil with a 1min 7sec difference missed the podium. Kanwaljeet Singh riding a Hero Xpulse settled for fifth another 3min 32sec behind.

C3 UPTO 165cc: Gurjinder Singh riding a Hero Impulse was the topper of the class with a total time of 02:03:04.800.

Durgesh J from Mysuru riding a Hero Impulse 33sec behind and had to settle for second.

Manmeet Singh Dhanjal came third on a Hero Impulse with less than three minutes deficit.

Vikas Thakur was fourth taking another 1min 57sec to complete the course. Vishal Das with over 30min further difference was fifth.

Class 3 winner

C4 STOCK UPTO 450cc: Suhail Ahmed from Bengaluru with a total time of 01:46:00.500 was the winner followed by Sathyaraj A from Hero Motosports who finished 1min

20sec later. Nitish Bhardwaj was another 2min 56sec behind in third. Rana Partap with over 8­ min further difference was fourth and Eshan Banodkar came fifth another 1min 21sec away from fourth.

Capt Ajay Vir Singh Gill along with co­driver Virender Kashyap, privateers, won the SJOBA rally for 4­wheelers with a total time of 02hours, 09minutes and 24.300seconds to take the overall honours.

Harvinder Bhola and co­driver Chirag Thakur from Harjee Motorsports who were 26 seconds behind settled for second position while the pair of Sanjay Razdan and navigator Karan Aukta, also from Harjee Motorsports, came third with a further 6min 03sec difference to complete the podium. Manoj Kumar Malhotra and co­driver Amardeep Rana were fourth with a difference of another 3min 52sec. Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary and co­driver Venu Ramesh Kumar with 5min 12sec further deficit finished fifth.

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RALLY

NATIONALS

KARNA KADUR snatches dramatic win in a tight finish

52 autotrack.ind.in MAY / JUNE 2022

R1, CHENNAI

Early exit for Gaurav Gill as 2022 motorsports season begins with INRC PHOTO BY: SRINIVASA KRISHNAN & KRISHANU CHATTERJEE

B

engalureans Karna Kadur and co­driver Nikhil Pai supported by MRF Tyres survived a titanic battle to win the 45th South India Rally which doubled up as the first round of the Blue Band Sports fmsci Indian National Rally Championship 2022 supported by MRF at Chennai.

The first round of the 2022 INRC­ 4W season, saw the early exit of seven­times National champion Gaurav Gill and Musa Sherif, supported by JK Tyre, in a Mahindra XUV300 due to a mechanical problem.

Kadur put his right foot down when it mattered most in the last of the nine Special Stages. On Sunday, he beat the ever­ charging Mangalurean Dean Mascarenhas (Co­driver Gagan Karumbaiah, Kodagu) by 4.6 seconds after a see­saw battle.

The 2021 National champion Aditya Thakur (Virender Kashyap) of Chettinad Sporting did just enough to finish third Overall, 53.3 seconds behind Mascarenhas.

Kadur, who enjoyed a 2.9

seconds overnight lead over Mascarenhas, stretched the gap by another two in Sunday's first Stage (SS­6). However, Mascarenhas charged back in SS­7 by making six seconds on Kadur to take a 2.9 secs lead while Thakur was content to hold position in third. Meanwhile, fancied Fabid Ahmer (Sanath G) from Palakkad, who was lying fourth overnight, retired due to a drive shaft issue.

After the service break, Kadur was at full throttle to make 2.6sec on Mascarenhas in SS­8 for a slender 1.7 secs lead going into the final Stage. The Bangalurean then went even quicker to put another 2.9 secs over Mascarenhas to clinch the Overall title for a winning start to the 2022 season.

A relieved but happy Kadur said: “Yes, it was a close finish, and we are happy to win. We had some ongoing issues over the weekend but we managed to nurse the car to the finish as we had no time to sort out or figure out the problems.”

MAY / JUNE 2022 autotrack.ind.in 53

RALLY

NATIONALS

When asked about his feelings at the start of the final Stage with just 1.7 seconds lead, Kadur said: “Dean and I were actually sitting together and having a good laugh as the start of the Stage was delayed by about half­an­ hour. But I knew I had something in reserve for the final push. I kept my calm and did what I had to do to win.”

The Stewards late Sunday disqualified six competitors whose cars did not comply with technical regulations during the post­event scrutiny.

Those disqualified included Dean Mascarenhas, who had "finished" second Overall and first in INRC­2 category, Jahaan Singh Gill (Snap Racing), winner in INRC­3 and Junior INRC categories, Suhem Kabeer, Arnav Pratap Singh (Snap Racing), Prakyat Shirole and Yeshwant Padala.

After the scrutiny, the Technical Delegate reported that the cars of the six competitors did not “conform to technical regulations”. Based on this report and after summoning the competitors for a hearing, the

Junior INRC first runner­up Pragati Gowda and Trisha Jagannath

INRC 3 winners Kuber Sharma and Kunal Kashyap 54 autotrack.ind.in MAY / JUNE 2022

Stewards decided to disqualify the six drivers.

Overall / INRC: Karna Kadur and Nikhil Pai both from Bengaluru supported by MRF Tyres driving a VW Polo 1L Turbo tuned by Arka Motorsports with a total time of 01hr, 44mins, 52.700secs won the first round. Defending champions Aditya Thakur and Virender Kashyap from Himachal Pradesh, supported by MRF Tyres, driving a VW Polo tuned

by Chettinad Sporting came second with a difference of 58seconds. Chetan Shivram and Dilip Sharan, the Bengaluru brothers, driving a VW Polo supported by Yokohama Tyres tuned by SNAP Racing finished third with a further difference of 2min 1sec.

The winners before the disqualifying decision for the cars that didn't “conform to technical regulations” were Karna Kadur and Nikhil Pai followed by Dean Mascarenhas from Mangaluru and Gagan Karumbaiah from Kodagu in second. Dean and Gagan were supported by JK Tyre in a VW Polo tuned by DB Motorsports.

They finished second just 4secs behind the leaders but third­

placed Aditya and Virender who finished third with a further difference of 53sec were promoted to second.

Day 1: Karna had a mere 2.9­ seconds lead over Dean while Aditya was running third with a 10­sec deficit. But the major setback was for Gaurav who had to pull out in the very second stage due to drive­shaft issues.

INRC­2: Aditya Thakur and Virender Kashyap were the winners, followed by Chetan Shivram and Dilip Sharan in second position.

The pair of Harikrishan Wadia from Delhi and Amber Udasi from Chandigarh, supported by JK Tyre, and driving a Honda City V­Tec tuned by Arka Motorsports, came third a further 1min 38sec behind second.

The winners before the disqualification for the cars that didn't “conform to technical regulations” were the pair of Dean Mascarenhas and Karumbiah by clocking 01:44:57.300 in first place followed by Aditya and Kashyap in second position with a difference of 53sec. The pair of Suhem Kabeer from Kodagu and Jeeva Rathinam from Bengaluru, supported by JK Tyre, driving a VW Polo tuned by DB

Motorsports, were third 48sec behind second.

Day 1: Dean (Gagan) was the leader with a 10­second lead over Aditya (Virender) who was running second. The pair of Fabid Ahmer and Sanath G both from Palakkad driving a VW Polo tuned by Chettinad Sporting were in third with a five­minute deficit.

INRC­3: The pair of Kuber Sharma and Kunal Kashyap both from Himachal Pradesh supported by JK Tyre driving a VW Polo tuned

by Kari Sports clocked a total time of 01:49:25.200 to win the class. Daraius Neville Shroff from Delhi and co­driver Arjun Dheerendra from Bengaluru driving a VW polo from Slideways Industries finished in second position with a difference of 50 seconds. Aniruddh Ranganekar from Mumbai and co­driver Milen George from Kottayam driving a VW Polo from Slideways Industries came third another 3min 19sec behind.

The winners before the disqualifying decision, for the cars didn't “conform to technical regulations” were Jahaan Singh Gill from Chandigarh and Suraj Keshava Prasad from Bengaluru, supported by JK Tyre driving a VW Polo from Snap Racing. They

R1, CHENNAI

INRC Overall winners

INRC 2 winners

Second runner­up of INRC 2 Harikrishan Wadia and Amber Udasi

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R1, CHENNAI

RALLY

NATIONALS

clocked a total time of 01:48:51.200. Kuber and Kunal were in second position with a difference of 34sec and Daraius and Arjun were in third position.

Day 1: Jahaan with a lead of 50 sec was leading followed by Kuber in second while Daraius was a further 8sec behind in third.

INRC­4: R up es h K hol ay and V arun Satyanarayan, both from Bengaluru driving a Honda City V­Tec clocked 02:01:45.000 to be the sole winner of the class.

The winners before the disqualifying decision for the cars that didn't “conform to technical regulations” were Prakhyat Shirole and Supreet S both from Bengaluru driving a Honda City V­Tec from Ammyfied Rallying. They clocked a total time of 01:55:23.200 before they were disqualified. Yeshwanth Padala from Hyderabad and Bharath SM from Bengaluru driving a Honda City V­Tec were in second position with a difference on 1min 02sec. Rupesh and Varun with a 5min 20sec further difference came third.

Day 1: Prakhyat with 36­sec lead was leading over Yeshwanth.

Deepak Chandra and GM Manjunath, both Bengaluru, were in third 2min 3sec behind on Saturday.

56 autotrack.ind.in MAY / JUNE 2022

Junior INRC The mother­and­daughter pair from Davangere Dr Shivani Pruthvi and Dr Deepti Pruthvi supported by JK Tyre driving a Honda City IV­Tec tuned by Race Concepts were the winners of the class with a total time of 01:54.15.500. The Bengaluru ladies pair of Pragathi Gowda and Trisha Jagannath supported

by MRF Tyres driving a VW Polo tuned by Arka Motorsports rejoined on Day 2, after they had to pull out on Day 1 in the second stage. With a difference of 34min 9sec they finished in second position.

The winners before the disqualifying decision for the cars that didn't “conform to technical regulations” were Jahaan Gill and Suraj supported

by JK Tyre. They clocked 01:48:41.500. Arnav Pratap Singh from Delhi and Arjun SSB from Bengaluru driving a VW Polo from Snap Racing finished second with a difference of 2min 6sec. Shivani and Deepti were 3min 38sec behind to finish third.

Day 1: Jahaan was the leader, with 58­sec lead over Shroff, while Arnav with a 24­sec further difference was running third at the end of Saturday.

Fmsci Gypsy Cup: Himanshu Arora from Delhi and Vikram Thakur from Chandigarh

Junior INRC winners Dr. Shivani Pruthvi and Dr. Deepti Pruthvi

FMSCI Gypsy Cup winners

INRC 3 winners

clocked 02:00:16.200 to win the class. They were followed by Darshan Nachappa from Bengaluru and Dr S Dinesh from Shivamogga from Ammyfied Rallying in second with a difference of 3min 22sec. The pair of Rajeev Yadav from Gurugram and Mohit Malik from Faridabad were a further 4min 17sec behind in third.

Day 1: Himamshu with a 53­sec lead was ahead of Sanjay Razdan from Srinagar and co­driver Karan Aukta from Shimla, who were in second on Saturday.

Darshan with a 1min 18sec further difference was running third.

For Gaurav Gill, his run of bad luck continued. “The drive

shaft got twisted in SS­2, just a km before the finish, may be due to metal fatigue. But the car was handling good till then. We also tested a new set of tyres on all the cars and we were doing 3/10ths faster and the performance of JK Tyres was really good. We will try and get the car back into action tomorrow to collect maximum leg points for the championship,” said

Gill who had to deal with similar issues last season too.

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Max Verstappen wins at Miami Charles leads F1 Driver standings; Ferrari fans back on streets in India

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PHOTO COURTESY: PIRELLI

ax Verstappen won the inaugural Miami Grand Prix to take the second spot in the Drivers' standing. He passed the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz and despite a late Safety Car that saw championship leader Leclerc put the defending champion under intense pressure in the closing stages of a thrilling race, Max won at the new Miami International Autodrome on May 8.

Verstappen's third win of the season was set­up at the race start. Pole sitter Leclerc made a good getaway to take the lead but Verstappen, on the clean side of the grid in P3, also got away well. As the field raced towards Turn 1, the Dutchman drew alongside second­placed Sainz, and taking a wide line into the first corner he held his line and his nerve to pass the Spaniard.

Pérez held fourth place behind Sainz while Valtteri Bottas claimed P5 for Alfa Romeo and AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly took sixth. Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton dropped back after locking up into Turn 1 behind Pérez and

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Pérez held fourth place behind Sainz while Valtteri Bottas claimed P5 for Alfa Romeo and AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly took sixth. Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton dropped back after locking up into Turn 1 behind Pérez and after he banged wheels with Alpine's Fernando Alonso who made a good start to briefly rise to seventh. Hamilton recovered quickly and when DRS was enabled he passed Alonso and then on lap six moved past Gasly to rise to sixth.

At the front, Verstappen shadowed Leclerc through the opening phase of the race and

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on lap eight he closed right up to the Ferrari down the long back straight. He couldn't make the move stick into Turn 17 but as they crossed the line to begin the next tour, Verstappen got DRS again and swept past the championship leader into Turn 1 to take the lead.

The Dutch driver quickly began to build a gap to the Ferrari driver and when Leclerc locked his front right midway through lap 12, the Dutchman's advantage extended to 2.5s.

Behind the leaders on lap 15, Sainz still led Pérez with the

Ferrari driver 1.8s ahead of the Red Bull. On lap 18 Pérez began to close in on Sainz and at the start of lap 20 he edged toward DRS range of the Spaniard but suddenly the Mexican's pace flagged and at the end of lap 20 he had dropped four seconds to the Ferrari.

Behind the top four, Bottas held fifth but as cars behind him made their first pit stops, Mercedes' George Russell, who had started on hard tyres, rose to sixth ahead of team­mate Hamilton who had made his first tyre change.

At the end of lap 24 Leclerc made his first visit to the pit lane and after taking on hard tyres he rejoined in fourth place, eight seconds behind Pérez.

Verstappen pitted at the end of lap 26 and in a 2.4s stop he took on hard tyres and emerged in P2, seven seconds behind new leader Sainz.

On lap 41, the shape of the race changed. Pierre Gasly went wide through two corners and after drifting off track slowly rejoined.

However, he failed to see Lando Norris behind and the two made contact. The McLaren driver's right rear tyre punctured and after spinning luridly he came to a halt in the middle of track. After a brief VSC the physical Safety Car was deployed.

In the end, the Dutch driver, Verstappen, took his third win of the season, and the point for fastest lap, almost four seconds ahead of Leclerc, while Sainz managed to hold off Pérez to take his ninth career podium with third place.

Behind Pérez, Russell passed Hamilton in the closing stages to take fifth place ahead of Hamilton and Bottas who made a mistake late on that allowed the Mercedes cars to pass. Alpine's Esteban Ocon benefited from a free stop under the Safety Car to rise from the back of the grid to eighth at the flag ahead of team­ mate Fernando Alonso and the final point went to Williams' Alex A l b o n .

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Bastianini switches on 'beast mode', flies closer to MotoGP lead

Jack Miller takes second at the seventh round in Le Mans ahead of Espargaro

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or the third time this season, Enea Bastianini has engaged Beast Mode. Another 25­point haul at the Shark Grand Prix de France sees the Gresini Racing rider move to within eight points of the top of the Championship, take another Independent Team win and make quite a statement at Le Mans in France on May 15.

After he and Francesco Bagnaia (Ducati Lenovo Team) had escaped to make it a duel for supremacy at Le Mans, the Beast struck for the lead and it wasn't long after that Pecco slid out of contention.. rider ok, but points haul taking a dent.

Enea Bastianini: “I'm really happy about this race, because it was also unexpected because the weekend started really complicated for me, with three crashes, a lot for me. Every time I'm consistent, but here it was really difficult. But in the race, I saw that my pace was really nice, like the group that was in front of me. At the end, when I saw Pecco very close, I understand, 'Okay, now you have to stay behind.' At the end, I tried to overtake him in the second corner to make Pecco a little bit nervous. In the end, he went long and I won this race. It's all for my team because they work a lot at this Grand Prix to give me the best bike and it's incredible, the job they did.”

Meanwhile, Jack Miller (Ducati Lenovo Team) maintained it as a Borgo Panigale 1­2, with Aprilia's Aleix Espargaro making it three premier class rostrums on the spin for the Noale factory for the first time ever – just denying home hero and reigning Champion Fabio Quartararo (Monster Energy Yamaha MotoGP).

The atmosphere in the circuit hit fever pitch as riders revved up for the start of Round 7, and it was Miller who got the perfect launch from the

line to take the hole shot ahead of Bastianini, who pushed his way through from the second row. Bagnaia was in third with Team Suzuki Ecstar's Alex Rins and Joan Mir split by Takaaki Nakagami (LCR Honda Idemitsu) in P5. A poor start from Aleix Espargaro saw him drop to seventh, while Quartararo also went backwards, the Frenchman initially swallowed up by a number of riders before starting to make progress forward.

A wild first lap came to a close with Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) aggressively lunging up the inside of both Quartararo and Nakagami to move into P7, and it was all go everywhere. Not least for home hero Johann Zarco (Pramac Racing), who was having an equally difficult start to the GP just behind, locked in a battle mid­pack with Brad Binder (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) and the two making contact at Turn 6. The RC16 lost a front wing as a result.

The manic start continued back at the front, with Bagania and Rins both picking off Bastianini to drop him out of the podium places. Rins' ambitions would come crashing to a halt at the beginning of the third lap though, with the Suzuki off track at Turn 2, through the gravel and back on at Turn 4. Unfortunately, he couldn't keep his machine upright as it returned to the tarmac, temporarily rejoining but retiring soon after.

As a result, it was a Ducati one­two­three with the factory riders building up a gap out front, Miller ahead. Bagnaia was through on Lap 4 though, and the race began to settle slightly as riders found their groove. Just back of that fight, Mir led Aleix Espargaro, Quartararo and Marc Marquez.

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By Lap 12, Bastinain was past Miller, the Gresini rider going through on the Aussie at Garage Vert. Soon after, there was some change just behind them too, with Mir hitting the deck and tumbling through the gravel at Turn 14. That allowed Aleix Espargaro and Quartararo to gain a position each, but they were still 1.1s away from Miller in third. There was also disappointment for Jorge Martin (Pramac Racing) as he recorded a fourth DNF of the year after a Turn 9 fall.

On Lap 17, the fight for victory sparked into life as Bastianini began to swarm all over the back of Bagnaia out front, the GP21 locked on for a few laps to heap on some pressure. The Beast then made his first move at the Dunlop Chicane and the two went wheel­to­wheel up until Turn 6, with Bagnaia posting a classy riposte. The fight wasn't over though, with Bastianini forcing an error from his Ducati counterpart at Garage Vert as Pecco ran it wide and dropped to P2. That left a second between them and in an effort to reel Bastianini back in, Bagnaia pushed it too hard around the final corner and slid into the gravel, and out of the race. Rider ok, but on a long, lonely walk back down pit lane.

From there, Bastianini just had to keep it steady to bring home his third victory of the year, while Miller was comfortable in second.

Attentions switched the remaining podium place, with home fans willing on World Champion Quartararo in the closing laps. He closed and closed and closed but he could never quite get close enough to the Aprilia ahead, with Aleix Espargaro denying the fairytale French ending but continued the Noale dream.

Zarco made moves to get back towards the front, coming home fifth despite that tougher start. Marquez rounded out the top six, while Nakagami put in a very solid seventh place finish. Despite missing a wing from the early stages, Binder claimed P8, while his factory teammate Miguel Oliveira (Red Bull KTM Factory Racing) recorded a DNF.

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Luca Marini (Mooney VR46 Racing Team) and Maverick Viñales both claimed top 10 results in encouraging performances.

That's a wrap on the French GP and it was certainly a race to remember, with the crowd an incredible protagonist too. Next up for MotoGP™ is the Tuscan beauty of Mugello, where we're sure to see even more twists and turns in this fascinating World Championship… join us then in two weeks!