January - February 2020

INDIA’S FIRST DOMESTIC MOTORSPORTS & OFF-ROAD MAGAZINE

CHETAN -DILIP

i & Bahrain

MRF Challenge - Duba JAN / FEB 2020 | Rs. 60

CROWNED INRC 2019 CHAMPIONS

JKFOS Vishnu, Muzammil emerge as stars

2W INRC

SUPERCROSS

Rajendra RE claims National title

Barguje dominates in Round 4

JK 4x4 FURY

X1 RACING

MOCA retains 4x4 Orange Fury crown

Inaugural X1 Racing League concludes

GAURAV GILL’S 5TH POPULAR RALLY WIN

EDITORIAL / IMPRINT

IMPRINT Editor S. Ashok Kumar Tiwari

Hi, Our New Look.

AUTO TRACK is on a new track...

W

hile the season comes to an end, only the two-wheeler rally is pushed forward to January, because this was the most-suffered event due to the non-seasonal heavy rains lashing Western and Northern parts of India.

But the INRC for 4-wheelers went tasteless this season, as the planned six rounds were downsized to four. One round was cancelled in Jodhpur due to the unfortunate incident and the second event, the Coffee Day Rally at Chikkamagaluru, which was the most-technical and charming event of the season failed to take off due to the demise of the Coffee Day founder. Many participants and fans had planned ǹ' number of ways to pay their tribute in this rally for the person who gave a different dimension to this round. He put all his heart and dedication, apart from providing the liquidity to make Coffee Day rally one of the narrowest tracks worthy of rallying within a span of one year. This yielded results too, as a very successful round of APRC was executed. The fraternity lost out second such supportive person, Late Siddhartha Hegde, the earlier one being Bharath Raj. Even, the final round in Kerala was postponed due to a wonder-head popping up and knocking at the doors of the court which, however, struck it down later. The fraternity also lost one of the dynamic bloggers, Vishal Raj at a very young age, thus shattering a dream to flourish in four wheelers.

The Federation was pushed into the damage-control mode due to the unfortunate incident in the Jodhpur round and the situation warranted them to take a decision to arrange a legal advisor locally to the respective organisers of events in all their jurisdictions.

The latest addition to the calendar is the Hampi Fest, which has multi events like Rally, TSD Rally, and Autocross with a twin track. There was a lot of speculation about the upcoming round in Hampi Fest which was supposed to be the final round of CYC INRC 2019 but the RallyCom made it clear about the championship ending up in Kerala with the Popular Rally.

The decision to start the 2020 season from March along with the inaugural round of APRC in Chennai is a welcome move. With RRPM now associating itself with CYC, it is expected to be a great systematic season in progress. The AAGC 2018 India round organised by IASC was one of the best-organised events in that championship season but due to circumstances beyond organisers' control, the 2019 round had to be cancelled in the last minute due to lack of foreign participants.

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

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

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

VOLUME 13, ISSUE 2 O1 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

CONTENTS

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

14

34 RALLY: 2W

22 30 44

K1000

POPULAR RALLY

22 OFF-ROAD 38 40

36

48 OTHERS: 51 INAC HALDA AUTOCROSS 42

CYCLING KERALA CYCLING COIM ORANGE FESTIVAL

30

RACING: 4W NATL RACING 4W INTL RACING 4W INTL RACING SODHI KARTING

18

36

40

49

O2 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

14 18 20 50

AUTOMOTIVE

NEWS

Tata unveils Nexon EV

T

ata Motors unveiled in Mumbai India's Own Electric SUV, the Nexon EV, an SUV for personal car buyers looking for a thrilling drive experience with zero emissions. With Ziptron technology, this vehicle promises an efficient high-

voltage system, zippy performance, long-range, fast charging capability, extended battery life and good safety features. Scheduled to be launched in January 2020, the Nexon EV is expected to be priced between INR 15 and 17 lakhs.

Jaguar XE to cost Rs. 45 lakh

J

aguar Land Rover India announced the launch of the New Jaguar XE in Mumbai on Dec 4. Available in the S & SE derivative, the New Jaguar XE is offered with 184

kW Ingenium Turbocharged Petrol powertrain and 132 kW Ingenium Turbocharged Diesel powertrain options and the costs start from Rs. 44.98 lakhs.

JK Tyre's XF series I Renault exports Triber to SA

R

enault, the European brand in India, commenced exports of Renault Triber to South Africa, a release said in December. Since its launch, Triber offered an unmatched value proposition to

Auto Expo 2020

A

uto Expo event, muchawaited events and a true representation of India's automotive industry,

customers looking at a Bsegment car. Triber is a spacious, ultra-modular, fuelefficient vehicle with attractive interiors which boasts of many modern and practical features in less than 4 metres. the M ` otor Show 2020', will be organised from Feb. 7 to 12 at the India Expo Mart in Greater Noida. The inauguration ceremony of Auto Expo 2020 will be held on Feb. 6.

ndian Tyre Industry major and the market leader in Truck Bus Radial segment, JK Tyre and Industries launched the next generation of fuel-efficient tyres, the XF Series, delivering unprecedented savings to customers in terms of cost per kilometre (CPKM) while also improving mileage. The XF fuel-efficient tyre series comes in two variants, front axle JETWAY JUH XF and rear axle JETSTEEL JDH XF, ideal for long and regional haul applications.

The XF tyre series is built on the cutting-edge advanced technology, 'lower rolling

resistance' (RRC). This technology helps improve tyre efficiency by saving up to 8% fuel in comparison to normal radial tyres.

SIAM's 4th CSR Conclave

S

ociety of Indian Automobile Manufacturers organised the 4th annual CSR conclave to highlight the

contributions of the auto industry in driving sustainable development through various social welfare initiatives at Delhi NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2019 AUTO TRACK 03

Will we have Arunachal Rally back in the INRC calendar?

have not taken off, as expected.

It is one of the best and smoothly-run rallies because the State administration cooperates and shows its full presence during the rally along with the civil, NDRF and police forces to ensure the smooth running of the event. It was unfortunate that this rally couldn't find a place in the 2019 Championship. Despite the long distance, with the promoter's ties with Agarwal Carriers, it becomes easy and economical for a participant to ferry his car to the event and back.

Since most of the rallies have their epic-centre in South, it is advisable to have one round each in North East, and around Assam or Kolkata, as the INRC rounds around North and Central India

How about going international?

O4 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

Yes, most of the drivers who race in Indian races have been successful in most of the entry-level International championships and a few in well-to-do events, too.

And budget also plays a very important role to get into top-end championships. Earlier these programmes took off well from specially single-seater racing and Karting. It was part of the scholarship programme for the championship winners. This is routine, when we talk of fourwheelers. But the twowheeler racing is being taken to next level by the involvement of Manufacturers like TVS Motors and Honda (HMSI). The one-make

championship winners are offered berths in Asian rounds and they are even facilitated with regular up-gradation training. It never stops here, TVS Motors and Hero Motocorp have their own teams with a mix of both National and International riders, for the mother of all rallies, the Dakar Rally.

Thus, the only left-out segment finds its way on to the top. Likewise, even four-wheeler rally drivers, though not being part of the manufacturers club, find their own way out into the Asian and Malaysian championships in rallies and off-roads.

Arjuna Awardee Gaurav Gill is the lone Indian driver who has participated in WRC2 and won APRC multiple times.

Drivers like Naren Kumar, Sanjay Takale, Abhilash PG, Vikram Mathias have exhibited their driving capabilities in this arena.

Moto Fests are on the rise Yes, this totally gives a different dimension to the sport. Being part of the Government sponsored events is advantageous to the sport, in terms of permissions and visibility.

Traditionally, there have been a few such events in the calendar earlier also. Those events being the Hornbill TSD Rally, Orange Festival in North East, Dasara Gravel Fest in Karnataka and now the Hampi Fest. All these should be good signs for the growth of the sport.

The Federation should put all its efforts to make such events successful and make them grow. In the days to come, apart from the regular championships, these kinds of events in all states will be a welcome move.

MOTORSPORTS

NEWS

Sneha Sharma impressive at Sepang

I

Maini shines at Asian Le Mans

S

uperlative race performances from India's JK Racing backed Arjun Maini, Canada's John Farano and New Zealand's Andy Higgins assured RLR MSport of the LMP2 Am Trophy victory in the season-

ndia's ace woman racer Sneha Sharma came up with a good performance to finish overall 6th in a race in Round 9 of the Formula 4 South East Asia Championship 2019 at the Sepang International Formula 1 Circuit, Malaysia.

The 29-year-old Indigo

Airlines pilot finished first race in 8th position before taking the 7th position in race 2 and 3. Despite facing power issues in Race 1, she gradually grew into the round to finish in a respectable 6th position in the last race of the round to stay in hunt for a top-8 finish in the championship.

opening 4 Hours of Shanghai that places the British team at the head of the fight for an automatic entry to the 88th 24 Hours of Le Mans in June 2020.

They drove consistently to finish seventh overall.

Hero team for Dakar

H Mixed luck for Sethu, Senthil

F

or Idemitsu Honda Racing India team riders Rajiv Sethu and Senthil Kumar, the 7th round of FIM Asia Road Racing Championship 2019 at Buriram turned out to mixed fare recently.

In AP250 Race 1, Rajiv gained 2 positions to 14th in Lap 1 as he clocked his best

ero MotoSports Team Rally, the team of the world's largest twowheeler manufacturer, Hero MotoCorp, announced its Riders for the Dakar Rally 2020. Participating with four riders for the first time, the

Team will have 2019 Pan Africa Rally winner, Joaquim Rodrigues, Indian ace rider CS Santosh, Dakar Rookie of the Year 2017, Oriol Mena and the new addition, former World Rally Champion Paulo Goncalves.

lap time of 1:54:539. But could not sustain it in the last two laps finishing the 10-lap race in 14th place.

Rookie rider Senthil Kumar saw a poor start drag him back to 27th from his 22nd position start. But he gained 9 positions to climb to 18th spot before crashing out at the last corner.

Doshi is Sprint champ

T

he 42 years old Badal Doshi from Mumbai won the Indian Naional Sprint Championship 2019 in the Group A Foreign class. He led right from the beginning of the six round championship, riding a EXC KTM O6 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

500cc. He finished with a total tally of 116 points ahead of Vishwas and Jeevan. He finished second in both the rounds which were held back to back within two days at the Tribal cafe.

AUTOMOTIVE

NEWS

MG unveils India's First ZS EV

M

G (Morris Garages) Motor India unveiled an end-to-end electric vehicle ecosystem

for India's first Pure Electric Internet SUV, the ZS EV. The industry-shaping development marks the next

phase of the car maker's global drive to usher in a cleaner and greener future.

The ZS EV is MG's First Pure Electric Internet SUV with a clean, efficient and fast powertrain. The new, advanced 44.5 kWh, liquidcooled NMC (Nickel Manganese Cobalt) battery from CATL, one of the world's largest battery manufacturers, gives the car a travel range of 340 kilometres on a full charge.

It delivers 353Nm of instant torque and 143 PS power, accomplishing 100 kmph from a standstill in 8.5 seconds.

MG Motor India has partnered with various global and local players in the EV field for its multi-

step charging ecosystem that is aimed at fulfilling ZS EV customer requirements.

Each ZS EV comes with an on-board cable to charge anywhere and an AC fast charger for charging at homes/offices. The car maker is also setting up a DC Super-Fast charging network at select MG showrooms and plans to create an extended charging network across MG dealerships in select satellite cities along key routes.

Through Super-Fast DC chargers (50 kW), the ZS EV will reach 80% battery capacity within 50 minutes while AC fast chargers installed at homes will take around 6 to 8 hours for a full charge.

Metta, Vanapalli win True Wanderer 8.0

W

rangler's True Wanderer, started in 2012, continues to be an increasingly popular annual event for the people who want to celebrate their love for the open road and the adventure of travelling.

In 2019, the 12 finalists, styled in Wrangler apparel, took wandering to a new level as they showcased the passions that drive their wanderlust.

They captured the highlights of their epic road trips and shared it with the True Wanderer community with interesting and inspiring stories, photographs and videos. Their experiences can be found at Based on public votes and the scores of an

elite judging panel, Wrangler True Wanderer Season 8.0 announces the winners.

The first prize has been won

by Pranay Metta (Vanapalli) from Hyderabad who has won a fully paid trip to Switzerland.

The second prize has been claimed by Ravi Rana (Rupesh) from Delhi, trip to Andaman & Nicobar.

The third prize has been shared by Clifford D'costa (Almeida) from Mumbai and Ms Saanjhi Rawat from Dehradun, a trip to Leh. Pranay Metta, winner of True Wanderer 8.0 was accompanied by his fellow traveller Suryachaitanya

Vanapalli and rode from Hyderabad to Visakhapatnam.

The second-place winners, Ravi Rana and Rupesh Aka Sonu and travelled from Delhi to Meghalaya. The two thirdplace winners, Clifford D'costa and his fellow traveller Raunak Almeida started their

Technology

08 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

journey from Mumbai to Ganpatipule along the Malvan region of Goa, Hampi, and Kolhapur, and back to Mumbai via Pune while Ms. Saanjhi Rawat and her mother, the other third-place winners explored the outskirts of Dehradun.

TSD RALLY

NEW DELHI

“

Sanjay Sharma, Head of Motorsport, JK Tyre, said: "The JK Tyre-Constitution Club Rally is more than just a rally for us. It is aimed at raising awareness on a very important aspect of driving, that is safety. India has one of the highest incidences of death due to road accidents and this rally addresses the need to observe safety while driving on the roads. The theme of safety, embedded in our moo of Total Control, is close to our ethos of being a responsible brand."

Top politicians, dignitaries enjoy India Car Rally JK Tyre-Constitution Club of India Rally 2019 raises awareness about safe driving

T

he roads of Delhi-NCR came to life as Members of Parliaments and other dignitaries took part in the prestigious JK Tyre Constitution Club of India Car Rally 2019 for Parliamentarians in an endeavour to raise awareness on road safety and to encourage responsible driving at Delhi.

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Secretary of the Constitution Club of India, Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Anshuman Singhania, Deputy Managing Director, JK Tyre & Industries flagged-off the rally amidst much fanfare.

The event also witnessed Members of Parliaments like Nishikant Dubey, Rahul Kaswan, Ranvijay Singh Judev,

10 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

Anurag Thakur, Ms Agatha Sangma, Parvesh Verma and many more. The event was also graced by personalities like Surendra Singh Nagar, former MP and hockey Olympian and former MP Aslam Sher Khan to name a few.

The annual event saw friends and relatives of MPs, bureaucrats and army personnel, who had died in tragic road accidents, take part in the 60-plus-km rally. Starting from the Constitution Club of India, the competitors traversed through some historical streets of Delhi before finishing at the Buddh International Circuit, Greater Noida.

The CCI Rally, which had a number of vintage cars in the

fray, is organised every year in memory of many Parliamentarians, including former President of India Giani Zail Singh and well-known leaders like Rajesh Pilot and Gopinath Munde, who had lost their lives in road accidents.

"The event is a great partnership between JK Tyre and the Constitution Club whose members are essentially Parliamentarians", Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Secretary of CCI, said.

"Since members spent 80 percent of their travel time on roads touring their constituencies, they are the best ambassadors to spread the message of safety on roads," he asserted.

TSD RALLY

COIMBATORE

Mageswaran and Mustafa win The duo from Erode top the 20th edition of the Chander Memorial Rally

T

he 20th edition of MK Chander Memorial Rally, the two-day TSD rally for 4-Wheelers was flagged off from Codissia Premises on Avinashi Road recently. The 320-km rally with 40 participants was on the picturesque Western Ghats travelling along the winding roads and passing through the native dwellings of the Baduga community.

Day 1 began from Coimbatore and finished at Ooty after passing through Coddissia, Kurumbapalayam, Paduvampalli, Moundipalayam, 12 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

Neelipalayam, Sirumugai, Vachinampalayam, Kunjapanai, Aravenu, Kothagiri, Doddapetta. Day 2 finished at Coimbatore after traversing through Kothagiri, Aravenu, Kunjapanai, Vachinampalayam, Sirumugai and finished at Kariyampalayam.

Mageswaran and Mustafa won the Open class with a total penalty of 3:51 followed by Karthick Maruthi and Saktivel in second position with a difference of 11 seconds and Keerthy Prasad and M Prakash, also from Erode, stood third. Santhosh

Overall winners

Kumar and Ravi Kumar from Coimbatore stood fourth followed by Ganesh Moorthy and Nagarajan in fifth position.

In the Family class, Anil Abbas and Sini Anil from Aluva with total penalty points of 5:41 were the winners followed by Nithin and Lalitha Gowda from Coimbatore in second position with a difference of over 5minutes. Gurugram pair Jasmeet Kaur and Jyothi Iyanger came third.

In the Novice class, Ramesh Kumar and Ganesh Ananth from Coimbatore with a total penalty of 25:16 were the winners followed by Balasubramanian and Madhu Kumar from Chennai in second position with a difference of 1min 20sec.

Shanmuga Sundaram and Santhosh Kumar from Erode with a deficit of 41 seconds came third.

G NOIDA

Vishnu, Muzammil

emerge as stars

JK Tyre Festival of Speed thrills spectators

C

hennai's Vishnu Prasad and Bengaluru's Syed Muzammil Ali demonstrated nerves of steel to emerge as the heroes of the thrill-a-minute JK Tyre Festival of Speed at Noida on December 1.

Over 35,000 excited and screaming fans had the time of their lives at the Buddh International Circuit, enjoyed the tense races, close finishes and a couple of spectacular crashes, too.

LGB-4: Chennai's Vishnu Prasad clinched the lastminute battle to win the 2019 crown. Vishnu and Raghul Rangasamy, close friends off the track, and arch-rivals in the LGB-4 class, were tied on 73 points at the end of Day 1 after two races while the final race of the season decided the championship winner.

In Race 1, Diljith TS with a total time of 13:31.101 was the winner followed by Raghul Rangaswamy in

second with a split-second difference of 0.198 while Ashwin Datta had a photo finish but settled for third position another 0.051 seconds behind.

In Race 2, Ashwin Datta clocked 19min, 37.578sec for a well-deserved victory as Diljith came second with a second difference while Raghul was an arm distance behind to finish in third. In the final race of the season, it was clear the one finishing ahead of the other

will be the winner. It was Vishnu who finished on top to win the battle with a total time of 23:16.961 followed

by Ashwin Datta in second with a difference of just over one second, and Raghul ran out of luck and once again finished third another second behind.

14 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

NATL RACING

Gixxer Cup: Keeping the thrill alive till the last race, Syed Muzammil Ali clinched the title as Tanay Gaikwad had a DNF in Race 1. Race 1, was a major setback for the championship leader Tanay from Pune. He dominated the class with 54 points but slipped down to second position due to an

unexpected problem and a DNF that pushed him down the championship order to second. Muzammil with 10 points on the day jumped into the lead. Muzammil was the winner followed by Sanjeev Mhatre in second with a difference of 7 seconds while Amul Angadi finished third a further 3

seconds behind.

In Race 2, it was a huge task for Tanay as he was supposed to take a start from last on the grid and at any the cost he had to finish ahead of Muzammil to hold on to the championship as this was the last race of the season. But the closelyfought battle saw Tanay

climbing up the order, but he fell short by about six seconds. Finally, Sanjeev Mhatre won the race with a total time of 23:28.022 followed by Muzammil, with a deficit of mere one second, coming second.

Tanay came in third, thus giving way for Muzammil to clinch the championship.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020 AUTO TRACK 15

G NOIDA

X1 Racing League Powered by JK Tyre

X1 racing: The inaugural X1 racing competition, powered by JK Tyre, proved to be with an instant hit, with its mix of top international and domestic drivers in an exciting new format.

Bangalore Racing Stars, with Arjun Maini, Oliver Webb, Vishnu Prasad and Michelle Gatting, claimed Round 1 in

style, thanks to their two wins on Day 1. They also won the last race of the round, the relay race, to emerge clear victors.

Mumbai Falcons, with Kush Maini, Mikkel Jensen, Karthik Tharani and Pippa Mann, as a team, won one of the two races of the day and had to settle for the second position.

Gaurav Gill drifts 16 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

On Day 1, BRS Racing from Bengaluru won the race one with a total time of 32:34.633 followed by DG Racing from Ahmedabad about 9 seconds behind to settle for second while Mumbai Falcons came third a further 10 seconds behind.

BRS Racing, Bengaluru, once again dominated the race and won in 32:51.044.

Mumbai Falcons came second, 7 seconds behind, and BRS Racing, Bengaluru, also bagged the third with a difference of one second.

The third race of the round belonged to Mumbai Falcons followed by Bangalore Racing Stars in second position and DGR Ahmedabad in third. The ďŹ nal race of the round saw

NATL RACING

JK TYre SBK 600CC winners The podium ceremony JK Tyre Suzuki Gixxer Cup

X1 racing: The inaugural X1 racing competition, powered by JK Tyre, proved to be with an instant hit, with its mix of top international and domestic drivers in an exciting new format.

Bangalore Racing Stars, with Arjun Maini, Oliver Webb, Vishnu Prasad and Michelle Gatting, claimed Round 1 in style, thanks to their two wins on Day 1. They also won the last race of the round, the relay race, to emerge clear victors.

Mumbai Falcons, with Kush Maini, Mikkel Jensen, Karthik Tharani and Pippa Mann, as a team, won one of the two races of the day

and had to settle for the second position.

On Day 1, BRS Racing from Bengaluru won the race one with a total time of 32:34.633 followed by DG Racing from Ahmedabad about 9 seconds behind to settle for second while Mumbai Falcons came third a further 10 seconds behind.

BRS Racing, Bengaluru, once again dominated the race and won in 32:51.044.

Mumbai Falcons came second, 7 seconds behind, and BRS Racing, Bengaluru, also bagged the third with a difference of one second.

The third race of the round belonged to Mumbai

JK Tyre SBK 1000cc winners

The JK Tyre LGB Formula 4 winners along with the JK Tyre LGB Formula 4 Rookie Champion Mega (second from right)

Stunt show during lunch break JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020 AUTO TRACK 17

DUBAI

Joshua Mason (21) and Yuven Sundaramoorthy (29) locked in a battle

"It feels good to win the race especially after the crash yesterday in the previous race. Today, the race went very well. Josh (Mason) drove amazingly and all I could do was to put pressure on him, hoping to force him into a mistake as I was not close enough to pass. I feel great to have scored my rst-ever win in the F2000 category," said Sundaramoorthy.

Triple Crown for Amendola Maiden win for Dylan Young, Yuven Sundaramoorthy

M

ichelangelo Amendola from Belgium completed a dream week with three wins out of five races as the first round of the FIA-approved MRF Challenge international series concluded at the Dubai Autodrome in November. Also notching wins

18 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

were Australia's Dylan Young and Indian-American Yuven Sundaramoorthy, for both of whom it was their maiden success in the championship.

In the first race, Amendola, was slowly off the blocks due to wheel-spin and fell behind as Mason and Young led the pack

into Turn-1. Mason opened up a sizeable lead before tyre wear slowed him down while Young caught up with him, but could not pass. Meanwhile, Amendola recovered quickly and in the latter half of the race, got a jump on both the front-runners leaving Mason and Young

INTL RACING

scrap for the minor podium spots. Behind the trio, the midfield witnessed close battles while India's Chetan Korada finished ninth and last after a spin in the eighth lap even as he was putting in consistent laps.

In Race 2, the winner Amendola was followed by Mason in second and Manaf finished third. The Chennaibased Korada was running fourth, but conceded the advantage to finish seventh.

The Belgian had another poor start from pole position and dropped to

third behind Young and Joshua Mason (Great Britain) before easing past the British driver in the second lap to catch up with the Aussie. However, Amendola was unable to get past the experienced Young who went on to win.

In Race 4 that had a reverse grid, pole-sitter Eriksen was quickly passed by Mason and Sundaramoorthy in the very first lap. The trio held positions until the sixth lap even as behind them, Amendola, who started from fifth, moved up a spot while Young dropped from sixth to seventh. The Belgian made another move to pass Eriksen into third spot. Up the road, Mason came under increasing pressure from Sundaramoorthy. In the ninth lap, Mason spun, allowing Sundaramoorthy, Amendola and Eriksen to get ahead and finish in that order.

The fifth and last race of the Dubai round was a comfortable outing for Amendola once he fought off his rivals at the start before going into a virtual cruise control mode for a comfortable win ahead of Mason and Young.

The lone Indian entrant, Chetan Korada, showed some improvement in his pace to pick up some points though he could not offer any serious challenge to the front-runners.

The winners (left to right) - Dylan Young, Michelangelo Amendola and Yuven Sundaramoorthy

Michelangel Amendola (Belgium) who topped both the Free Practice sessions

Race One podium

A Turn-1 scramble

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020 AUTO TRACK 19

BAHRAIN

Dylan Young, Bent Viscaal share honours David, son of German F1 driver Ralf Schumacher, wins Race 2

D

ylan Young of Australia showcased his vast experience to chalk up a fluent win in the final race of the second round of MRF Challenge, a support-event for the FIA World Endurance Championship, at the Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir in December.

Bent Viscaal of the Netherlands pulled off a fine win in Race-1 pushing pole-sitter German David Schumacher, son of F1 driver Ralf, to second spot with Denmark's Valdemar

2O AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

Eriksen completing the podium.

The originally scheduled 10lap race was reduced to nine laps of which five were run behind the Safety Car following a crash at the start involving Indian-American Yuven Sundaramoorthy whose stalled car and was hit from behind by India's Chetan Korada. Both were forced to retire from the race.

The lengthy Safety Car period effectively reduced the race to a hectic sprint.

Viscaal, having moved from

second to first with a great start, held position and also

Bent Viscaal in action

posted the fastest lap of the race which earned him a

INTL RACING further two points, while Schumacher overcame a poor start to finish second.

Eriksen started sixth on the grid, but made four spots to move to second in the very first lap before being passed

by Schumacher.

Behind the trio, there was a hectic scramble for positions as Australian Dylan Young moved from eighth to eventual fourth ahead of Britain's Joshua Mason, Japanese-American Reece Ushijima, who had qualified third, championship leader Michelangelo Amendola from Belgium, Denmark's Largim Ali and Jordanian Manaf Hijjawi, in that order.

In Race-2 that was run under lights and on reverse grid, Schumacher came out on top after having started fifth, in a hectic, nervewracking three-car finish as he took the chequered flag just ahead of Viscaal and Young. The trio went wheelto-wheel to set up a thrilling finish with leader Young

dropping two places in the last lap as first Viscaal and then Schumacher passing him. The front-row starters, pole-sitter Reece Ushijima and Joshua Mason, eventually finished fifth and fourth, respectively, unable to match the pace of the top three.

The last race saw Viscaal and pole-sitter Amendola colliding. Viscaal was forced into retirement while Amendola limped home in seventh. Up ahead, Young shot off the blocks as the lights went out to pass Amendola and kept his position for a victory.

Behind him, battles raged up and down the field with positions being swapped on almost every lap. Eventually, Schumacher, who had started fifth on the reverse grid, came in third behind Jordan's Manaf Hijjawi who gained two spots to finish behind Young.

Earlier, it was a comfortable win, his second in three outings, for Viscaal in Race-

Race-4 winner Dylan Young (centre) flanked by second-placed Manaf Hijjawi (left) and third-placed David Schumacher

Dylan Young on way to winning Race-4

David Schumacher during Free Practice

3 as he slipped past polesitter Schumacher immediately after the start and then put in two backto-back fastest laps to effectively seal his win. He then clocked the fastest lap of the race in Lap-5 to further extend his lead over Schumacher who had a second place finish.

Behind the duo, 16-year old Indian-American Yuven Sundaramoorthy made good progress from P5 to P3 while Young who shot up from eighth to fourth eventually finished fifth behind Hijjawi who is in his first single-seater season.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020 AUTO TRACK 21

MANGALURU

Rajendra RE wins Aishwarya Pissay claims women's crown with ease PHOTO BY: SUDHIR BK / ADARSH BHAT

R

ajendra RE from Shivamogga sealed the two-wheeler National Rally Championship winning the MRF Rally De Mangaluru, the fifth and final round of the MRF Mogrip FMSCI National Rally Championship for twowheelers promoted by God Speed recently.

Both the Karikal Stage of about 7-km, and the 14-km Jaake Stage with different surfaces, were run thrice but it was not a matter of challenge for the TVS Racing rider as he managed to stay on top right from the start despite mechanical issues. He managed to finally keep the lead of over 11 seconds over his teammate Imran Pasha from Mysuru who did clock two fastest stage timings but settled for second position. Another TVS Racing rider Samuel Shajan Jacob from Udupi, was a further six seconds away and managed a podium place in third. Two localites, Adnaan Ahmed and Ishan Chandra, privateers from Mangaluru, occupied the fourth and fifth positions respectively.

The event which was flagged off from Ashmi

Naresh VS at Ceremonial flag-off 22 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

Comforts in Puttur, had all its stages based close to the temple town of the Sri Shetr Kukke Subramanya in Dakshin Kannada. The two stages were run twice with different courses. The first was a technical stage and within the rubber plantations and the beauty of this newly added 1-km stage is that, it turned into a spectator point on the hill top, which became the assembly point. The second stage was multi-course with a few rough patches, steep decline, tarmac and a few smooth windings. The handy service point was stationed at the famous Pancha Lingeshwara Temple at Panja which became a very good regrouping point.

Once the stages concluded, the vehicles headed towards the Puttur Club for prize distribution. The day began with cloudy atmosphere but there on it was full of sunshine and finally it was a ride in the rain for the final 20 competitors in the final stage.

Class 1: Rajendra RE riding a TVS RTR 200 and clocking a total time of 1:06.01.498 was the winner followed by Nikhil Balakrishna a privateer riding a Yamana

2W NATL RALLY

Syed Asif Ali winner Scooter class

R

ajendra RE from Shivamogga sealed the two-wheeler National Rally Championship winning the MRF Rally De Mangaluru, the fifth and final round of the MRF Mogrip FMSCI National Rally Championship for twowheelers promoted by God Speed recently.

Both the Karikal Stage of about 7-km, and the 14-km Jaake Stage with different surfaces, were run thrice but it was not a matter of challenge for the TVS Racing rider as he managed to stay on top right from the start despite mechanical issues. He managed to finally keep the lead of over 11 seconds over his teammate Imran Pasha from Mysuru who did clock two fastest stage timings but settled for second position.

Another TVS Racing rider Samuel Shajan Jacob from Udupi, was a further six seconds away and managed a podium place in third. Two localites, Adnaan Ahmed and Ishan Chandra, privateers from Mangaluru, occupied the fourth and fifth positions respectively.

The event which was flagged off from Ashmi

Class 3 winners

Comforts in Puttur, had all its stages based close to the temple town of the Sri Shetr Kukke Subramanya in Dakshin Kannada. The two stages were run twice with different courses. The first was a technical stage and within the rubber plantations and the beauty of this newly added 1-km stage is that, it turned into a spectator point on the hill top, which became the assembly point. The second stage was multi-course with a few rough patches, steep decline, tarmac and a few smooth windings. The handy service point was stationed at the famous Pancha Lingeshwara Temple at Panja which became a very good regrouping point.

Once the stages concluded, the vehicles headed towards the Puttur Club for prize distribution. The day began with cloudy atmosphere but there on it was full of sunshine and finally it was a ride in the rain for the final 20 competitors in the final stage.

Class 1: Rajendra RE riding a TVS RTR 200 and clocking a total time of 1:06.01.498 was the winner followed by Nikhil Balakrishna a

Class 1A winners

Class 5 winners

Overall winners JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020 AUTO TRACK 23

2W NATL RALLY

MANGALURU

Suhail Ahmed class 6 winner

Scooter class winners

Imran Pasha winner class 4

Royal Enfield class winners

minutes. KN Rohan from Mangaluru finished third, another two minutes behind.

Class 6: Suhail Ahmed from Bengaluru, the championship leader, won this class with a total time of 1:13.47 beating Arun Joy M from Ernakulam to second.

Joy took another one minute. Aneesh CK from Kochi came third another 12 minutes behind.

Class 7: The top three slots in Class 7 were dominated

by TVS Racing riders. Syed Asif Ali from Bhopal won with a time of 1:14.57 followed by Shamim Islam Khan from Nashik in second as he finished two minutes behind. Pinkesh Kishor Thakkar from Pune finished 24 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

third a further four minutes away. The remaining three participants Yash Mohn Pawar, Abhijit Shetty and Elango G did not finish the event.

In the Ladies class, the championship leader Aishwarya Pissay from TVS Racing had an easy day.

Dimpy A finished second with a 14-minute gap.

Class 9: Rohith RS from Mysuru was the winner with a total time of 1:17.12 followed by Shoeb M Khari, also from Mysuru, in second, as he finished two minutes behind. With a further difference of 24 seconds Durgesh J finished third. Pradeep Kottary and Suraj Kutti were fourth and fifth respectively.

Nitesh G Poojary winner class 2

Jatin Jain winner class 1A

ARUNACHAL

MOCA retains crown

Cousins Aditya, Ujjal (drivers) and co-drivers Sujeewan and Ingpemg made up the Arunachal team

T

he Manabhum OffRoaders Club of Arunachal (MOCA) displayed great tactical acumen and skilful driving to successfully defend their JK Tyre Orange 4X4 Fury title at Dambuk recently.

The 6th edition of the 4x4 Fury, one of India's toughest off-road competitions was held at Dambuk in Arunachal Pradesh's Lower Dibang Valley.

Around 21 teams from 26 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

across the country were flagged off by Mopi Mihu, MLA of Anini in presence of Dambuk MLA Mrs Gum Tayeng and more than 3000 cheering spectators. The competitors had to negotiate natural and gruelling obstacles like swamps, steep riverbanks, boulder-filled riverbeds and tracks through verdant rainforests. The event posed a tough test of man and machine over four days.

Kerala's 4X4 Beats and Delhi's NIOC finished second and third respectively while the preevent favourites, BODA of Bengaluru, fell by the wayside to finish fourth.

Held in the backdrop of the famous Orange Festival of Adventure and Music, the off-road event tested the skills of the four-member teams made up of two cars each in a challenging hightech format. Each car was

fitted with a transponder and a GPS navigator, allowing the organisers to go completely virtual; it meant that there was no need for marshals to man the controls during the stages.

The event which pitted man against nature saw the competitors negotiate gruelling obstacles, artificial and natural in the tricky terrains of Arunachal. They even had to manoeuvre

OFF-ROAD

Venue gets ICOTY fame; XPulse 200 is IMOTY

J

T

he Manabhum OffRoaders Club of Arunachal (MOCA) displayed great tactical acumen and skilful driving to successfully defend their JK Tyre Orange 4X4 Fury title at Dambuk recently.

The 6th edition of the 4x4 Fury, one of India's toughest off-road competitions was held at Dambuk in Arunachal Pradesh's Lower Dibang Valley.

Around 21 teams from across the country were flagged off by Mopi Mihu, MLA of Anini in presence of Dambuk MLA Mrs Gum

Tayeng and more than 3000 cheering spectators. The competitors had to negotiate natural and gruelling obstacles like swamps, steep riverbanks, boulder-filled river beds and tracks through verdant rainforests. The event posed a tough test of man and machine over four days.

Kerala's 4X4 Beats and Delhi's NIOC finished second and third respectively while the preevent favourites, BODA of Bengaluru, fell by the wayside to finish fourth.

Held in the backdrop of the famous Orange Festival of

K Tyre presented the most-prestigious awards of the Indian automotive industry, the 15th Indian Car of the Year (ICOTY), 13th Indian Motorcycle of the Year (IMOTY) and 2nd Premium Car Award 2020 by ICOTY. Winners of these eminent awards, which signify the highest auto performance standards, were awarded in the presence of industry visionaries, top executives and auto enthusiasts.

Reflecting its nationwide popularity, Hyundai Venue was adjudged the 'Indian Car of the Year 2020', while Hero XPulse 200, which is a favourite among biking aficionados, was awarded the 'Indian Bike of the Year 2020'. Marking its second year at the ICOTY platform, the Premium Car Award 2020 by ICOTY award was

bagged by BMW 3-Series.

Dr Raghupati Singhania, Chairman and Managing Director, JK Tyre Industries Limited, presented the awards to the winners along with Yogendra Pratap, Chairman, ICOTY 2020, and Aspi Bhathena, Chairman, IMOTY 2020.

Dr Singhania said: "This is the most-exciting night for the auto industry and rightfully so. We, at JK Tyre, are proud to be supporting the ICOTY & IMOTY awards ever since its inception.

With automakers leaping forward and innovating at a rapid pace, this year brought many strong contenders to the table, making the jury's task of picking winners that much more difficult. Despite the tough competition, each entrant is a winner in their own right."

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020 AUTO TRACK 27

TSD RALLY

KOHIMA

Sandeep-Prakash duo clinch

K

olkata's Sandeep Mukherjee, lived upto to his reputation, and successfully claimed the 10th JK Tyre Hornbill Motor Rally title that culminated in Kohima in December.

Competing in the open category, Sandeep, along with navigator Prakash M, was at his imperious best and finished the 65-km TSD rally with a mere penalty of just 46 seconds to bag the top prize.

The rally, held on the backdrop of the famous Hornbill Festival and organised by NAMSA was flagged-off from the IG Stadium. The participants traversed through the rocky and dangerous terrains on the outskirts of Kohima and negotiated a total of 16 surprise Time Controls over two legs before finishing back at the IG Stadium.

The second place was taken

by Subir Roy and Nirav Mehta (52 seconds penalty) while Chibrolang Walhang 28 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

and Nagarajan came third with a penalty of 01:05 minutes. Two-times defending champion Gagan Sethi (along with Sabatullah Khan) had an unfortunate outing and fell by the wayside to finish sixth with a total penalty of 03:57 minutes.

In the North East class, Yanger Aier and Mezhurovi Keditsu took the first place with a penalty of 09:05 minutes. Thecachutuo Kire (with co-driverNeiba Kire) with a total penalty of 11.03 minutes claimed second while Nitoka Chophi and Philip Lam (12:19 minutes) were third.

In the two-wheeler category, Vishal Das along with Garrick Khan emerged on top with a penalty of 02:33 minutes while Rehman Khan and Deepak Singh claimed the second place with a penalty of 17:02 minutes. Kolhousetuo (co-rider Wapang) got a penalty of 39:58 minutes to finish third.

Ladies class winners

Couple class winners

Overall winners

NATL KARTING

HYDERABAD

Bengaluru's Sawan steals the show Ashi Hanspal claims girls class while Jashmehar Jubbal excels in Junior event in the JK Tyre Sodi Sprint

B

engaluru's Sawan Satyanarayanan stole the honours in the Senior Category in the Round 2 of the Sodi Kart Sprint of the JK Tyre FMSCI National Karting Championship 2019 that conclude at Hyderabad in November. Mumbai's Ashi Hanspal won the girls class while Delhi's Jashmehar Jubbal excelled in Junior category.

Sawan Satyanarayanan came up with a powerpacked performance to claim the Senior title, taking just 9:13.764 minutes to complete the 12 laps.

Adheet Prashar of Hyderabad finished second (9:16.366) while Ashwin M Nair of Kochi clocked 9:17.070 for third. All three have qualified for the final round of the championship to be held in Chennai.

Akshay Hoover, Hari Gopal Nayak and Pramil Singh, who finished with fourth, fifth and sixth, were also handed drives in the finals.

In the Girls' Class, Ashi Hanspal reigned supreme, posting a time of 10:57.406 minutes to finish the race.

Muskan Jubbal finished second (10:57.839) while the third place went to Kadambari of Nagpur.

Delhi's Jashmehar Jubbal took the top honours in the Junior category with a time of 9min, 29.538sec while

Junior class winners

Senior class winners

Agnishwar Verma of Chennai came second in 9:32.888 and Vulli Gopal of Hyderabad won the third place clocking 9:35.136.

Apart from these three

(Jubbal had qualified in the opening round itself), Rahul Reddy, Aadithya Raja, Jasmeh Singh Dingra and Muskan Jubbal booked a ticket for the finals.

Girls class winners JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020 AUTO TRACK 29

BENGALURU

Brothers

Chetan, Dilip win K1000 Dr Bikku-Milen top INRC2; Mujeeb-Gautham claim INRC4 PHOTO BY: KESHAVAMURTHY / SRIHARSHA NADIGER

T

he 44th K1000 was held around Bannergatta on the outskirts of Bengaluru. The speciality of the event was the entire stages and the Service Park was within the Khodays' premises. Over 100 kms route was in the menu, 3O AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

cumulating in two stages that were run four times in the same direction. Fifty one participants were in the fray but only 22 managed to complete the fourth round of the Champions Yacht Club FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship near

Bengaluru recently.

The main reason for the dropouts was the misleading and tempting track, that was too appealing at the damage points, and the drivers were unable to resist it. The track was too technical and some

corners were traps. Despite limited time to prepare the track, it was presented to the best extent possible.

Drivers who drove with their best possible skill and acumen were able to complete Day 1.

It was a back-to-back wins

NATL RALLY

Rakshith Iyer and Chandrashekar JINRC class INRC 4 Winners INRC3 class INRC4 class Satish Peddineni and Vinay Padmashali

for brothers Chetan Shivram and Dilip Sharan from team Akshara Racing. Their win came under the background of the entire creamy layer being dropped out due to multiple reasons, such as crashes and breakdowns and the credit goes to the brothers for preserving their machine when the big wigs failed. Defending champion Gaurav Gill's appeared to lead the podium with a comfortable lead on the first day, but it was short lived as his 19-second lead over his teammate Karna Kadur was crushed as his car failed to start on Day 2.

On Day 2, the speedy but shrewd duo made it a spectacular 1-2 for the Reds as the carefully laid out but treacherous stages wiped

out anybody who dared to challenge them. Starting from the fifth and fourth positions, Chetan and Dr Bikku preserved their cars before going all out in the final stage to claim the mantle of winner and runner-up in the K-1000 Rally.

INRC Overall: Chetan Shivram along with Dilip Sharan won the 41st K1000, after being fifth overnight on Day 1. With most number of dropouts, only those who preserved their cars, survived on Day 1 but a few from this fell on Day 2.

Day 1 began with a good note for the JK Tyre team drivers, as they dominated the top-three positions with Amittrajit Ghosh and Ashwin Naik in INRC class

Gagan Karumbaiah and Timmu Uddappanda winners SUV class

INRC2 winners Dr. Bikku Babu and Milen George JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020 AUTO TRACK 31

BENGALURU Sahil Khanna and Rajit Kadian from Snap Racing finished in second position with a difference of over 4 min 10 sec. They too climbed one position up on final day. Ritesh Guttedar and Lokaranjan were a further 1min 59seconds behind and they stood third.

Younus Ilyas and Harish Gowda who rejoined on Day 2 settled for fifth position and some leg points.

Prakhyath Shirole and Bharath HM INRC4 class

a good lead. Front runner Gaurav Gill with Musa Sherif from Team Mahindra Adventure with a lead of 19 seconds over Karna Kadur and Nikhil Pai from team Arka Motorsports and Dean Mascarenhas and Shrupta Padival were a further 24 seconds behind in third place at the end of the day.

Dr Bikku Babu and Milen George had another 12 seconds deficit lying in the fourth while Chetan (Sharan) was on the neck of Dr Bikku with a mere one-second difference. The championship leader Fabid Ahmer and Sanath Gopalan were sixth. But the equations changed on the final day. Gaurav failed to take a start due to electrical issues and Karna who was leading from the first stage of Day 2 had to drop out in the same stage. The second stage of Day 2 also brought an end to the JK Tyre sponsored Dean, as he had to pull out due to a driveshaft problem.

Thereon, it was anybody's game. Chetan took the 32 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

command right from this stage and climbed up the order with controlled aggression as he went past Dr Bikku in the very first stage. Dr Bikku planned to run safe thereon as his previous 2019 rallies ended up with DNF. Thus this was his first finish and podium of the season with a difference of 12 seconds for the Kerala duo. Amittrajit Ghosh and Ashwin Naik climbed up the order from the standing of 10th position on Day 1, completed the podium, with a gap of 3min 14seconds. Fabid had to give up his fight in the final day due to mechanical failure.

INRC2: This class was the hardly hit with 8 cars getting a Did-Not-Finish tag (DNF). Dr Bikku Babu and Milen George from Team Champions were the winners with a total time of 1:47.49. They climbed up from second position on Day 1, as leaders Dean Mascarenhas and Shrupta

Padival pulled out on the second stage of the final day due to drive shaft problem.

Chandan KM and Suraj M Shetty

Overall winners

INRC3: Chetan Shivram and Dilip Sharan from Team Akshara were the winners and they extended their overnight lead and won with a time of 1:47.37. Jacob KJ and PVS Murthy with a difference of 6 minutes on the leader stood second.

Aditya Thakur and Virender Kahyap settled for third, another 1min 29sec behind.

NATL RALLY

INRC4 winners Khoday Brothers with Papu Ramaswamy

a good lead. Front runner Gaurav Gill with Musa Sherif from Team Mahindra Adventure with a lead of 19 seconds over Karna Kadur and Nikhil Pai from team Arka Motorsports and Dean Mascarenhas and Shrupta Padival were a further 24 seconds behind in third place at the end of the day.

Dr Bikku Babu and Milen George had another 12 seconds deficit lying in the fourth while Chetan (Sharan) was on the neck of Dr Bikku with a mere onesecond difference. The championship leader Fabid Ahmer and Sanath Gopalan were sixth. But the equations changed on the final day. Gaurav failed to take a start due to electrical

issues and Karna who was leading from the first stage of Day 2 had to drop out in the same stage. The second stage of Day 2 also brought an end to the JK Tyre sponsored Dean, as he had to pull out due to a driveshaft problem.

Thereon, it was anybody's game. Chetan took the command right from this stage and climbed up the order with controlled aggression as he went past Dr Bikku in the very first stage. Dr Bikku planned to run safe thereon as his previous 2019 rallies ended up with DNF. Thus this was his first finish and podium of the season with a difference of 12 seconds for the Kerala duo. Amittrajit Ghosh and Ashwin Naik climbed up the order from the standing of 10th

INRC4 winners Mujeeb Rahman and Goutham CP

INRC2 winners

JINRC winners

SUV class winners JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020 AUTO TRACK 33

NASHIK

Barguje dominates Kondedeshmukh and CD Jinan win a Moto each PHOTO BY: VIKRAM SUNDARAMOORTHY

R

ugved Barguje from TVS Racing dominated the 4th round of the fmsci MRF Mogrip National Supercross championship held near the Mumbai Agra highway in Nashik.

Rugved Barguje with 34 points from two motos was the winner of the Nashik round. Prithvi Dhillion with 30 points stood second while CD Jinan with 29 points was third. Yuvraj Kondedeshmukh and Yash Mohan Pawar with 27 and 24 points stood fourth and ďŹ fth position respectively.

In Moto 1, Yuvraj Kondedeshmukh from Ajmera Racing was the winner followed by Rugved Barguje from TVS Racing in second position. Pruthvi Dhillion from Chandigarh stood third. Yash Pawar from

34 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

NATL SUPERCROSS

Indian expert class upto 260cc Nataraj comp 16

Nashik was fourth while CD Jinan came seventh.

In the second moto, CD Jinan from TVS Racing won beating Rugved to second position again while Pruthvi finished third. Yash was fifth and Yuvraj finished eighth.

In Novice class, Kali Mohan from TVS Racing won and Sachin D, also from TVS Racing, came in second.

Karthikeyan S from Pollachi settled for third. Yogesh P from Bengaluru was fourth followed by Sabrish from Coimbatore in fifth.

In Indian Expert class, Nataraj R from TVS Racing was the winner followed by his teammate Bunteilang Jyrwa in second position while R Sabrish settled for third. S Abhinath and KaliMohan were fourth and fifth respectively.

In the Private Expert class, Karthikeyan defeated Yogesh P from Bengaluru to take the first spot and Sabrish completed the podium in third place.

Pinkesh Thakkar from Pune and Ankush Rao from Goa settled for fourth and fifth places, in that order.

In the Local boys class, Pinkesh Thakkar was the winner followed by Lokesh

Bhosale in second while Nikhil Kamathe came third.

Navdeep Rao completed the line-up in fourth position while the fifth place was bagged by Neeraj Wanjale.

In SX2 Group A class, Mahesh VM from Thrissur won the two-moto class winning both and garnered 40 points in his kitty.

Pramod Joshua from Bengaluru with 32 points stood second while Prithvi Dhillon from Chandigarh also secured the same number of points but settled for third. Samuel Abraham from Ernakulam with 24 points stood fourth and Sarthak Chavan from Pune with 20 points stood fifth.

In Jr SX1, Yuvraj Kondedeshmukh from Ajmera Racing with two-top finishes was the winner with 40 points from two Motos.

Ikshan Shanbhag from Satara with 30 points settled for the second position. Karan Karle from Pune, also with 30 points, settled for third position.

Shlok Ghorpade from Satara with 26 points came fourth while Sarthak Chavan from Pune with 22 points

was fifth.

In the Jr SX2 class, Ikshan Shanbhag with two wins from two motos, was the winner securing 40 points.

Jinendra Shangave with 32 points from Khalkaranji finished second and Shlok Ghorpade, also with similar points came third. Raheesh Khatri with 23 points from Mumbai was fourth followed by Akshat Huple from Pune with 23 points tie was fifth.

Ikshan Shanbhag winner of JRSX2

Winner of JR Sx1 Yuvraj Kondedeshmukh

Foreign Open class CD Jinan comp 50 2nd runner-up JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020 AUTO TRACK 35

JAIPUR

Kabir Waraich

claims Polaris Rally Cross 2019 Vikramaditya and Shailendra share honours in Amateur class PHOTO BY: PURVISH BHARDWAJ / SAURABH SHUKLA

K

abir Waraich from Team Polaris won with a comfortable margin on the gruelling tracks and loose sands of Chandwaji Dunes on the outskirts of Jaipur as the competitors displayed their skills and talent at 'Polaris Rally Cross 2019' recently. Waraich's teammate Lhakapa Tsering from Arunachal Pradesh stood second and both the drivers drove a Polaris RZR. A closed circuit event of about 2km saw 52 competitors from different part of the country racing to win the event in different vehicles such as Polaris, Range Rover Evoque, Toyota Fortuner, Mahindra Thar,

36 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

Maruti Gypsy. A mix of loose sand, climbing of dunes, twists and turns, made the competition tough, while competitors showed great skills and set some fine timings.

In Amateur upto 1400cc class, Vikramaditya Singh timed 2hr 56.768sec to win the class and Raj Sharma came second with a difference of nine seconds.

Bharat Khetan a further 39 seconds behind settled for third.

In Polaris above 900cc class, Kabir Waraich clocked 2:01.286 to dominate the class followed by Lhakpa Tsering coming second with a deficit of 15 seconds.

In the Open class, Kabir Waraich won in a time of 2:06.483 beating teammate Lhakpa Tsering from Arunachal Pradesh to second. Tsering was ten seconds behind and with another 22 seconds deficit Nitin Yadav finished third.

All the three drivers were on a PolarisRZR. In the Open class without Polaris, Yuvraj Singh won clocking 2:36.483 followed

by Amit Sharma in second position with a difference of four seconds and Yash Dhawan in third with a

RALLY CROSS

Ladies class winners

Pro above 1600cc winners

K

abir Waraich from Team Polaris won with a comfortable margin on the gruelling tracks and loose sands of Chandwaji Dunes on the outskirts of Jaipur as the competitors displayed their skills and talent at 'Polaris Rally Cross 2019' recently. Waraich's teammate Lhakapa Tsering from Arunachal Pradesh stood second and both the drivers drove a Polaris RZR. A closed circuit event of about 2km saw 52 competitors from different part of the country racing to win the event in different vehicles such as Polaris, Range Rover Evoque, Toyota Fortuner, Mahindra Thar, Maruti Gypsy. A mix of loose sand, climbing of dunes, twists and turns, made the competition

tough, while competitors showed great skills and set some fine timings.

In Amateur upto 1400cc

Rihen Bhardwaj 2nd runner-up SUV class

class, Vikramaditya Singh timed 2hr 56.768sec to win the class and Raj Sharma came second with a difference of nine seconds.

Bharat Khetan a further 39 seconds behind settled for third.

In Polaris above 900cc class, Kabir Waraich clocked 2:01.286 to dominate the class followed by Lhakpa Tsering coming second with a deficit of 15 seconds.

In the Open class, Kabir Waraich won in a time of 2:06.483 beating teammate Lhakpa Tsering from Arunachal Pradesh to

second. Tsering was ten seconds behind and with another 22 seconds deficit Nitin Yadav finished third.

All the three drivers were on a PolarisRZR. In the Open class without Polaris, Yuvraj Singh won clocking 2:36.483 followed

by Amit Sharma in second position with a difference of four seconds and Yash Dhawan in third with a timing of 2:57.301.

Varun Jolly won the Diesel Open class clocking 2:38.369 followed by Nitin Yadav in second position with a difference of six

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020 AUTO TRACK 37

WAYANAD

Canada's Cory, German Naima win Shiven, Poonam emerge as the Indian National champions of Mountain Terrain Bike races

A

“

"I typically conserve my energy towards the nal laps.

That worked here very well," said International category winner Cory, the biker from Victoria in the Canadian province of British Columbia

dapting well to the tropical conditions that stand in high contrast to the winter chill in their countries, Canadian Cory Wallace (1:43:27.664 hours) and Iranian Farzad Khodayari (1:43:33.288) rode to victory at the 6th edition of MTB (Mountain Terrain Bike) Kerala by finishing first and second respectively in the men's international category at Mananthavady, Wayanad in December.

The women's segment of the India's biggest competitive cycling event, too, wove a similar narrative when German Naima Madlen Diesner (1:23:42.932) and Nepalese Laxmi Magar (1:37:37.490) emerged as the topper and the first runner-up amid loud

38 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

cheers from the crowd at the Priyadarshini Tea Environs near the hill-town, 3,000 feet above the sea level.

In the men's international category, Shiven and Kiran Kumar Raju of India finished third and fifth respectively.

Chandigarh-based Shiven (1:53:51.054) and Bengalurean Kiran (1:54:34.258) thus emerged as the National champion and runner-up in the National segment. Devender Kumar of Uttarakhand was the second runner-up in the

Cycling through the ghats

CYCLING National category while Buddhi Bahadur Tamang of Nepal came fourth in the international section.

The MTB's international and national races were held together, with both spanning the same distance of 38.4 km (eight laps of the 4.8-km track).

A total of 78 men in both the international (14 countries including India) and national segments covered the tough stretch of red-earth roads with loose stones, pedalling along the 4.8-km lap, eight times. It was five rounds for the 24 women. Among them, Poonam Rana (1:44:53.490) of Uttarakhand, Maharashtrian Priyanka Shivaji Karande (1:49:58.096) and Joytsna (2:03:02.868) of Karnataka finished third and fourth, thus making them the topper and runner-up in the women's national category of MTB 2019. The

next four were all from Kerala: Ginimol Joseph Kerala (2:07:26.683), Saisree A P (2:08:58.116), Preethi B K (2:08:58.158) and Binila Mol Giby (2:12:37.902).

The men's race was flagged off by Kerala Minister Ramachandran Kadannappally. Sri Lanka Cycling Federation President N Karunaratne flagged off the women's race.

The December 20-22 event, which held the amateur trial round and finals in the first two days, was organised by Kerala Tourism under the aegis of the Kerala Adventure Tourism Promotion Society (KATPS), Wayanad District Tourism Promotion Council and the Cycling Federation of India (CFI). The event was held in the rugged Pancharakolli village, eight km away from Mananthavady town of northeast Kerala's Wayanad district.

Inauguration

Naima and Laxmi

Hon. Minister Ramachandran at the start

Shiven and Kiran

Poonam in action

Shiven in action JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020 AUTO TRACK 39

COIMBATORE

Alen Rovan, Saravana, Venu Ramesh share cycling honours Savannah and Vaishnavi hog limelight in girls' events

A

len Rovan won the 12to-14-years class in the boys section winning the podium for a second year while K Saravana Kumar won the men's race in the 18-to-40-years group. Popular rallyist V Venu Ramesh Kumar found himself on the top step of the men's above-40-years group in the second edition of the Western Valley Mountain Tour Bike (MTB) Challenge recently.

In the Girls Section, Savannah Sabu won the 124O AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

to-14-years category and Vaishnavi Madhumitha won the 16-to-18-years class.

The second edition of the MTB Challenge, the off-road cycling event, was held at the foothills of Western Ghats in Kovaipudur in Coimbatore. The mass-start event had over 17 classes and the lap distance varied from 500 metres to 6.9 km depending upon the category.

The 6.9-km track had a rocky dip and a climb, and various speed-stages

passing through natural water stream en route. The route also had loose gravel humps and curves.

Men's category: In the under-8-years class was a single lap over the 500metre track and it was bagged by Krithik V who beat Nandan Das while Yaash Logesh ďŹ nished third.

The 3.6-km single lap for 8to-10-years class was won

by Abinav followed by Niranjan Devarajan in second position and Tarang Premnath took the third

place.

It was similar 3.6-km single lap for the 10-to-12-years category too. Dhanush Prasanth was the winner and N Mohd Nafees came second. Thipesh Kathikeyan completed the podium in third.

In the 12-to-14-years class, R Alen Rovan won the 2-lap 3.6-km race. Samarpan came in second while Savion Sabu settled for third.

With the same format of 2laps for the 14-to-16-years

CYCLING

Upto 8 years class winners

category, Harshit defeated Adhitya Vijay Balasundaram to take the top spot, while Adheeswar Bala ďŹ nished third .

The lap distance was increased to 6.9 km for the classes which had above16-years cyclists.

In the 16-to-18-years class over two laps, Srijith was the winner followed by Dharsin SN in second and Daniel DK in third.

The 18-to-40-years class also consisted of two laps and K Saravana Kumar won brushing aside the challenge of B Ashwin Kumar, who had to be content with the second place. Bhuvanesh Shanmugam settled for third position.

The 40-plus category had a single lap of the 6.9-km. V Venu Ramesh Kumar from Coimbatore, a familiar face in the motorsports circle, won the race and Usha Kannan came second and Kumaresan Shanmugam ďŹ nished third.

The Men's Elite class was the longest of all the classes. The 6.9-km route had to be covered thrice and Adonis won the class followed by Tejasvi in second position while Kamalraj settled for third.

In Autism class for special children, it was a single lap of 500 metres. Ajay was the winner followed by Roshan in second and Vijendar in third.

Girls' Category: It was the 500-m track in the menu for the up to-8-years girls.

M Ashwika was the winner followed by P Harshita in second and R Kriyaa Sree in third.

In the 8-to-10-years class, which had 3-km route taken on once, DN Varsha dominated the class followed by Nithila Das in second and K Sharethra in third.

And then all the classes for girls over-10-years had the same 3-km route taken on once. The 10-to-12-years class was won by Hashini and Prakalya came second.

In the 12-to-14-years class, Savannah Sabu was the winner followed by Seema Maruthachalam in second and Zanjana Prakash in third.

Sweetha Pradeep won the 14-to-16-years class and S Vaishnavi Madhumitha won the between 16-to- 18years class. The 18-to-40years class was bagged by P Monisha followed by R Jothi in second and Narmatha in third.

Winners of 10 to 40 years class

Winners of 40 plus years class

Winners of 12 to 14 years class

Winners of 12 to 14 years class JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020 AUTO TRACK 41

KOLKATA

Subhamoy Roy upto 1400cc INAC modified class

Saddam Ali fastest

Sabir Khan, Mazdayar, Ibrahim Ali win; Alivia claims Ladies class

T

he Haldia Autocross 2019, the East Zone qualifier-1 for the Indian National Autocross Championship, witnessed a huge excitement and competition at Haldia in front of a huge crows. The second year of the championship attracted 104 entries including five women.

Haldia local lad Sk Saddam Ali clocked the event's best timing of 1min 55.5seconds followed by Abhijit Singh, Ibrahim Ali and Mazdayar Vatcha. Sourabh Chaudhuri, Nirav Mehta won their respective categories.

42 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

Veteran rallyist Subir Roy and his son Chandrashish, the youngest participant, also pushed very hard to get their place on the podium.

2WD Open class In Upto 1400cc class, Sabir Khan with a total time of 2:07.450 was the winner followed by Shubhajit Kumar in second with a difference of one second.

Mazdayar Vatcha, came in a mere half a second later for third.

In the Upto 1650cc class, Mazdayar Vatcha won clocking 2:05.210 and beating Shubhajit Kumar to

second position with a gap of two seconds. Ibrahim Ali Shaikh, came third a further three seconds behind.

In the Above 1651cc class, Ibrahim Ali by clocking 2:04.700 won the class and Abhijeet Singh with a difference of one second stood second. Chandrashish Roy completed the podium with a further deficit of one second.

The Ladies class had five participants. SK Alivia with a total time of 2:39.280 was the winner followed by Sunita Prasad Shaikh in second position with a difference of four seconds

and Monima Choudhury came third a further 14 seconds behind.

The Novice class was bagged by Shubhajit Kumar who clocked 2:10.800.

Chandrashish Roy with over three seconds difference settled for second position and Vikramjit Kumar a further five seconds behind settled for third.

East Zone Qualifier INAC 2019 Stock Class The Upto 1650cc class belonged to Nirav Mehta who timed 2:06.790 for a win while Abhijeet Singh

AUTO CROSS 2WD Halda Autocross

Abhijeet Singh upto 1650cc INAC stock 1st runner-up

and Hero Sen followed him in second and third positions respectively.

The Above 1651cc class was bagged by Abhijeet and Ibrahim and Saddam stood second and third.

Modified class Mazdayar won the Upto 1400cc class followed by Ibrahim and Mustak in that order. In the Upto 1650cc class, Mazdayar was once again the winner and Ibrahim and Saddam finished in the same order.

Above 1651cc class belonged to Saddam and Abhijeet settled for second while Souradeep stood third.

Unrestricted class Mazdayar, Saddam Ali occupied the first and second positions respectively while Deepshikha Bhaduri came in third in the upto 1650cc class. Above 1651cc class was dominated by Abhijeet followed by Saddam and Ibrahim. The Four-wheel drive class was once again in Nirav's Kitty followed by Subir Roy and Arvind Ganeriwala in second and third positions in that order.

Deepshikha was the ladies class winner and Sunita and Alivia completed the podium in second and third respectively.

Upto 1400cc class had the highest amount of entries at 19. Abhijeet Singh clocked 2:12.500 to win the class followed by Mazdayar Vatcha from Hyderabad stood second as he took four seconds more for the course. Souradeep Dutta with a very marginal 0.230sec difference came third.

Mazdayar Vatcha clocked 2:08.640 and won the Upto 1650cc class followed by Abhijeet Singh who settled for second position with less than 2sec difference.

Sabir Khan a further 4sec behind came third. This class had 13 participants in fray.

In the Above 1651 cc class, out of the 11 participants, Ibrahim Ali with a time of 2:01.360 was the winner

followed by Abhijeet Singh in second position with a difference of seven seconds.

Saddam Ali Shaikh with a further four seconds difference settled for third position.

The Ladies Open class had five entries. Deepshikha Bhaduri clocked 2:38.700 to win the class. She was followed very closely by Oindrila Chaudhury who settled for second with half a second difference. Sunita Prasad Shaikh took third 14 seconds behind.

The Unrestricted class was bagged by SK Aniruddha who clocking 2:18.680. SK Golam Rahaman fell short of two seconds and had to settle for second position and Sabir Khan completed the podium with a difference of three more seconds.

Ibrahim Ali Shaikh upto 1400cc INAC modified class 1st runner-up

Winners of Ladies Open class - HAC

Winners above 1651cc modified class- HAC JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020 AUTO TRACK 43

KERALA

Gaurav Gill proves his mettle

As he wins his fifth Popular Rally, also registers his first win of the season PHOTO BY: KRISHNA / SURESH

G

aurav Gill and Musa Sherif won the Popular Rally for the fifth time but it is the Bengaluru brothers who hogged the limelight rejoining the second day for leg points.

As the season concluded with the Popular Rally, the fifth and final round of the Champions Yacht Club FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship near Kottayam in late December.

Gill, the Team Mahindra driver, supported by JK Tyre along with Musa Sherif as

his co-driver, won SS9 and finished second in SS10 and SS11 on Day 2. Dean Mascarenhas and Suhem Kabeer, who too were supported by JK Tyre, did well taking the third and fourth positions in Popular Rally's overall category.

Chetan and Dilip, however, became the 2019 INRC champions, riding on their twin triumphs in the Rally of Coimbatore and the K1000 in Bengaluru. The MRF supported duo, who had suffered a massive crash in

the opening stage on Saturday, returned to complete Day 2's three stages garnered three valuable points finishing fifth overall.

Chetan and Dilip, nursed their car smartly, taking the tenth position in SS9 but revved up to the fifth in the last two stages for a valiant show. A second crown, the INRC 3 category, came calling after favourite in this class Fabid Ahmer (Sanath G) was docked a late road penalty. Fabid finished

INRC winners 44 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

second earlier but Aditya Thakur (Virender Kashyap) was promoted to second.

Fabid Ahmer and Sanath Gopalan, however, had the consolation of winning the Junior INRC. INRC Overall: Gaurav Gill despite facing mechanical issues and transport penalty of 50 seconds managed to win the rally. Gill had a mere lead of five seconds over his teammate Younus from Kerala along with Harish from Bengaluru driving a R2 Mitsubishi

NATL RALLY

Winners Gaurav Gill and Musa Sherif in stage two

Cedia at the end of Day one.

Day 2 was a testing time for Younus to push hard and close the gap, but the ďŹ rst stage proved to be unlucky for him. He lost close to 14 minutes in this stage as his clutch pedal jammed just four kilometres from the start. There on it was no looking back for Gill as he began his day with a lead of over 1min 58sec on Dr Bikku Babu along with Milen George both from Kerala, who ďŹ nished second.

Dr. Bikku Babu and Milen George overall second JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020 AUTO TRACK 45

KERALA

2nd runner-up SUV class Gagan and Thimmu

straight line and crashed into the rubber plantation.

SUV class winners Nkhil J and Arjun Dheerendra

By the end, Gill had extended his lead to over Bikku to over four minutes.

Dean Mascarenhas along with Shrupta Padival from Mangaluru were fourth on Day 1 and they finished with a deficit of over a minute and 56 seconds on Bikku, but he was unable to reduce the lead, inspite of clocking better time in the final stage of the closing day. With a difference of over 1min 46sec Dean had to settle for third overall.

Dean's teammate Suhem Kabeer from Coorg and Jeevarathinam from Bengaluru who were running fourth just behind him on Day 1 with a difference of 42 seconds, managed to bring down the difference to 29 seconds at close to settle for fourth.

Aditya Thakur and Virender Kashyap finished fifth with a difference of 2min 45sec.

46 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

INRC2: Dr. Bikku Babu along with Milen George from Kerala were the winners of INRC2. They could make it with a difference of 1min 56sec over Dean Mascarenhas and

Shrupta Padival from Mangaluru. With a further gap of 29 seconds their teammates from JK Tyre, Suhem Kabeer and Jeeva Rathinam finished third.

Ritesh Guttedar along with Lokaranjan began the final day with a 1min 48sec difference with Suhem, but

They began their final day journey with a difference of over two minutes, but couldn't pose any threat to Suhem.

INRC: This class had four participants. While Gaurav Gill was the clear leader of the class right from the start, his teammate Amittrajit Ghosh and Ashwin Naik had to pull out after the first stage of Day 1 due to electrical issues. Younus who lost considerable amount of time in the 9th stage slipped down the order but remained in second position with a difference of 14 min 17 seconds. Phalguna Urs from Mysuru along with Chandra Mouli M from Bengaluru had to pull out due to a high-speed crash in the very first stage of Day 1. They lost the control of the car after taking on the dip on a

INRC 2nd runner-up Dean and Shrupta

Fabid Ahmer and Sanath G winners JINRC

NATL RALLY lost out right from the first stage of the final day due to brake overheating issues and they finally managed to hold on to the fourth position with a deficit of 3min 03 seconds. Joyal Joseph and Varun Sathyanarayan from Bengaluru finished their Day 1 in fifth position with a difference of 4min 2sec, in their final day run they further fell short to come closer to Ritesh as they had issues with their car, but still managed to retain their overnight position with a difference of 5min 10sec.

The pair of Karna Kadur and Shanmuga Sundaram from Bengaluru had to pull out on Day 1 after the first stage due to electrical issues.

INRC3: Aditya Thakur and Virender Kashyap from Chettinad Sporting with a total time of 1:34.11 won the class beating Jacob KJ and PVS Murthy from Team Arka Motorsports by 36 seconds. But Jacob-Murthy pair climbed up the order from their overnight third but was unable to limit their 26-second deficit.

Kuber Sharma and Karan Aukta from Kari Sports with a difference of 16 seconds settled for third. They began their final day with a sixsecond difference. Fabid Ahmer and Sanath G from Team Champions began their final day with a 21second difference with the leader but slided down to fourth with a further difference of 36 seconds, as they lost time in one of their transport sections. Chandan KM and Suraj M from Snap Racing with a difference of 4min 4sec settled for fifth position. Pradeep Kumar and Ahamaad Ansary had a crash in their very first stage

in the 5th km and had to pull out, as their car was beyond repair to rejoin on Day 2. Similar was the case of Chetan Shivram and Dilip Sharan who crashed on the same spot, but somehow they managed to take a start on Sunday, thank to great work by team FRK Racing, their tuners. Vikram Gowda and Bharath also had to pull out.

INRC4: Localites Suraj Thomas and Shob George from Kari Sports were the winners with a total time of 1:10.25; they retained their overnight top position. With a difference of 2min 52sec Vaibhav Marathe and Arjun SSB from Team Champions came in second position.

They climbed one step up as the overnight second position Shirole Prakhyat H and Bharath SM had to pull out on the final day.

Rakshith Iyer and Chandrashekar from Team Champions with a further 56-second difference completed the podium.

Manoj Mohanan and Glinter George from Kari Sports who were 10 seconds behind stood fourth.

Mujeeb Rahman and Goutham CP stood fifth coming in another 4min 30sec behind.

Winners INRC2

Winners SUV class

Winners INRC3

Junior INRC: Fabid Ahmer and Sanath G were the winners followed by Rakshith Iyer and Chandrashekar in second position and Chandan KM and Suraj M in third.

SUV class: Nikhil J and Arjun Dheerendra were the winners followed by Abishek Gowda and Dheeraj Manae in second position. Gagan Karambaiah and Thimmu Uddappanda settled for 3RD .

Winners INRC4 JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020 AUTO TRACK 47

KARTING

MUMBAI

Tej Patel beat Aaroh Ravindra to pole in ProSenior class

Shaurya, Sarvesh win Ajmera IndiKarting Clash of Pros

T

he 2nd edition of the FMSCI-approved, Ajmera IndiKarting Clash of Pros, was a spectacular affair with some of the best racers in the region taking part across 2 categories in Pro- junior and Pro-Senior classes in Mumbai recently. Shaurya Kapani was on top of the standings after winning 2 of the 3 races in the Pro-Junior class. Sarvesh Bode with a win and a second place took top honours in the

48 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

Pro- Senior category.

The Pro Junior Race 1 saw an exciting battle for the lead between Veer Sheth and Shaurya Kapani. Both racers with international experience under their belt, enthralled the crowd with multiple overtakes.

Eventually Veer won the race ahead of Shaurya.

Raiden Samervel came in third.

Tej had a good start in the Pro-Senior Race 1. Behind him, Sarvesh and Aaroh

were nose to tail while Rahul Deshpande was under pressure from Jamie Shaw.

Their karts touched and Jamie hit the barriers forcing him to retire. Tej won comfortably followed

by Sarvesh and Aaroh.

Race 2 in both categories started as a complete reverse grid of the entire field, based on the result of Race 1. In the Pro-Junior, Nikhil Hariharn started on pole, followed by Aashi Hanspal, the only girl in the event. Shaurya made his way up the field and went on to win. Ashay Kadam started third, and drove fantastically to finish second ahead of Hoshmand Elavia.

The Pro-Senior Race 2 started with Jamie on pole, followed by Paarth Damani, Neville Tata and Aashwath Chowta. Jamie quickly zoomed away to a comfortable lead. Behind him however, there was total chaos as quicker racers from behind had to contend with racers in front who

refused to give up position.

They defended aggressively and this proved to be a recipe for disaster. Multiple incidents followed and many racers crashed heavily. Jah Wadia who was unlucky in Race 1 where he faced engine trouble, was unlucky a second time as he crashed just a few laps from the end. A few moments early Alyraza Beig and Aashwath crashed out.

Jamie won, ahead of Rahul and Aaroh.

Shaurya won Race 3 of the Pro-Junior, followed by Veer and Raiden. The Senior Race 3 was a fantastic display of fierce but clean competition. Five racers were locked in a battle for the lead for over half the race. Eventually Sarvesh triumphed ahead of Rahul and Aaroh.

The Pro-Senior Plus category for heavier racers, was won by Raghav Vaishnav followed by Alyraza Beig and Parth Damani.

RACING LEAGUE

CHENNAI

Mumbai Falcons soar high with a double Bangalore Racing Stars top in Race 1 as inaugural X1 Racing League concludes

M

umbai Falcons, represented by Kush Maini and Mikkel Jensen from Denmark, won two of the three races while Bangalore Racing Stars tandem of Arjun Maini and Oliver Webb from England took the honours as the curtains came down on the inaugural franchise-based XI Racing League at the MMRT in Chennai recently.

The first race of the day, won by Bangalore, took a heavy toll with six cars packing up due to mechanical reasons. It left a six-car grid for the second and third races, but that did not take anything away from Mumbai's double.

The Race-1 was interrupted by a Safety Car period after one of the cars blew the

engine. Bangalore started fourth on the grid behind Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad, but with some smart tactics managed to pull ahead. The teams were required to make a mandatory driver change between ninth and 14th minutes window and Bangalore, powered by Arjun Maini and England's Oliver Webb got it spot on and then held off a late charging Mumbai (Kush Maini and Mikkel Jensen) to win the race. Hyderabad (Vitantonio Liuzzi-Gosia Rdest) completed the podium.

The second race began on reverse grid of the previous race standings. As such, Delhi's Gaurav Gill, the three times Asia Pacific Rally

champion, started from pole and led until he pitted for Raghul Rangasamy to take over. Rangasamy maintained the track position to finish second behind Mumbai Falcons.

Bangalore Racing Stars who had started fifth, came in third.

Mumbai Falcons with a total time of 27:59.175 went on to complete a double later in the evening, finishing on top in Race-3 ahead of Bangalore Racing Stars with 28:03.838 and Blackbirds Hyderabad team led by Luizzi and Akhil Rabindra with a timing of 28:28.382.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020 AUTO TRACK 49

GIRLS ON TRACK

BENGALURU

Karthik Muthuswamy claims Senior class victory Aditya Raja wins Junior class; Tapasya tops Girls' class

K

athik, Aditya and Tapasya finished on top of their respective classes in the final round of the JK Tyre FMSCI National Karting Championship (NKC) 2019, the Sodi Kart grand finals recently.

In the Senior class, Karthik Muthuswamy won in a time of 4min 25.610sec followed

by Mohamed Ridhaf in second with a difference of close to two seconds.

Pratham Kumar finished third, a further two seconds behind. Karthik clocked the best lap of 21.106 in the 12lap race. Ashwin M and Sawan Sathanarayan were fourth and fifth respectively.

In the 12-lap Junior class race, Aditya Raja won in 4:31.965 beating Jasmehar Jubbal by over a second.

Muskaan Jubbal came third another 3 seconds later.

Mounith Kumar and Agnishwar Varma, finished in that order behind the 5O AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

podium finishers.

Tapasya Sudershan won the Girls class with a best lap of 21.538. She clocking 4:40.180 for the win defeating Aashi Hanspal by over nine seconds and Isha Sharma was third another second behind.

Shravanthika finished fourth and Muskaan Jubbal finished fifth.

Round 4 Qualifier: The Girls class, was bagged by Aashi Hanspal with a total time of 5:18.723 followed by Shravanthika in second and Kavya Nandha Kumar finished third.

The Junior class belonged to Aashi Hanspal who timemd 4:49.821 for a win and Jasmehar Jubbal overcame Agnishwar Verma for the second place.

In the Senior class, Thomas Cherian won in 4:37.088 beating Gaurav Kochar to second and Pratham Kumar finished third.

AUTOCROSS

THANE

Kartik Konchady and Raunaq Singh split wins in Unrestricted class Aftaab, Amey Desai and Tejas Gaikwad share spoils 2WD Stock class: In the Upto-1650cc class, Aftaab Bunglowala clocked 1:22.455 to win the class while Niket Bhanushali came second three seconds later and Amey Desai finished third, a further 400 millseconds had behind. Katik Konchady and Sudesh Karle took fourth and fifth positions respectively in the Indian National Autocross Championship zonal qualifier.

In the Above-1651cc class, Raunaq Singh won with a time of 1:24.789 beating Amey Desai by over four seconds while Akshay Virendra Mestry stood third 90 seconds behind Akshay.

Umesh Rane and Altaf Hussain were in the bottom five.

2WD Modified class: Amey Desai was the winner of upto 1400cc class he with a lead of 400 milli seconds over Aftaab Bunglowala as finished second ahead of Jhanvi Bhavsar who fell short of 5 seconds had to settle for third. Asif Mulla and Raunaq Singh finished fourth and fifth in the order.

Upto 1650cc class was bagged by Raunaq Singh by clocking 1:21.951, while Swajit Acharekar with closest possible margin of .045 of a second settled for second position.

In above 1651cc class, Tejas Gaikwad with a three seconds lead over Raunaq was the winner of the class

as Raunaq settled for second position.

Unrestricted class: 2WD: Kartik Konchady bagged the upto 1650cc in 1:21.990 and Raunaq Singh came second half a second behind. Aftaab Bunglowala stood third a second behind Raunaq.

Above-1651cc class was clinched by Raunaq Singh who clocked 1:23.499 to beat Kushal Chaudhari by four seconds and Akshay Virendra Mestry came third another 500 milli-seconds behind.

In the 4WD class, Raunaq singh won with a time of 1:26.998 followed by Umesh Rane in second, four seconds deficit and Altaf Hussain finished five seconds later to claim third.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020 AUTO TRACK 51

CHANDIGARH

Achintya Mehrotra fastest Vidit Jain and Vishal claim Upto and Above-1650 Classes

A

chintya Mehrotra dominated both the INAC North qualifying round as well as in the 10th TCAS non-championship event held at Mohali in Punjab recently. He won the two modified classes and one unrestricted class in INAC. He was on podium in four classes in the nonchampionship event. The twin-flat track with a bridge-cross was built for the 62 cars which took part in the event.

2WD - INAC In less than 1650cc Stock class, Vidit Jain won with a time of 130.374 followed by Karan Malik in second with a difference of 500 milliseconds. Vinam Jain came third, a further three

52 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

seconds behind. Amandeep Singh and Jyotinder Singh settled for fourth and fifth respectively.

Vishal clocked 126.468 to win the Above-1650cc class.

Arnav Pratap Singh finished second, 500 milliseconds behind and Arjun Rao came third 2 seconds later.

Modified class In less than 1400cc class, Achintya Mehrotra clocked 121.606 to win the class and Aabhishek Mishra, with a mere 300 milliseconds difference stood second.

Sunny Sidhu finished third half-a-second later.

Philippos came three seconds behind for fourth and Vivek Kumar stood fifth.

In less than 1650cc class, Achintya Mehrotra won the

class in 120.982 and Amber Udasi came second, a mere 200 milliseconds behind.

Philippos finished third two seconds later. Jagbir Nirwan and Aabhishek Mishra came fourth and fifth respectively.

In Above-1650cc class,

Shray clocked 122.934 to win the class. Bani Yadav was second three seconds behind and Arjun Rao was third with a further one second deficit. Suresh Yadav and Arnav Pratap Singh finished in that order.

AUTOCROSS

Drag hat-trick for Hemanth B

A

chintya Mehrotra dominated both the INAC North qualifying round as well as in the 10th TCAS non-championship event held at Mohali in Punjab recently. He won the two modified classes and one unrestricted class in INAC. He was on podium in four classes in the nonchampionship event. The twin-flat track with a bridge-cross was built for the 62 cars which took part in the event.

2WD - INAC In less than 1650cc Stock class, Vidit Jain won with a time of 130.374 followed by Karan Malik in second with a difference of 500 milliseconds. Vinam Jain came third, a further three seconds behind. Amandeep Singh and Jyotinder Singh settled for fourth and fifth respectively.

Vishal clocked 126.468 to win the Above-1650cc class.

Arnav Pratap Singh finished second, 500 milliseconds behind and Arjun Rao came third 2 seconds later.

Modified class In less than 1400cc class, Achintya Mehrotra clocked 121.606 to win the class and Aabhishek Mishra, with a mere 300 milliseconds difference stood second.

Sunny Sidhu finished third

half-a-second later.

Philippos came three seconds behind for fourth and Vivek Kumar stood fifth.

In less than 1650cc class, Achintya Mehrotra won the class in 120.982 and Amber Udasi came second, a mere 200 milliseconds behind.

Philippos finished third two seconds later. Jagbir Nirwan and Aabhishek Mishra came fourth and fifth respectively.

In Above-1650cc class, Shray clocked 122.934 to win the class. Bani Yadav was second three seconds behind and Arjun Rao was third with a further one second deficit. Suresh Yadav and Arnav Pratap Singh finished in that order.

Unrestricted Class Achintya Mehrotra won the Unrestricted Below-1650 class, clocking 116.764 and Aabhishek Mishra fell short by a second. Jagbir Nirwan took another four seconds to finish and claimed the final place on the podium.

Philippos and Amber Udasi were fourth and fifth in that order.

In the Above-1650cc class, Sunny Sidhu was the lone winner clocking 120.245. In the 4WD Above- 1650cc class, it was Daksh Gill who finished on top with a time of 121.675. Deepak with a mere one second difference settled for second and Vikramjit Singh came third a

engaluru's Hemanth Muddappa of Mantra Racing dominated the 2019 MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Drag Racing Championship as he annexed the title for the third year in a row with a grand double while also equalling the course record at the MMRT. Attributing his success to team work in preparing his BMW S1000RR bike in the top-end Unrestricted Supersport class, the 29year-od Muddappa, who heads 1Up Nutrition India, won both rounds 3 and 4 for a clean sweep. He clocked 8.070 seconds in Round 3 on Saturday and then, in the next round on Sunday, he did 7.976 seconds to equal the

record he had set in the second round in October.

Also scoring a double and claiming the National titles were Chennai's Nivetha Jessica in the Girls category and Bengaluru's Aiyaz in the 361-550cc Supersport Indian class, while local challenger Yogeshwaran, though failing to win a race over the weekend, still garnered enough points to claim the title in the 226-360 Supersport Indian category with 67 points, just two ahead of fellowChennai rider AS Alexander.

Bengaluru's Mohammed Rafiq topped both the 2Stroke categories (up to 130cc and 131-165cc) and bagged the National title in both classes.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020 AUTO TRACK 53

JAIPUR

ON A GROWTH PATH RS India gears up for the domestic market; to manufacture precision tools for domestic and auto sector anodizing, plating, powder coating, direct material laser sintering (DLMS), injection moulding. RS India will begin manufacturing precision tools for the automobile sector ďŹ rst.

RS India has a state-of-theart Swiss Precision and Assembly plant, installed with high-quality advanced machinery imported from Switzerland, Germany, Japan and many more. RS-India has a production capacity of 5650 MT per annum production and generate employment for over 250 workers in full capacity. The company specialises in producing high-quality precision parts from small to midsize dimensions and quantities, pre-assembled and tested components and medical devices for surgery.

RS-India offers manufacturing solutions in sectors such as Health and Medical, Automotive,

R

S India, a precision part manufacturing company, established as a joint venture between Swiss company, SRM Technologies AG and Jaipur based RUJ Group, is all set to begin its services in the Indian market. The company was only providing its services and products to SRM Technologies' clients, based in Europe, US etc. RS 54 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

India offers Metal Anodizing, Painting and Heat Treatment, Manufacturing Surgical Items and other highquality products. Major functions and processes conducted at RS-India are Milling, Turning, Swiss-style lathe and turning, surface grinding, cylindrical grinding, punching, laser cutting, heat treatment,

Polymechanical, Machine Automation, Laboratory Technology, Photo Technology and Aerospace.

In the Indian autocomponents industry, the total value of India's automotive exports stood at US$ 13.5 billion in 2017-18 as compared to US$ 10.9 billion in the year 2016-17.

This has been driven by strong growth in the domestic market and increasing globalization (including exports) of several Indian suppliers. According to the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association of India (ACMA), the Indian auto-components industry is expected to register a turnover of US$ 100 billion by 2020 backed by strong exports ranging between US$ 80- US$ 100 billion by 2026.

The tool manufacturing industry has upgraded its efďŹ ciency over the past few

Mr. Jayant Joshi MD

FEATURE

Grinding

“

Hardening

Mr. Jayant Joshi, MD, RS India, says, "The Automotive Components Industry in India will grow to be the 3rd largest in the world by 2025.

According to a recent report of 'Make in India' on the Automobile Components, the industry in India will be among the top three of the world in engineering, manufacturing and export of vehicles and components.The Auto Component industry offers growing avenues in transportation, railways and the electric and hybrid car segment coupled with the need for efficiency in manufacturing of precision parts and components in India.

Known for its capability of offering precision parts and components at the highest quality, RS India would be able to suffice the growing requirements of all sub sectors in the auto parts and components industry. RS India offers Swiss Quality precision parts and components made in India."

“

years and has started manufacturing all kinds of parts needed for vehicle

manufacturing. Localisation has increased due to this and the vehicle industry in

Galvanic

India has started using local components. Indian tool manufacturers have started

Plant

developing all components for Indian vehicles such as Tata Nexon, Mahindra Scorpio and Bajaj Pulsar etc.

The Indian tool industry has enhanced its technologies and competence the complete range of automobile tools such as suspension parts, engine parts, transmission parts, braking parts etc. The majority in the total autotool production consists of engine parts at 31%, followed by driving transmission and steering parts at 19%. It is then followed by Body and Chassis at 12%, Suspension and Breaking parts also at 12%, Equipment's at 10% and Electrical Parts at 9%.

The remaining parts lie at the remaining 7%.

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020 AUTO TRACK 55

CROSS COUNTRY

CHINTAMANI

Yuva Kumar

wins Redbull Ace of Dirt title Naresh, Sathyaraj share minor placing in a fray of 40 PHOTO BY: KESHAVAMURTHY

Y

uva Kumar wins the R̀edbull Ace of Dirt' title at the event held at Bigrock Dirt Park near Kolar in Karnataka recently.

The first of its kind race was with multiple course and obstacles while a few were artificially created.

Many obstacles were created by using tyres and a few with oil drums. New to this was a ramp created

56 AUTO TRACK JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2020

with a wooden plank and the other using the same wooden plank was a seasaw while a few natural mud mounts and slush points were part of the track. In the four-lap finale, Yuva Kumar clocked a total time of 17min 27.254sec to win the race followed by Naresh VS in second with a difference of over 12 seconds. Naresh also clocked the fastest lap

time. A Sathyaraj was a further five seconds behind and he stood third. While Devaraj Venkatesh came fourth.

In all 40 participants reported at the start. Top riders like Nataraj R, Vishwas SD and Vinay Prasad bowed out in qualifying as 10 riders did not finish. Out of the 16 selected riders for the

quarterfinals, six riders that dropped out included Suhail Ahmed. Top eight selected for semifinals were Devaraj Venkatesh, A Sathyaraj, Sanjay Kumar N, Azmathulla Sharieff, Naresh VS, Yuva Kumar, Amal Varghese and Edberg Nivanthankumar. In this top eight, Naresh had clocked the fastest timing followed by Devaraj and Edberg did not finish.

RNI No. KARENG/2007/21952 Pages 56+4