Champion TSD rallyists of the country Ajgar Ali of Kolkata with navigator M Mustafa of Tamil Nadu are numero uno at the the Second Uttarakhand car rally, which finished in Dehradun on Wednesday. Ali and Mustafa, driving a Grand Vitara, were running second on Day Two of the rally on Tuesday. But on Wednesday, they finished with total penalty of 3.20 seconds to leave behind Vishnu Singh of Jaipur and navigator Adithya Anthony of Bangalore.
Vishnu and Adithya, driving a VW Polo, were pushed to the second spot with a penalty difference of 13 seconds. They scored total penalty of 3.33 seconds to stand second in the rally. At the third position were Pratap Thakur (Pune) and Dhiraj Arora (Chandigarh), driving a Gypsy for Team Maruti. Thakur and Arora scored total penalty of 3.40 seconds at the rally. Rally director Vijay Parmar said that driving through snow over 25 kilometers on the Auli-Joshimath road was the most challenging stage for the rallyists.
“We have seldom encountered such heavy snow over a competitive stage even in the Raid De Himalaya. This was the most testing time for all competitors,” said Parmar. After driving through rain and snow for two days, the rallyists were greeted with brilliant sunshine on the drive from Ramnagar to Dehradun on Wednesday.
The highlight of the day was a drive through the outskirts of the Jim Corbett National Park, and the stretch from Mohan, via Medavan and Rathuadab towards the town of Dugaddah. “This is one of the most amazing drives I have experienced, through nearly 140 kilometers through dense forest and rivers bordered by small villages on the sides,” said Vishnu Singh of Jaipur, who ranked second at the rally.
The rally had started from Dehradun on February 2. The rally was organized on the TSD (Time-Speed-Distance) format, which is the sober format of motorsport and goes at controlled speed in all areas. The major teams competing in the Uttarakhand Rally included Team Tusker, Team Uttarakhand Motorsports, Team Maruti and Team DASC (Dune Adventure Sports Club).
Uttarakhand Tourism Minister Dinesh Dhanai had flagged off the Uttarakhand Adventure Car Rally at its ceremonial flag-off on February 1. Uttarakhand Secretary Tourism Uma Kant Panwar said motorsport is enabling the state to showcase its excellent road network and highly picturesque tourist destinations. Uttarakhand Adventure Car Rally offers highly attractive prize money of Rs 5 lakh, Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2 lakh for the top three teams respectively, and a special prize of Rs 1 lakh for the all-women’s team which performs the best or the best couple’s team. The rally was being supported by Maruti Suzuki and JK Tyres.