Champion rallyists Ajgar Ali of Kolkata and navigator M. Mustafa of Tamil Nadu are competing for the top spot at the Second Uttarakhand Car Rally with Vishnu Singh of Jaipur and navigator Aditya Anthony of Bangalore.Vishnu Singh and Aditya Anthony have been numero uno at the Mughal Rally and other TSD rallies in the country. Motorsport champions Ajgar Ali and Mustafa were third overall at the first edition of the Uttarakhand Car Rally last year.
The other competitors who are scoring high at The Second Uttarakhand Car Rally include Pramod Whig-Jaidas Menon of Bangalore, and Amol Satoskar of Goa with navigator G. Natarajan of Tamil Nadu.Because of the avalanche warning in the higher reaches of the state for Monday, five teams dropped out of the rally and did not take the flag-off from Dehradun. Rally Director Vijay Parmar said that all the 35 spots at rally had been taken up and it was a full house at the time of official scrutiny of vehicles on Sunday. “Because of the avalanche warning, five teams chose to drop out and did not join the rally. Most of these teams that dropped out were from Rajasthan,” said Parmar.
The Second Uttarakhand Adventure Car Rally has been organised by Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board (UTDB) in association with Himalayan Motorsport, the premier Shimla-based motorsport club. Himalayan Motorsport organises the Raid De Himalaya, one of the top ten toughest rallies in the world.The Second Uttarakhand Car Rally began from Dehradun at 6.30 am o Monday. On Day One, the rallyists covered a distance of approximately 300 kilometers from Dehradun to Auli. A total of 30 teams took the flag-off from TC (Time Control) One of the rally.
All these teams successfully reached Auli in the evening. The rally is organised on the TSD (Time-Speed-Distance) format, which is the sober format of motorsport and goes at controlled speed in all areas.For the rallyists, the major challenge of the day was the drive from Joshimath to Auli. Since many rallyists were not familiar with driving on an icy track, the last 12 to 15 kilometers nearing Auli made driving challenging for them.
The competitive stretch for the day ended before the rallyists encountered snow or ice on the road, since driving would be especially slow here. Parmar said that the competitors driving two-wheel drive vehicles were told to put on show chains on the tyres of their vehicles to traverse the stretch successfully. The rallyists had earlier been instructed to come prepared with snow chains for their vehicles, since these would be required in the Auli region.
Jaidas Menon, who is competing at the Uttarakhand rally, is the organiser of Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare, one of the prestigious marathon rallies of the country.Menon said he had been looking forward to competing at the Uttarakhand rally, since he had not visited the State earlier and was excited about rallying here. Menon, who is seven-time national champion at the Indian National Rally Championship (INRC), said he was navigating here for his friend Pramod Whig, also from Bangalore.
The major teams competing in the Uttarakhand Rally include Team Tusker, Team Uttarakhand Motorsports and Team DASC (Dune Adventure Sports Club). Arvind Balan of Bikaner said their club is here with three teams, and they are looking forward to winning the team trophy. Kavya Saxena of Delhi, who works with Indian Oil and organises heritage walks in the capital city, said she was finding the Uttarakhand car rally an amazing experience.
“The people of the State are really warm and gracious. We stopped at a place to check our timing and the locals there rushed up to us and warmly asked us if we wanted tea. The beautiful landscape and the affection of the locals have made the rallying experience wonderful,” said Saxena. Uttarakhand Tourism Minister Dinesh Dhanai flagged off the Uttarakhand Adventure Car Rally at its ceremonial flag-off on February 1.
The rally is open to any brand or model of automobile, and SUVs and cars compete separately in their own categories.Uttarakhand Secretary Tourism Uma Kant Panwar said motorsport is enabling the state to showcase its excellent road network and highly picturesque tourist destinations. Panwar added that motorsport combined well with the state’s entire adventure tourism portfolio of skiing, white-water rafting, trekking, mountaineering and wildlife photography. On February 3, the rally will cover about 280 kilometers from Auli to Ramnagar, on the eastern flank of the Jim Corbett Park.
On the last and final day of the rally on February 4, the rallyists will move from Ramnagar to Mussoorie. The rally route will cover approximately 1000 kilometers in the State. Uttarakhand Adventure Car Rally offers 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. The rally is being supported by Maruti Suzuki and JK Tyres.