CAPTION:(L-R) RFC India 2024 1st runners up Ujjal Namshum & co-driver Chethan Chengappa, RFC India 2024 Champions Dr Mohammed Fahed VP & co-driver Rajeev Lal and RFC India 2024 2nd runners up Anand V Manjooran & co-driver Vishnu Raj. Picture courtesy RFC India
After a week-long intense competition, Dr Mohammed Fahed VP and co-driver Rajeev Lal from Kerala have emerged as the winners of the Rainforest Challenge (RFC) India 2024. The duo won the 10th edition of India’s biggest and toughest offroad motorsport competition with an overall score of 2165 points out of 2600, which they got after competing in 26 Special Stages (SS) that tested their off-road driving and co-driving skills, their team coordination and their vehicle’s capabilities under extreme off-road conditions.
Ujjal Namshum from Arunachal Pradesh and co-driver Chethan Chengappa from Karnataka claimed the second position with 2039 points while Anand V Manjooran (co-driver Vishnu Raj) from Kerala took the third spot in the ranking table with 1874 points. N Abinav Reddy (Vishuthi Varun Chakravarthy) from Hyderabad and Cedrick Jordan Da Silva (Mackvin Dias) from Goa also made it to the Top 5 with 1802 and 1781 points respectively.
RFC India was launched by Cougar Motorsport in 2014 as the India Chapter of the Rainforest Challenge of Malaysia, which is ranked among the top 5 toughest off-road races in the world and which has regional chapters in over 30 countries worldwide. Organised annually in Goa with approvals from Goa Tourism, it is the longest running international offroad motorsport competition in India. The 10th edition of the mega event witnessed participation from 26 teams, consisting of some of the most evolved off-roaders of the country. The top three drivers of RFC India 2024 have won free entry to the RFC Global Series 2024 Finale to be held in Malaysia at the end of the year.
Expressing his happiness on winning the most coveted offroad motorsport trophy in the country in his fourth attempt, 38-year-old Dr Fahed, who is a paediatrician at an Ayurvedic government hospital in Kerala, said, “It’s a dream come true for me. RFC India is the toughest off-roading event in the country and in order to perform well, you need to be consistent throughout the competition as well as keep your brain engaged to come up with ideas on how to tackle each challenge. Unlike previous years when we played safe and tried to preserve the vehicle till the end, this year my co-driver Rajeev and I decided to go all out. Moreover, I had my family and my crew’s full support and they motivated me throughout to perform to the best of my ability.”
Congratulating the winners, Ashish Gupta, Director, Cougar Motorsport, said, “Off-roading is like a cult sport in Kerala and after years of sustained attempts by teams from Kerala, I am glad that the RFC India Champions trophy is finally going to God’s Own Country. It’s heartening to see that the level of vehicle preparation and competitors’ skills are now truly international and at par with anywhere else in the world.”
44-year-old Ujjal Namshum, who runs a tea plantation in the Namsai district of Arunachal Pradesh, was participating in RFC India for the third time this year. Recounting his experience, he said, “I have come to compete in RFC India after a gap of five years and this time I had a bigger and more powerful engine in my vehicle as well as the best co-driver in the country. Chethan is a brilliant strategist and he knows exactly where he has to be at any given point in an SS. This helped us save time and get the fastest timings in 11 of the 26 SS of the competition. Unfortunately, we had a few topples and since my vehicle was new, it took me a few days to get used to the car. This cost us majorly and we were unable to retain the lead we had taken in the first two days of the competition. It’s disappointing that we did not win but I thoroughly enjoyed myself, especially in the Special Stages that had speed runs.”
Apart from the Overall RFC India 2024 Champions and category winners, some special awards were also announced. Goan driver Cedrick Jordan Da Silva, the only driver who has competed in all the 10 editions of RFC India, was given the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’. Digvijay Sinh Parmar from Daman & Diu as well as Subhash Utekar were declared the ‘Rookie of the Year’ while Rajeev Lal from Kerala won ‘The David Metcalfe Jungleman Award’ this year. The father-son duo of Daulat Deepram Choudhary and Gaurav D Choudhary from Pune won the ‘Most Unique 4X4’ trophy. Team Mars won the ‘Environment Award’, the ‘Best Service Team’ award went to NC Garage from Kerala and Team Steel Heads got the ‘Team Award’ at RFC India 2024.