Champion TSD rallyists of the
country Ajgar Ali of Kolkata with navigator M. Mustafa of Tamilnadu have won
the three-day Second Uttarakhand Car Rally, which finished at Dehradun on
January 4, 2015. The duo were driving a Grand Vitara. They were running second
on Day Two of the rally. They finished with rally with a 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. The
prizes were given to all the competitors in a ceremony at Hotel Solitaire on
the Haridwar bypass.
Rally Director Mr Vijay Parmar
said that driving through snow over 25 kilometres 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 sunshine on the drive from
Ramnagar to Dehradun on the final day. 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. Truly
the Uttrakhand Rally combines the best of adventure and the most beautiful destinations
and scenic landscape,” said Vishnu Singh of Jaipur, who ranked second at the
rally.
The top-ranking teams in the
SUV category were Ajgar Ali-M Mustafa (total penalty of 3.20 minutes), Pratap
Thakur-Dhiraj Arora, (penalty 3.40 minutes); Sachin Singh-Prakash M, (penalty
3.54 minutes). In the car category, the top teams were Vishnu Singh-Adithya
Anthony (penalty 3.33 minutes); Amol Satoskar-T Natarajan (penalty 4.50
minutes), Gagan Sethi-Gagan Mehta (penalty 6.19 minutes).
The Couple’s Prize of Rs 1 lakh went to Kavya Saxena of
Delhi with Arvind Balan of Bikaner as her navigator. The Second Uttarakhand
Adventure Car Rally was 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 rally had started from
Dehradun on February 2. The rally was organised on the TSD
(Time-Speed-Distance) format. 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.