Though the champions—Sudip and
Arindam Ghosh—had built a sizeable lead over their closest rivals on the first
two days of the five-day rally, they slipped in the last three days with many
more penalty points than the Jaiswal-Roy duo. It was only the lead they
established in the first two days that saw them through to finish on top. The
fortunes of Rajiv Sarkar and Chandu Sekhar kept fluctuating throughout the
rally—they were in second position at the end of Day 1, slipped to third rank
on Day 2, sank to fourth on the next two days, but did better on the last leg
to ascend to the third position. However, their final scores placed them in the
fourth position overall.
The rally, which started from
Siliguri’s City Center on February 28, 2016, culminated at the same venue on
March 3,2016 afternoon. The rally route covered the forests, tea gardens and
riverbeds of North Bengal and the Duars, narrow roads skirting the precipitous
mountain slopes of the eastern Himalayas, the picturesque Paro Valley in
Bhutan, a high mountain pass and the verdant, fog-enveloped Darjeeling
Hills.
Sudip Ghosh, the driver of the
winning team, said: “The rally was tough and challenging, however, driving at
such a high altitude and difficult terrain was equally thrilling. My driving
mettle was put to severe test. Winning this rally brings to me a tremendous
sense of achievement”. The winners were awarded prize money of Rs 1 lakh while
the total prize money amounted to about Rs 2 lakh.
Sanjay Sharma, Head
Motorsports, JK Tyre & Industries Ltd., said “The 4th edition of the rally
has been a great success. It is for the first time that this rally has travelled
to international terrain and the Government of Bhutan has been extremely
supportive. I am very sure with this
kind of support and love for motorsports we can keep promoting our initiatives
beyond national borders.”
Tamal Ghoshal, Director of
Just Sportz, the organizer of the event was upbeat with the success of the
Rally as besides this being an Adventure Sports Event; it was aimed at
betterment of relations between Bengal and Bhutan.
Source: JK Tyre