Cougar Motorsport Pvt. Ltd.
has announced the opening of registrations for Force Gurkha RFC India 2016 to
be held in Goa from July 22 to July 29, 2016. The third edition of India’s
toughest off-road motorsport event will witness up to 25 teams competing for
the title. The event, launched in 2014, is one of the 25 worldwide editions of
the iconic Rainforest Challenge of Malaysia and the top Indian driver at the
India Chapter will get an automatic and free entry to the mother event to be
held in Malaysia in December 2016.
With the winners of the recently held North
and South India Chapters of Force Gurkha RFC India having secured free
automatic entry to the Goa event, there are now only 23 slots available for
Force Gurkha RFC India 2016 on first come first served basis.
Explaining the reason for limiting the
participation slots for the event, the event organiser Cougar Motorsport’s
Founder & Director Ashish Gupta said, “RFC India is an extremely tough
competition that tests the driving and vehicle recovery skills of the
contesting teams under extreme off-road conditions. As the event progresses,
the challenges keep getting tougher and completing the tasks in the allocated
time becomes very difficult for most of the teams due to vehicle breakdowns,
topples, faulty equipment and accessories as well as the mental and physical
fatigue of the competitors. Hence, we have kept an upper limit of 25 teams for
the competition in order to retain the high-quality standards of the
competition and yet complete the entire event within the stipulated time.”
Rainforest Challenge was launched in Malaysia
in 1997 and is recognised as one of the ten toughest motor races in the world.
The worldwide editions of RFC include Italy, Russia, The Balkans, Poland, Sri
Lanka, Vietnam, Thailand, Tunisia, China and Australia. Force Gurkha RFC India,
though merely two editions old, is already among the top three events of RFC
global series.
Force Gurkha RFC India is
divided into four competitive legs; The Prologue, The Predator, The Terminator
and The Twilight Zone. These legs are further divided into over 20 Special
Stages (SS) consisting of 100 points each. The competing teams gain points
based on successful completion of a task and incur penalties for making
mistakes, not starting or finishing a task as well as breaking competition
rules including the environment protection rules. The team with the maximum
points after the completion of all the Special Stages emerges as the winner of
the competition.
Anyone who is passionate about
off-road motorsport and has a relevant off-roading or motorsport experience can
register for the event. Vehicles have to be modified as per RFC India
guidelines. Registration fee for Indian contestants is Rs 75,000 per team with
each team comprising a driver and a navigator. All applications, except those
of past participants of Force Gurkha RFC India, will be reviewed by the
screening committee prior to acceptance. Interested off-roaders can download
the application form from the RFC India website, www.rfcindia.in.