Small Wheels, Big Challenge
Scooters put their off-road ability on display
This year’s JK Tyre Monsoon scooter rally saw 34 participants across five classes descend upon sarul, a village outside Nashik, to take their scooters into battle over some extremely challenging terrain. Muck, slush, and rocks hidden within pools of standing water stood in their way as they navigated three laps of the challenging five-kilometre course.
Organized by sportscraft and powered by TVs racing, the annual rally attracts hopeful scooter racers from afar and this year the event saw entries from Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, raigad, Bhopal, and Panvel arrive at the rain-soaked venue to put man and machine to the test. The event was scheduled to take place near Mumbai, but an unexpected change meant that the organizers had to shift the venue at the last minute; a feat they pulled off admirably.
Top honours went to the veteran rider and reigning champion, Venkatesh shetty, riding an aprilia sr 150 in the premier 80- to 210-cc four-stroke class. Maintaining excellent pace through the muddy course, the Mumbaibased racer completed the first lap with a time of 6:13, the second in an unbelievable 5:57, which stood as the fastest time of the day, and his third and final lap was dispatched in 6:02 on the clock. With a total time of 19:13, Venkatesh took home the first-place trophy, a cheque for rs 10,000, and a set of JK Tyre Blaze scooter tyres.
in second place was Mumbai’s Zeeshan sayed, also riding an aprilia sr 150, who completed the race with a
time of 21:36, while TVs racing’s syed asif ali from Bhopal finished third on a TVs Ntorq with a time of 22:19.
Popular racer Pinkesh Thakkar showed good pace early on, but when some dirt flew into his eyes, obscuring his vision, he was forced to retire.
in the 80- to 100-cc two-stroke class it was Mumbai’s rohan Thakur who triumphed aboard a Kinetic Marvel with a time of 24:58, just ahead of Nashik’s Nilesh Thakare and sangli’s Mohasin shaikh, both riding Kinetic hondas.
in the 110- to 160-cc geared scooter class, it was Mumbai’s Manjit singh Bassan who took top honours with a time of 25:52, Chinmay Bisht, also from Mumbai, secured second place, while Bhopal’s Vicky Jaskaransingh made it to third place. all three competitors were riding LML Vespa scooters.
in the Ladies class it was Panvel’s amruta Guruji who brought her honda activa across the finish with a time of 40:55 for first place, while Pune’s Niraj Wanjale took home the trophy for the best time by a newcomer to the rally (27:48).
With another event drawing to a close, the competitors, all muddy, wet, and happy, headed back to their respective cities. expect to see them and their scooters back next year for another messy JK Tyre Monsoon scooter rally.