Roy triumphs at the Backwaters

JK Tyre’s national road racing championship kicks off at the Kari Motor Speedway

TTHE MARUTI SUZUKI National Superleague TSD Rally Championship’s third round culminated in Kochi on June 19. The three day action packed event was won by Subir Roy along with his co-driver, Nirav Mehta in their Swift. The second step on the podium was secured by Satish Gopalkrishnan and his co-driver Savera D’Souza in their Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara followed by Jagmeet Gill and Chandan Sen, who were driving a Vitara Brezza.

The rally covered a total distance of 600km over a period of three days, starting from Ooty. The flagoff took place at Hotel Gem Park as the participants were handed their road books and were directed towards the first driver’s test which took place on the outskirts of the hill station. The rally was split into four classes – Non-championship (Expert), Non Championship (Amateur), Denizen(Expert) and Denizen(Amateur). Located near Kalhatti Falls, the first test consisted of an uphill climb, all the way to the top, with drivers having to tackle all sorts of terrain, including sand, gravel and rocks. Championship contender Sachin Singh put up the fastest time in his Swift. The starting order for the next day was decided according to the rankings of this test. Day 2 began early and consisted of a 180km drive around Ooty, on a strategically recced route where contestants followed the Time-Speed-Distance format of rallying. The tulips then pointed the participants towards a private tea plantation which was the location of the second driver’s test. Test 2 was an extremely challenging 2km stretch with huge rocks and steep descents, with some hairpin bends thrown in to the mix for added effect. This meant several cars did not make it through the stage. End of the day, close to 20 cars awaited repairs to their axles, bent rims, broken suspension and even under-body parts. Subir Roy and his co-driver, Nirav Mehta led the tables with minimum penalties at the end of day 2. Day 3 was a long drive to Kochi from Ooty and covered most of the Salem-Kanyakumari Highway. TCs were given a miss as stopping on the highway is a safety hazard. As the contenders reached Kochi, they were surprised at being directed towards the Speedway Go-Karting track where several challenges lay ahead of the drivers. This was a fun Test 3 as it allowed the participants to push their cars around corners and also manoeuvre through several slaloms. As expected, the S-Cross 1.6 of Ajgar Ali triumphed in the third test. The final classification was also declared the same evening and Subir Roy and his co-driver Nirav Mehta were declared the winners with a total penalty time of just 17 minutes and 18 seconds.

Heading to Round 4 of the championship, Karthick Maruthi still leads the overall standings with 24 points, followed by Jagmeet

Gill and Sachin Singh with 20 and 17 points respectively. The next round – Mughal Rally is slated to be conducted between July 19 and 21 in the state of Jammu and Kashmir.