2016-17 MARUTI SUZUKI AUTOCROSS CHAMPIONSHIP
Three more rounds of the 2016 championship take place including the wild-card round in Mumbai
South Zone racing ends as Mumbai hosts the wildcard round
LEAVE YOUR FANCY EVO VIIIs, your Pajeros and what-nots at home, cause this ain’t a rally or a raid that you need high-tech gizmos to participate and set competitive times. This is autocross where a simple Tata Nano (there was one that we know of) could outsmart the best of the hot hatches, as the 2016 Maruti Suzuki Autocross championship held three more rounds of its series which saw the culmination of the South Zone take place in Hyderabad as well as the wild-card round in Mumbai. The third round took place for the North Zone competitors in Gurgaon.
South Zone Round 3: Hyderabad
The Sikh Village grounds in Secunderabad played host to the final round of the South Zone autocross. The round received a decent number of entries, but there were no participants in the 4WD Open class.
Vishal Raj shone at the event as he set the fastest time of the event in his Maruti Suzuki Baleno. Vishal hence was able to gain maximum points from the round and emerged as the champion of the South Zone in the 2WD Open class with 45 points. Driving the same Honda City VTEC, B C Roopesh and Prashanth R were able to join Vishal on the podium in the class.
Vishal goes to the grand finale and joining him from the Southern Zone would be Dr Bikku Babu, Prashanth R and B C Roopesh as the four of them have qualified for the 2WD Open class finale.
Avin Nanjappa’s win in Bangalore ensured him the ticket to the finale in the
4WD Open class. Being the only other participant in the category, Dheeraj K V also qualified for the finals with two spots left to be filled up.
North Zone Round 2: Gurgaon
The northern boys came out in strong numbers for the second round with many 4WD vehicles jumping around, making the event a marvellous spectacle. The course was set-up at the Leisure Valley grounds in Gurgaon.
The fight for the win in the 4WD Open class was a fiercely fought one with Amanpreet Ahluwalia battling it out in his Gypsy with Gaurav Chiripal and his yellow Grand Vitara. The most notable absence in the class was that of Suresh Rana who was the fastest man in the previous round in Chandigarh. Ahluwalia won the heat and took the top spot from Chiripal followed by Samrat in his Gypsy.
Jagbir Nirwan was the fastest man in the 2WD Open class as he added 25 points to his tally in a Maruti Baleno. Aditya Singh Thakur brought his Esteem across the line second fastest, while Philippos Matthai and his heavily modified Zen, nicknamed Merlin, picked up the final podium spot.
Wild-Card Round: Mumbai
The concept behind holding a wild-card round was that any participant who wished
to better his points tally irrespective of his zone would be allowed to compete and better his championship credentials. This meant that the boys from the South Zone could rack up more points after the Cochin round was washed out.
Philippos was miles ahead of the competition in the 2WD Open class in his Merlin, lapping the course three and a half seconds quicker than his closest rival Lakshay Veer Dabas, who was driving an Esteem. Dhruva Chand Rashekar was a further second slower in his Honda City, as all three of them opted to add their points to the North Zone tally.
However in the 4WD Open class, Raunaq Singh and Sartej Kumar Malreddy, winner and runner-up in the class, chose to put in their entries for the South Zone. This enabled them to qualify for the grand finale at the Buddh International Circuit. Both Raunaq and Sartej ran Gypsys and so did third place finisher G Arvind Reddy.
Only the Jaipur round remains for the North Zone qualifiers, which has nearly seven drivers slugging it for the four spots in the 4WD class. But Philippos on the other hand has ensured himself of a guaranteed spot in the finals by amassing 65 points in the 2WD Open class. The Jaipur round is scheduled for February 18-20 while the finals will take place at the Buddh International Circuit on March 3-5. ⌧