Ali and Mustafa conquer the Himalayas
The 2017 Himalayan Drive traversed 1250km across three countries over the course of five days
DEFENDING CHAMPIONS Ajgar Ali and co-driver M Mustafa proved their mettle yet again after winning the 2017 JK Tyre Biswa Bangla Himalayan Drive. The National Time Speed Distance (TSD) rally champions Ali and Mustafa drove for five days through the wild, water bodies, hills and dirt to etch their name on the 2017 title. This was the first time the rally traversed through Nepal and made its usual journey through Bhutan.
The rally was flagged off from Siliguri and ran through the lush green foothills of the Himalayan range. It entered Bhutan and leg one ended in Paro. In this leg, Ajgar Ali and M Mustafa led the 337km rally with a penalty of just 1 minute and 3 seconds as Ashish Budhia (with co-driver Arindam Ghosh) tailing the leaders.
The rally then went through some picturesque routes through the kingdom of Bhutan before heading back to India. The terrain began to turn into broken tarmac beside the Kichu river and Paro marketplace. The rally went 65 kilometres to Dochula Pass which is 10170 feet above sea level. Ajgar Ali and M Mustafa led this leg with 63 penalty points while Ashish was second with 87 penalty points.
It was time to cross the border again and enter Nepal this time. Ajgar Ali and M Mustafa still held onto their lead while they crossed India’s highest railway station – Ghoom – situated at 7407 feet. The rally got even tougher after taking the East-West highway. It took the rallyists through one of the toughest 20km stretches, with dirt tracks and forests towards
Dthe end of the 260km rally with a total of 15 time controls. Here Deep Dutta (with co-driver Prakash Muthuswamy) got an aggressive start and gained second position.
The final day of the rally was flagged off from the Town Square of Hile in Nepal. The route went through the winding roads of Koshi highway to Dhankuta, crossing another mountain range and then on to Bhedetar before getting to the 20km long competition stage through the Taltalaiya forest with a total of 250km and 14 time controls.
At the end of the Biswa Bangla JK Tyre Himalayan Drive 5, Ajgar Ali and co-driver M Mustafa won by a total of 174 penalty points while Deep Dutta ranked second with 226 penalty points and Ashish Budhia came third. Following them were Vikay Kumar Sharma (with co-driver Chandan Sen) and Sandip Mukherjee (with co-driver Nagarajan Thangaraj) respectively.
“This edition of the Himalayan Drive was very interesting and for the very first time, we crossed over into another country in a rally. The discipline during the rally was excellent and the officials were very competitor friendly. That is why more and more teams from across the country and even neighbouring countries are participating in the rally,” said the winning driver Ajgar. ⌧