MOTORSPORT
Amanpreet Ahluwalia bags the AFOS trophy and a 10 lakh cash prize
Arunachal Festival Of Speed and India Baja
TTHE FOURTH EDITION OF JK Tyre Arunachal Festival of Speed (AFOS) saw national rally champion Amanpreet Ahluwalia cruise to victory in his turbocharged Maruti Gypsy, finishing ahead of KM Bopaiah and Sandeep Sharma, who finished second and third respectively.
This year the competition was held over three days and the participants were divided into four categories, SUV class, 1600cc category, 2000cc category and a special North East category. Apart from Autocross, Hill Climb and Rally Sprint sections, AFOS conducted a number of extreme rally stages for the first time, this year.
Right from the Autocross challenge on day 1, Amanpreet Ahluwalia made sure he was at the top of the points table at the end of each day. Driving a turbocharged Gypsy, Amanpreet completed the ten special stages in a total time of 1 hour 2 seconds, clocking the fastest time in eight stages, taking a 27-second lead ahead of KM Bopaiah in second place. It was only in the flat out rally sprint that Bopaiah managed to outrun Amanpreet, thanks to his lighter and faster VW Polo. Veteran rallyist Sandeep Sharma held on to third position from day 1, finishing with a total difference of 2 minutes 7 seconds behind the leader. In the North East category, Baljit Singh finished first; 5 minutes and 59 seconds ahead of Ewellson. In the cars category (without roll cage), Babit Lyngdoh in his Maruti Esteem finished first in both the Autocross and the rally sprint stages, followed by Amitaabh Indar in second place and Kevin Puro in third.