Team Force become TSD queens of North India
The duo of Mala Kapoor and co- driver Prathiba Anand claimed the TSD Queens of North India, winning the JK Tyre Times Women’s Drive in style late on Saturday evening.
Mala and Pratibha, in their TriColour painted car called Force, completed the 250- odd kilometres from New Delhi to Chandigarh with the least penalty ( 37: 35 minutes) to win the inaugural edition of this FMSCIapproved all- women competition.
As many as 300 ladies, in 100 cars, set off early in the morning from the Dhyan Chand Stadium in the Capital. Their driving and navigational skills were tested to the hilt in the two legs, manned by 14 hidden time controls.
In the first leg, the drivers drove through the streets of Delhi, before hitting National Highway 1 all the way to Karnal. The second leg began from Karnal and took them to Chandigarh via Panchkula.
The trio of Swapna Dhawan, Neena Jain and Pooja Matta, known as Indian, claimed the second position in their Toyota Fortuner, with a total penalty of 46: 47 minutes. The V2 rally team, consisting of Deepalo Saxena, Sangeeta Mehrotra and Nupur Galhotra, came home with a penalty of 65 minutes to take the third place on the podium.
The drive employed the highest safety standards, with JK’s racing professionals keeping an eye on each of the cars in their fast intervention vehicles.
In additional, there were enough ambulances and recovery vehicles along the route as part of their state of the art safety plan that was appreciated by each and everybody.
While the competition itself was intense, the women cleverly used the platform to educate and create awareness about various issues, including cancer, girl child, education, safe driving and women empowerment.
A number of teams paid tribute to the sacrifices made by the armed forces, decorating their cars to salute the real heroes of the country. It received a special word of appreciation from the guests, who were present for the prize distribution ceremony.
Apart from the TSD winners, a number of special prizes were handed out to the teams, including the Best Dressed Team award to Rashi Gupta, Bindu Sehra and Shweta Ranjan. The Best Groupfie went to Sugar & Spice consisting of Sadhna, Aditi and Meenakshi.
Monita Bhardwaj of Globe Trotters won the Most Stylish Woman award and Geetanjali, Vibha and Seema took the Best Social Message on the car, for their heartfelt take on cancer. The Best Car Karoake category went to Monisha and Snigdha while the team of Karthika and Jasmine had the award for the Most Socially Active team.