INRC, the flagship event of Indian Motorsports, returns to North East with a double dhamaka

David Bodapati December 14, 2020

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By David Bodapati

Itanagar (Arunachal Pradesh), 14 Dec 2020: The flagship event of all the Nationals in Indian Motorsports, the Indian National Racing Championship 2020 (INRC) makes a grand return to the North East with a double dhamaka of back-to-back rounds where a combined 86 highly-competitive drivers and navigators are expected to begin their fight for national honours with the King of Indian Motorsports Gaurav Gill leading the charge in Yellow colours. INRC 3-day Round 1 is on Dec 15 &to 17 and Round 2 is from 18th to 20 including scrutiny, reconnaissance and Special Stages, with night stages thrown in as bonus.

Speedmaster and former national Overall INRC champion Karna Kadur of with one of the senior most navigators Nikhil Vittal Pai, can throw a spanner in any of the top-guns with speed, aggression and experience at their command. A win is long-time coming for the Karnataka duo and they can spring a surprise. With Yokohama coming back, the good days of Team Red Rooster Racing were fresh in the minds of Rally lovers. Kadur was also a driver instructor at that academy under 7-time National champion and celebrated tuner N Leelakrishnan.

Another Bengaluru team Rahul Kantharaj and Vivek Y Bhatt, also former champions, begin as co-favourites in INRC2 class along with Dhruva Chandrasekhar pairing with experienced navigator PVS Murthy and, Suhem Kabir navigated by Jeevarathinam. These stalwarts have been in the rally scene thrilling fans with their skills for many years.

Bringing in a slew of benefits to the Indian rally scene, the promoters Champions Yacht club under Vamsi Merla have brought benefits that trickled down to the drivers, where huge costs of transportation, tyres, free accommodation, and entry fee waiver were provided along with the organisers, Motor Sports Association of Arunachal.

Defending champion Chetan Shivram will be back with his tested navigator Roopesh Kholay, representing Yokohoma-shod tuned by FRK Racing in the INRC2 rally-prepared Volkswagon Polo while 7-time National Champion and multiple-APRC title holder Gaurav Gill of Delhi, also seeded A, will be running Yellow on JK Tyres in Mahindra XUV 300 and will be the cynosure of all eyes. His Mahindra teammate Amittrajit Ghosh, who shifted from MRF to JK tyres this season, is seeded B, and will drive XUV300 in INRC, but Mahindra pulled out their team entry season. Such a heavy vehicle, one may think, is not ideal for high rally speeds, but when a heavyweight like Gill, is given an upgrade to Sequential gear system, the mean machine will trend on twitter too, not just on the closed highway Special Stages. This is the only rally in India, where a State Government provides security and closes a National Highway for motorsport. Look for #PoweredByMahinndra hashtag and watch live times at @VgoNext on Facebook! The Rally of Arunachal last held in 2018 as INRC leg, Gill and Musa Sherif, the senior most navigator in the country, were leading by a mile when the drive shaft gave away and Amittrajit Ghosh, capitalised on it with both hands. But not before Gill touched a speed of 172-kmph.

The other champion drivers of last year seeded A to watch out for are talented Dean Mascarenhas and navigator Shrupta Padival, Kerala’s Speed king Dr. Bikku Babu with co-driver Bonnie Thomas, both in INRC2 along with defending overall champion driver Shivram, whose champion co-driver Dilip Sharan will be missing in action. Goa’s Vaibhav Marathe and Suhan MK, of Coorg, the reigning INRC3 champs will be in Honda City with last year’s junior champion Fabid Ahmer, from Palakkad driving with a new co-driver Eldo Chacko from Ernakulam, is expected to provide stiff fight from behind the wheel of a VW Polo INRC3.

Conducted by Motorsports Club of Arunachal headed by dynamic Lhakpa Tsering and his hardworking team, in association with Ramakrishna Race Performance (RRPM of Kolkata) and promoted by Champions Yacht Club under the able leadership of Vamsi Merla, under the aegis of the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (fmsci), the INRC for two-wheelers returns to Itanagar after a hiatus of a year missing the calendar and the Tarmac terrain of 2018 event is still preferred by all the drivers this year too. The sport touched a new height with 43 confirmed entries reaching the North East assisted by supported transportation by road for the cars and by helicopter ride for some lucky drivers and navigators. “This is the first time that sports persons in the country are being taken to the venue by a copter in any sports discipline for a domestic National event, thanks to COVID19 and the concern of the promoter,” said a rally fan of 25-years from Bengaluru.

Sponsors of Team Vasundhara arrive along with other drivers and co-drivers in Itanagar which saved them an 8-hour drive. On the right: A couple of drivers interact with the captain of the Helicopter in Itanagar on 14 December 20, Photos by David Bodapati

The 178.22km Special Stage (SS) rally on closed tarmac 4-way highways runs on a short liaison distance of 70.22km under regular road-traffic rules and along with Special Stage distance of 108km at high rally speeds. Gill touched speeds of 190km in 2018. There are two Physical Stages named Chimpu and Hollongi, both 13.8km, run twice each in forward direction and reverse direction form 8 SS for Round 1 and 8SS for round two. `The terrain is very fast and we are expecting fast times and all the arrangements for regular motorsport safety, scrutiny and the current government supervised COVID bio-bubble is being followe,’’ assured Coc Girijashankar Joshi.

The fmsci National Championship will run for 19 classes with titles for Drivers, Co-drivers and teams in INRC, INRC2, INRC3, INRC4, INRC NR4 and Indian National Junior Champion driver. The fmsci Gypsy Rally championship will be a support class.

“Motorsports needs makes us give utmost priority to safety and now COVID19 Standard Operating Procedure (SoP) taught us to be more stringent on important issues like health and all the drivers, support staff are being taken RTPCR tests and a full safe environment being created with utmost care. The terrain is fast and we have 43 top entries from all over the country. The Arunachal Pradesh government and Tourism department all other supporting us and I thank them,” said Lhakpa Tsering, Director of the Meet and the man behind the big event coming to NE one again.