2-wheeler Rally Nationals (INRC) to begin with Puttur round: TVS raring to go

By David Bodapati

Puttur (Mangaluru), 27 Nov 2020: With four National champions under its colours, Team TVS Racing, a giant in the two-wheeler motorsports in the country, both rallying and racing, is raring to go as the MRF fmsci Indian Natioinal Rally Championship which begins here with the first round Special Stages (SS) organised at Panja, about 40km from here on Sunday.

A record number of entries of 67 including 4 ladies from across India have confirmed their participation. The 115.59km rally distance includes 57.39km special stage sections on the winding dirt roads,  going up and down the lush-green rubber-estate hills in and around the scenic Panja. For other details and last year, Championship results read the build-up article here.

Rajendra RE, the star campaigner of TVS racing and the current National champion in the top class, the Group A Pro-Experts class will spearhead the challenge astride an Apache RTR450. He will have teammate Nataraj to deal with first to retain his title this year along with others as he goes for another title. Last year, he began with a bang winning the first three rounds before TVS pulled out of the Coimbatore leg for want of time to produce the homologation papers for their new bikes. However, Rajendra won again at the 5th round here, with Puttur turning out to be one of his favourites tracks as he sealed the title before the championship went to K1000, which he missed again.

Bengaluru’s Aishwarya Pissay, the Baja World Cup champion, will be defending her ladies title on an Apache RTR 200 4V, with Ryhana Bee astride a Hero Impulse and local star Arpita Bhat also on an Impulse, will be fighting for the minor slots but only time will tell if they spring a surprise. There are five entries and Tanika Shanbhag from Satara in Maharashtra, who beat favourite Ryhana in the Sprint Nationals Round 4 last Sunday, can throw a surprise or two. Aishwarya, who is multiple National champion in circuit racing after making her debut in 2016 has sacrificed racing to focus on the off-road event and made a stunning resilience rising like a phoenix from a life-threatening accident that made her bed-ridden for a few months last year.

Promoted by God Speed Racing, organisers Ace Events, who put Puttur in the motorsports map of India four years back, will be hosting the event for the fourth year running and the man behind the club, ace rider Akash Aithal, will be the Clerk of the Course. “The terrain is technical and tricky and at the same time provides a challenge to the riders who will surely enjoy the mix of dirt and gravel track, winding up and down with two physical stages named Karkala and Palangaya,” Akash said. God Speed Racing which also promotes the Supercross Nationals is headed by another giant, Shyam Kothari, who was a multiple champion in his heydays not just in supercross but also in rally and motocross. This reporter still remembers when Kothari last won his National title at the football stadium in Bengaluru. A truly stunning achievement to win seven National titles. Kothari said: “The pandemic has delayed the season but we are well prepared with all the safety measures in place. And ACE Events of Puttur has done extremely well in organising the event and all the riders are eager to get back to the track.”

“Team TVS Racing has fielded the same team as last year which has four champions. Though much of our time is lost due to the pandemic, we are well prepared and I am confident our champions will continue to keep the TVS colours flying once again,” said Team Principal, Selvaraj, who took over a couple of years back, from the legendary Arvind Padgaonkar, who led the TVS team for over two decades.

Apart from Rajendra and Aishwarya, Imran Pasha and Syed Asif Ali. Pasha won the championship in the Class 4 for Super Sport 260cc bikes leaving Samuel Jacob (2nd in the championship) to fight with Sachin D last year. Asif Ali had won the National title in the Scooters upto 210cc class with ease as he took a huge lead in points as his teammates from TVS, Shamim Khan beat Pinkesh Thakur for the first runners-up in the championship battle. All the top-three riders in both these classes were trained and nurtured by Team TVS Racing and the factory team completed a championship sweep in these two classes.

Jatin Jain, a privateer from Nagpur, will defend his title in the Class 1A for Superbikes (Expert) and M Srikanth won the 2019 title in the Super Sport 130cc class while local star Ishan Chandra clinched Super Sport 165cc class. Mangaluru’s Sudeep Kottary in Super Sport 400 cc and Suhail Ahmed, who last Sunday won both the rounds of Sprint Nationals, will defend his title in the Super Sport 550cc Class 6. The other class left is Star of Karnataka for local riders, which is not counted for the National Championship points.

Sanjeev Matandoor, MLA Puttur, will be the Chief guest at the Ceremonial flag-off at the Puttur Club at 4.30 pm on Saturday. The PD (Prize Distribution) will be on Sunday.

Aakash Aithal will be the Clerk of the Course with the current Indian Rally Champion of four wheelers Chetan Shivaram, being the Assistant CoC. His co-driver Dilip Sharan is the CRO. Bhaskar Gupta of Karnataka Motor Sports Club is the Chief Steward. Chidananda NC and D Uday Kumar are the other stewards while experienced Yogesh Kalro will be the Technical Delegate.