Blueband INRC back to Ziro; Arunachal beckons top Indians drivers to North-East

Itanagar, (Arunachal Pradesh), 12 June 2023: Arjuna Awardee Gaurav Gill (co-driver Aniruddha Rangnekar) of JK Tyre, the winner of first round APRC, is raring to re-launch his domestic campaign while defending champion Karna Kadur will have a new but experienced co-driver in Kumar Ramaswamy as record numbers, including the cream of Indian talent, pour into Arunachal Pradesh for the second round of the Blueband fmsci Indian National Rally Championship at the picturesque hill station here from June 14 to 16. With rain forecast during the rally, the mountain roads will turn challenging for the drivers, making the event all the more spectacular.

Gaurav Gill, the 7-time National champion and the first and only Indian to have three Asia Pacific Rally Championship titles will spearhead the campaign after missing the first round INRC at the Blueband MMSC South India Rally 2023, where he took part only in APRC, and won it hands down putting his Subaru Impreza STi N14 on the pedastal after tricky and slushy two days. Reigning champion Karna Kadur, former champions Aditya Thakur, Rahul Kantharaj, Aroor Arjun Rao, Dean Mascarenhas and Amittrajit Ghosh will be the other six top guns in INRC, the premier class.

“Good to be back here. Two years we missed out on this rally. It is a very special rally for me. The Arunachal Government gives so much support here and we get the best roads which are super fast mountain roads. Looking at the weather it is a big game-changer as heavy rain is forecast which is to my liking. Yes, it will change a lot of set-up and tyre selection is crucial. I am well prepared and the JK Tyres offer me the best,” said Gill, who is gunning for his record 8th National INRC title in a Mahindra XUV300. Arunachal is the happy hunting ground for Gill, who won all the INRC rounds held here till now, two in Itanagar in 2020, and once in Ziro 2017, with Musa Sherif as navigator.

“I am feeling very positive after winning INRC Round 1. Arunachal being a tarmac rally, the set up of the car will be different and I am looking forward to see how my Baleno will perform in its 1st tarmac test. We have couple of night stages as well that makes it interesting. We have done testing and the feeling is good. Looking forward to a good event,” said Aroor Arjun Rao of Mandovi Racing, who broke the ice with winning the INRC section of the South India Rally, the first round this year.

The Rally of Arunachal returns to its tarmac home Ziro, two years after visiting Itanagar for the 2020 championship double-header. Ziro, the only tarmac rally in the Blueband Sports calendar, which made its INRC debut in 2017, and offers high speeds, high-altitude rallying, and technical challenges including night stage cold tyres. The Rally of Arunachal organised by the local Motorsports Club of Arunachal is sponsored by Arunachal Pradesh Tourism under the Department of Youth Affairs (and Sports) with MRF Tyres as Associate Sponsor. Promoted by Blueband Sports, the rights winners of the INRC, the rally also has Mahindra Thar Club, another local club lending a hand.

“We are proud to bring back the National rally to Arunachal as drivers and teams loved the Rally in Nagaland last year. North-East states offer well-maintained roads and with the support of Arunachal Pradesh Government and the police, we get closed tarmac high-way roads that offer high speeds,” said Premnath Kashi, the Chief Promoter and the man who brings the spectacular show to North East.

The roads are closed and manned by the State’s police machinery along with the Safety officer Shrikant GM, a former champion, who did yeoman job, the last time around. All ambulances and other safety measures are in place as per the Federations regulations and experienced Clerk of the Course Girija Shankar Joshy is conducting the event with the support of trained local Marshals who know every bit of route under the guidance of Lhakpa Tsering and Arindam Ghosh, two former rally drivers of repute who will be the Chairman of the Event and Chief Administrator, respectively.

After a day in the familiar Chimpu (16.05km, SS1 & SS3) and Hollongi (18.10km, SS2 & SS4) Special Stages (SS), that would be run twice in the forward direction on Wednesday, the 2.05-km Super Special Stage (SSS, SS5 & SS6) is run twice in the chilling night that is bound to offer a technically challenging cold tyres for the drivers to tackle.

Then the caravan moves uphill (from 320 metres above mean sea level to about 1680m) on Thursday morning on the winding roads to still cooler Ziro for final four Special Stages (SS). The two physical stages are Yazali (10.25km) and longer Yachuli Special Stage is 14.75 km. All the cars run both the Yazali (SS7 and SS9) and Yachuli (SS8 and SS10) in the forward direction, once in the afternoon and once in the night and the event ends at about 11pm in the hills to offer a thrilling extravaganza to the speed lovers. The rally has 122.4km of competitive timed distance and offers a total distance of 283km including 160.6km of transport section, where the drivers must follow normal road rules.

INRC2 will have 12 cars but INRC3 continues to be the popular category with 22 cars while the INRC4 saw the entry of five cars along with 5 Gypsy entries in the non-Championship Challenge event.

There will also be 8 lady drivers who are competing on equal footing with men and 8 below-26 year drivers in the Junior INRC category.

They include two all-woman entries of Pragathi Gowda and Trisha Alonkar and daughter-mom pair of Shivani and Dr Vani Parmar. Bengaluru’s Deeksha Balakrishna navigates for Aditya Kousgi. Nikeetaa Takkale and Anushriya Gulati have male navigators. Phoebe Dale Nongrum of Shillong will be the only lady driver from North East with a male co-driver in Shivamogga’s Dinesh S.            

Top guns Gaurav Gill and Dean Mascarenhas of JK Tyre will be among the eight privateers (non-team entry) gunning with top outfit Arka Motorsports’ 12 cars tuned by N Leelakrishnan and Chettinad Sporting’s seven cars tuned by Thiyagarajan and Roshan. Newcomers Ammyfied Rallying, headed by Aeman Ahemad and Sagar, have fielded the highest number of 14 cars while SNAP headed by Sumit Punjabi has seven cars managed by Nitin Jacob.

Former champion Arjun Rao Aroor fresh from his victory (INRC) in the South India Rally in Chennai will be the lone crusader for Mandovi Racing while another top Road Racing team which entered rallying this season is Dark Don, that has two cars with talented international lady driver Anushriya Gulati and Jason Saldanha, who made his international debut podium this year in Indonesia.

The event offers prize money of over Rs.9.3 lakhs and trophies in eight different classes for drivers, co-drivers and teams. Best tuners in each class also get trophies.