INRC SUV Challenge winner Lokesh Gowda promises bigger things: Champion Series

INDIAinF1 starts a series on champion drivers and riders beginning this week. As we head to the third round of the Indian National Rally Championship in Jodhpur next Sunday, we feature Lokesh Gowda, the winner of SUV Challenge at the second round in the Rally of Coimbatore.

Bengaluru 19 August 2019: The Indian National Rally Championship has always been a flagship event in Indian motorsports and it enjoyed huge patronage and high visibility with both the fans and the participants embracing it to make it popular and ever-green.

However, the Rally Nationals in two-wheelers suffered many breaks and heartaches before the championship was revived once again. Likewise, the rally events in the last few years have taken a beating with rising costs and other ground-level difficulties faced by drivers and teams alike, and the promoters and organisers too despite their best efforts have failed to pump-in the necessary resources both financially and otherwise to promote the sport. INRC has become a shortened event winding up in one-and-a-half days and the huge amounts that the promoters have to pump in, has strained even the big guns.

Under these circumstances, the arrival of Champions Yacht Club as the new Promoter has brought in a whiff of fresh air for the drivers and teams. Though the stage distances and the format remains the same, many drivers found new enthusiasm with the Champions Group fielding teams in all classes and backing them with the much-needed financial and technical support. Many talented and even experienced drivers and co-drivers were supported by the group and some of them have regained their wonted form with many of the nitty-gritty issues taken care of by the Team.

One of such drivers who was back in the limelight with Champions Group picking him up to drive for Team Champions is Lokesh V Gowda. The former celebrated bike rider, who pairs with talented navigator Sudhindra BG, has tuned his Honda CRV to field it in the SUV Challenge in the INRC. After their winning exploits in the curtain-raiser at the Sprint de Bengaluru, the Bengaluru duo put behind the travails at Chennai, where they had suffered a set back in the South India Rally and bounced back in the second round at Coimbatore, thriving the tricky terrain at the Windmill farms of Kethanur, and mastered the slushy conditions to come out triumphant in the SUV class. For the record, Team Champions made a sweep of all the three podium places in this class.

The top three places in the SUV Challenge went to Lokesh Gowda and co-driver Sudhindra BG who won the support class, while Gagan Karumbaiah and Thimmu Uddapanda pair came second followed by veteran Sanjay Agarwal and Smitha N.

Usually, the top classes always hog the media limelight and to support other winners, this Indian Motorsports website, www.INDIAinF1.com, will start a series of articles, beginning today, to feature the winners in the lower categories, as they too deserve appreciation for the hard work and dedication, which is no less than any other class. Today we feature Lokesh Gowda.

At the turn of the century, Lokesh Gowda made his debut in motorsports as a bike rider in 2001, at a local Autocross event, and soon he became addicted to motocross after winning his class in his third-ever event. And immediately, the passion found its strong roots.

“As a teenager, I was always intrigued by motorsports especially two-wheelers and the cross-country rallies ignited my interest. In 2001, I started with a local 2w autocross event and it was an instant addiction,” said Lokesh, who took to the sport, like a duck to water.

“From there-on I followed my passion, participated in local autocross events and started competing with professional riders,” he added. Soon his talent was noticed and his dedication yielded results with the stalwarts at Yamaha spotting him. He was selected as a Factory Rider for Team Yamaha India in 2002.

“I toured all over the country, racing for Team Yamaha for the next three years winning multiple events and motorsports became a way of life,” Lokesh quipped. He went on to win the MRF National Motocross Championship in 2003 and retained with equal vigour in 2004 to become a National champion twice in quick succession but unfortunately, he faced a jolt… out of the blue with Yamaha pulling out of racing in India.

He continued rallying as a privateer in the 2-wheeler category for a few more years making that much more effort without the support that factory-backing brings both financially and otherwise but a major on-track crash, at the INRC Chikmagalur event saw him fracture his right elbow and he also damaged his right shoulder in 2009.

It was the first year when IMG Sports and PSP together began to bring some professionalism into the sport bringing in much-needed facilities for the drivers and riders. The accident brought to focus the need to bring in more safety measures but unfortunately, Lokesh has decided to rest his bike.

But they say passion never dies. And soon Lokesh was back on the track, but this time he switched to cars. “In 2011, I moved into 4-wheeler dirt racing because it offered much comfortable driving in comparison to 2W rallying due to my arm injury as I felt, I could race without causing more damage to my shoulder or elbow,” the champion revealed.

Starting with Indian National Autocross Champion in 2012 he finished as the first runner-up in the championship and moved into Indian National Rally Championship in 2013 as a co-driver.

In 2014, he participated in the popular home event of K1000 in Bangalore as a driver and followed it with the Coffee Day Rally where he finished 2nd. In the following years, he continued participating in several Dirt events, Autocross events, Quarter-Mile drags along with INRC and won many of them.

But when queried why he maintained a low profile, he said: “Unfortunately, in India, a motorsport rallyist’s passion takes a backseat when it comes to nurturing dreams. The lack of attention to the sport, the ‘Zero’ funding, athletes receive from the government and the lack of sponsors are big obstacles for any participant to go forward. “Each one of us in the sport is deeply into self-budgeting our expenses. Many of us spend from our personal savings to continue the sport and keep up our passions alive and we run dry pretty soon. The same happened to me and so I had to stop rallying again after 2015. Getting a sponsor was a task in itself,” he quipped with a tinge of disappointment writ large on his face.

But his face lit up as soon as we started to talk about the present scenario. “Thanks to Team Champions, who came forward bringing in immense support. They provided the funding and importantly rekindled our interest imposing confidence in me. Their interest towards the betterment of rally drivers and motorsports in the country made me rethink and I joined the Team in 2018,” he said. He did not forget to thank Subhakar Rao, the team owner and promoter Mrs.Hemamalini Nidamanur of Champions Yacht Club. “Vamcy Merla has been a great support and he also helped us to get additional support from the JK Tyre,” he added talking about how drivers were helped to rope-in corporate sponsorship, though partially.

“The second round of INRC at Coimbatore has been great and rewarding considering the unsuccessful run I had at Chennai. Thanks to JK Tyres for their great support and sponsoring at the Rally of Coimbatore, I finished first in the SUV category. I am looking forward to next round in Jodhpur and winning this year’s championship title,” he concluded.

The Round 3 of the Champions Yacht Club fmsci INRC for four-wheelers will take place in Jodhpur, Rajasthan from September 20 to 22.