Naren-Chander win Rallye de Endurance

By George Francis

Madikeri, 13 Nov 1998: Team MRF roared through the coffee estates of Madikeri, to place Overall one to six in the Castrol Rallye de Endurance, 1998. Naren Kumar and MK Chander, N Leelakrishnan and Farooq Ahmed, Arjun Balu and Kumar Ramaswamy, Sagar Muthappa and Sandeep S Rao, Karandip Singh and Jaidas Menon, and Jagat Nanjappa and Anita finished in that order. While the first three were driving Group A Modified cars, the following three were in Group N un-modified class.

Arch rivals, Team JK Tyres crashed all their six Esteems on the treacherous roads of Coorg. But Team Chettinad Sporting’s Navaz Bathena and Sherin Balachandran and the three private teams Thyagu Valliappa and Sujith, NK Ramesh and Vishnu Kamath, and Homi Dhunjibhoy and Zubir Nariman finished the ardous route. Never has Indian rallying seen such domination by one team in any event.

On November 11, the pre-event scrutiny was gone through at Capitol Village, Madikeri, and the compulsory drivers’ briefing was held the same evening. Twenty-three cars passed scrutiny and were ready for the challenge. They comprised eight cars sponsored by MRF Tyres, six sponsored by JK Tyres, two from Team Chettinad Sporting and one from Birla Tyres, and six private entries.

The route looked quite simple. Five estates of the Consolidated Coffee, namely Polibetta, Cottabetta, Woshully, Margolly and Siddapur, repeated three times in the same direction, in the same order, followed by a 60-minute re-grouping of the rallyists and an opoposite run of Polibetta, Siddapur, Margolly, Woshully and Cottabetta in that order, and the repeat of the same barring Cottabetta, made up the 134.81km stages. A service park was set-up near Polibetta, and could be visited once after each sequence, totalling four service stops of 15 minutes each, and a resort in the outskirts of Bangalore on the Bangalore-Hyderabad highway.

At 9.02 hours on November 12, the Castrol Rallye de Endureance started with the 1997 winners and four-times National champion Hari Singh and Gurinder Singh Mann taking the starter’s flag. At 2-minuate intervals, the 23 cars took off. It was interesting to note that Yemagoondi, a very difficult stage in the 1997 chapter of this rally, was dropped this year. The first stage was run with not much of difficulty. But when the rallyists reached Cottabetta the second time, things turned topsy-turvy. Manik RAikhy, of JK Tyres, crashed and pulleld out. Behind him came RAvi JOuhari of BIrla Tyres whose navigator brother Deepak Jouhari missed a call and crashed next. Niaz Ali, the Indian settled in Australia, brought in by JK Tyres, with his Aussie Navigator Darren Mark Macro, also ended their endurance there. With two prime cars for JK Tyres gone, Hari Singh continued his valiant fight for his team.

In the meantime, there was a faux paux by the organisers. When Manik Raikhy crashed, VR Naren Kumar and MK Chander of Team MRF, the third car had already started the Cottabetta stage. Raikhy’s car had blocked the route and Naren and Chander were waiting for the car to be moved out. One of the officials manning the start TC at Cottabetta, arrived on the scene and advised Naren to go back to the start of the stage for a restart. Naren informed the official that it was against the National Competition Rules to go in the opposite direction of the rally, but was told that all other cars behind him have been stopped and there is no danger. Naren went back for the re-start, and it became an issue after the rally was over.

Meanwhile, when the third stage of the day, the Woshully, was on BS Pruthvi and Shivu Shivappa (JK Tyre) and Samir Thapar and Koka Rahul Rao (JK Tyre) gave up with mechanical problems. The only JK cars that remained were of Hari Singh and Satish Bhat. A private entrant Roshan Akhtar and R Thiagarajan also pulled out here.

Upkar Dicky Gill and Aditya Jaswal (Team MRF) decided that Pollibetta was best they can complete and pulled out. That was the first casualty for MRF. Even as the other challengers became more and more confident, Umakanth Alva and Nikhil Dhruv, the last starters, gave up their bid in the Woshully stage, in the first repeat. On the 10th Special Stage namely, Siddapur, JK Tyres Rally Team lost Satish Bhat and Moosa Sherif, who pulled out with mechanical problems. Only Hari Singh continued with the rally.

When the rally reached the 12th stage, the third run of Cottabetta, Vijayant Chowdhry, the navigator turned driver for Team MRF, found his Group N car sputtering to a stop. Piqued by the unbelievable situation, Vijayant checked everything and found all in order. Suddenly, he realised that something important was missing, the Petrol tank. He went back a kilometre, and found the tank with 25 litres of petrol lying on the wayside. That was the second casuality, for Team MRF. SA Sridhar, the two-wheeler legend from Coimbatore, along with navigator Victor, driving for Team Chettinad Sporting, also pulled out here.

The next stage, the third run of Woshully, saw the total `rout’ of JK Tyres Rally Team, as Hari Singh and Gurinder Singh Mann bowed out. STories of Team JK’s plight spread like wildfire across the route. Sandeep Kadur and Dilbagh Gill also pulled out in this stage. There were only 10 cars remaining out of the 23 who challenged the Rallye de Endurance.

Team MRF Tyres was sitting pretty with 1-to-6 placings with Navaz Bathena and Sherin Balachander  and three other private teams continuing behind them. The most interesting fact to note was Karandeep Singh and navigator Jaidas Menon, were leading the Group N placings, followed by Sagar Muthappa and Sandeep S Rao, both from Team MRF. That, Team MRF has found an excellent driver in Karandeep, was proved. But, it is reported, that both Karandeep and the third placed in Group N, Jagat Nanjappa, were asked by the team to ease up on the pedal and let Sagar win.

When the second part of the rally took off after the re-group, Team MRF played it cool, to avoid mistakes and finished 1-6. Never has the team had it so good, and every member was all praise for the preparation of the cars.

In the wee hours of November 13, the remaining 10 cars checked into the finish time control at Dominion. The post-event scrutiny put eveyone of the competitors in the 1-10 order, and the stewards asked Naren Kumar of Team MRF for an explanation for going in the opposite direction, which he promptly said was on the official’s insistence. The official requested the steward of the meet to mark them low in the points for running the championship rally, but to spare the competitor.

Team MRF, which took the 1 to 6 placings of the Castrol Rallye de Endurance, also claimed the Group A and Group N championships for 1998.

Provisional Results:

Overall: 1. VR Naren Kumar/ MK Chander (Team MRF) (2hours, 23minutes, 50seconds); 2.N Leelakrishnan/ Farooq Ahmed (Team MRF) (2:25:02); 3. Arjun Balu/ KR Kumar (Team MRF) 2:26:23).

Group A:  1. VR Naren Kumar/ MK Chander (Team MRF) (2hours, 23minutes, 50seconds); 2.N Leelakrishnan/ Farooq Ahmed (Team MRF) (2:25:02); 3. Arjun Balu/ KR Kumar (Team MRF) 2:26:23).

Group N: 1. Sagar Muthappa/ Sandeep S Rao (Team MRF) (2:27:33); 2. Karandeep Singh/ Jaidas Menon (Team MRF) (2:28:45); 3. Jagat Nanjappa/ Anita Nanjappa (Team MRF) (2:32:02).

National Rally Championship Sandings after six rounds:

Overall: Drivers: 1. N Leelakrishnan 115 points; 2. Arjun Balu 61.5 points; 3. Sagar Muthappa 72 points.

Navigators: 1. Farooq Ahmed 95 points;  2. MK Chander 80 points; 3. Sandeep S Rao 72 points;

Group A Modified: Drivers: 1. N Leelakrishnan 115 points; 2. Arjun Balu 61.5 points; 3. VR Naren Kumar 34 points;

Navigators: 1. Farooq Ahmed 95 points;  2. MK Chander 80 points; 3. KR Kumar 34 points.

Group N unmodified: Drivers: 1. Sagar Muthappa 72 points; 2. Jagat Nanjappa 38.5 points; 3. Karandip Singh 36.5 points;

Navigators: 1. Sandeep S Rao 65 points; 2. Anita Nanjappa 38.5 points; 3. Jaidas Menon 36.5 points.