Bengaluru, 22 August 2021: Pragathi Gowda of Bengaluru claimed overall honours bagging the fastest driver tag powering her Volkswagen Polo to a stunning time of 2 min, 22.268 seconds over two-laps of the 1-km United Off-road track in the 2021 Time Attack organised by Chetan Shivram Motorsports, a two-day FMSCI-licensed event that concluded here on Sunday.
Ashwin Reddy, Abhin R Rai and Syed Salman bagged a double each in the professional class on Saturday and Sunday respectively. Moin Pasha, Sahil Khan and Asad Pasha also won their classes in the pro section. The event supported by Eco-Life, Anvitha Estates, DC Motorsports and Unite Motorsports received overwhelming response with 176 entries which were divided into professional and amateur sections. Trophies were provided by 6T9th.com and Starttline Motorsports manned the timing equipment that gave one by thousandth of a second times for every driver.
You can watch the Time Attack on Unite Motorsport YouTube here!
Beating many top male drivers in the 13-car start list of the feature event, the 2nd year MBA student who is just three caps in the Indian National Rally Championship (INRC), slided the corners and attacked the straights to top the time-sheets in Race 1 to beat Ashwin Reddy to second and Moin Pasha to third place. Pragathi eased off on Day 2 due to the slippery track where rookie Syed Salman, proved his mastery on the slushy terrain to beat Asad Pasha and star driver Dhruva Chandrasekhar who was not in his elements on the day due to technical issues with his car.
“It’s always a good feeling to improve times and Time Attack provided me the right stage as the terrain is very technical and it helped me sharpen my skills to be ready for the INRC. Beating the big boys is a bonus,” added the Bengalurean, who made pundits take notice with her speed in a rally-prep INRC3 spec, in her debut at Itanagar last December.
Jayanth Samynathan won Race 1 in the Rally Cars class beating Reddy brothers Ashwin and Tarun while in Race 2 on Sunday, Syed Salman took the honours with Ashwin Reddy taking a second again and Asad Pasha completing the podium.
Ruthuparna Vivek, Amrut Shekar and Mohammad Uzair won the Amateur races on Day 1 while Ruthuparna Vevek got a double gold on Day 2 in 1600cc and 2000cc even as Arvind won the 1400cc and Mohammed Shabaz bagged 1100cc class.
Naresh of Bro Racing won the Tuner class with veteran INRC tuner Yusuf of Snap Racing taking second and Amju of Ideal Racing came third.
“Since a lot of newcomers including first-timers are there. We wanted to provide a platform where they would not be fighting with the veterans which is very de-motivating. So we had separate class for modified cars driven by professionals,” explained Chetan Shivram, the Clerk of the Course. Shivram, the 2019 Indian National Rally Champion, is a top motorsports mentor training every month scores of rally drivers to excel and was recently roped in by the INRC Promoters to conduct a Driver school to train over two dozen lady drivers ready for INRC. “I thank Nikhil of Unite Off-track for preparing and providing the beautiful track,” added the man behind the show.
“We conducted the event in a bio-bubble following all the COVID protocols of the government as safety is always a top-priority in motorsports. With virtually no events for drivers to get their seat time, Time Attack is a great op for them to brush up their skills for the National rallies and gain some practice in a competitive environment,” said Sanjeev P Shah, the Chief Steward and Secretary of Karnataka Motor Sports Club (KMSC).
Final (Provisional) Results:
Professional Race 1 (2 laps):
Pro United Off-road Open Class: 1. Pragathi Gowda (02 min, 22.268 seconds); 2. D Ashwin Reddy (02:23.665); 3. Moin Pasha (02:24.242).
Pro Upto 1100cc: 1. Moin Pasha (02:30.027);2. Abhisek Gowda (02:32.517); 3.Prakash R (02:34.459).
Pro Upto 1400cc: 1.Abhin R Rai (02:27.936); 2.Sahil (02:29.277); 3. Moin Pasha (02:29.516);
Pro Upto 1600cc: 1. D Ashwin Reddy (02:24.567); 2. D Tarun Reddy (02:25.160); 3. Sahil (02:26.295).
Pro Upto 2000cc: 1. D Ashwin Reddy(02:27.808);2. Dhruva Chandrasekhar (02:28.423); 3. Sahil (2:28.471).
Pro Rally-tuned cars: 1. Jayanth Samynathan (02:31.352);2. D Ashwin Reddy (02:32.004); 3. D Tarun Reddy (02:34.349).
Esteem: 1. Abhin R Rai (02:31.543); 2. Jayanth Samynathan (02:32.193); 3. Arvind (02:37.280).
Ladies Class: 1. Pragathi Gowda (02:40.718); 2. Tarushi Vikram (03:07.681).
Professional Race 2 (2 laps):
Pro United Off-road Open Class: 1. Syed Salman (02:37.315); 2. Asad Pasha (02:38.029); 3. Dhruva Chandrasekhar (02:38.803).
Rally-tuned Cars: 1. Syed Salman (02:34.858); 2. Ashwin Reddy (02:39.594); 3. Asad Pasha (02:39.947);
Race 2 (2 laps) Upto 1100cc: 1. Sahil Khan (02:30.521); 2. Mohan Raj (02:33.592);3. Mohin Pasha (02:34.171).
Race 2 (2 laps) Upto 1400cc: 1. Asad Pasha (2:29.207); 2. Mohin Pasha (02:30.336); 3. Sahil (02:30.852).
Esteem Class: 1. Abin R Rai (02:38.745); 2. Jayanth Samynathan (02:41.746); 3. Mohan (02:50.228).
Ladies Class: 1. Pragathi Gowda (02:40.567); 2. Tarushi Vikram (03:20.593);
Pro Tuner Class: 1. Naresh (Bro Racing) 2: 53.780; 2. Yusuf (Snap Racing) 2:55.513; ; 3. Amju (Ideal Racing) 2:57.946.
Diesel: 1. Dheeraj Manae (03:12.696); 2. Kiran (03:18.420).
Gypsy: 1. Ravi Kumar (02:54.534).
Amateur Race 1 (2 laps):
Upto 1100cc: 1. Mohammad Uzair (2:37.150); 2. Mohammed Kaisan (02:38.687); 3. Syed Imran (02:41.670).
Upto 1400cc: 1. Amrut Shekar (02:37.446); 2. Yuvaraj M (02:43.020); 3. Humayun Pasha (02:44.342).
Upto 1600cc: 1. Ruthuparna Vivek (02:35.347); 2. TS Rekha Niranjan (02:59.701); 3. Rituraj Das (03:01.861).
Ladies Class: 1. TS Rekha Niranjan (02:52.6551); 2. Tarushi Vikram (02:56.566).
Amateur Race 2 (2 laps):
Upto 1100cc: 1. Mohammad Shabaz (2:43.579); 2. Manu (02:52.338); 3. Syed Imran (02:52.358).
Upto 1400cc: 1. Arvind (02:38.155); 2. Amrith (02:44.359); 3. Yuvaraj (02:48.107).
Upto 1600cc: 1. Ruthuparna Vivek (02:37.782); 2. Nidhi (02:53.035); 3. Agasthya (02:58.240).
Upto 2000cc: 1. Ruthuparna Vivek (02:35.654); 2. Arvind (02:36.205); 3. Nidhi (02:40.946).
Ladies Class: 1. Tarushi Vikram (03:05.334); 2. Rekha Niranjan (03:13.305).
