Chandigarh, December 28, 2012: Shri Naunihal Singh, Senior Superintendent of Police, Chandigarh flagged off the fifth and penultimate round of the country’s definitive and only national TSD rally event – the JK Tyre-FMSCI Indian National TSD Rally Championship 2012 at Chandigarh’s Lake Club today. Also present at the occasion was Mr. Hari Singh, five times National Rally Champion and Asia Zone Rally Champion who is also the Head of Operations, Motorsport, JK Tyre & Industries Limited. The ‘JK Tyre Rally of Chandigarh’ will witness around 50 top rally drivers and navigators challenging the odds under various categories in the foothills of the mighty Shivalik range surrounding Chandigarh, one of India’s most beautiful cities and a motorsports hub.
Covering an estimated distance of 180 km, the rally will start at 8.00 am on Saturday, December 29 from The Piccadily Hotel in Sector 22 and pass through parts of Chandigarh Tricity, Shivalik Hills and Morni Hills before concluding at the hotel around 4:30 pm. The fifth round of the rally will witness 25 entries in the Pro-Expert and Pro-Stock Categories while 20 drivers will participate in the Novice Class, which is open to first-timers who are willing to experience the thrill of professionally organised motor rallying. The JK Tyre Rally of Chandigarh will also witness top manufacturers like TATA, Maruti, Mahindra, Volkswagen and more participate in the rally through private entries.
With this being the penultimate round, it will be interesting to see who finishes on top before the season finale. Mr. Hari Singh, Head of Operations – Motorsport, JK Tyre & Industries Limited, said, “It is our privilege to host Round 5 of the rally in a city, which has produced some of the top rally drivers in India. With this being the penultimate round, the drivers will look at gathering as many points as possible before the finals. The spectacular terrain and weather will offer the drivers an exciting yet challenging driving experience as they negotiate the foothills of the Shivalik range, Morni hills etc. We are certain that Round 5 of the inaugural JK Tyre-FMSCI Indian National TSD Rally Championship 2012 will be a thrilling affair for everyone involved.”
Chandigarh has been a breeding ground for rallying in India and has produced some of the top rally drivers in the country such as Hari Singh, Sunny Sidhu, Gaurav Gill, Vikram Majithia, SS Seekhon to name a few.
Round 4 of the JK Tyre-FMSCI Indian National TSD Rally Championship 2012 held alongside the world famous Hornbill festival in Nagaland earlier this month offered a glimpse of the beautiful and uncharted North East to rally drivers. Team Tata Motors Full Throttle completed a clean sweep of titles with Bangalore-based husband-wife combination of Satish Gopalkrishnan and Savera D’Souza emerging winners in the overall and Pro-Expert categories 2 with a penalty time of just 46 seconds. Karthick Maruthi and Sankar Anand (Team Mahindra) from Erode lead the class. In the Pro-Stock class, another Bangalore pair of Chidananda Murthy and navigator Sujith Kumar BS – of Tata Motors Full Throttle team – continued to show the way and topped the charts with a penalty time of 00:01:12.
Being conducted under the aegis of the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI), the Rally of Chandigarh is part of India’s first national Time-Speed-Distance (TSD) Rally Championship and marks JK Tyre’s return to rallying after a decade. It is promoted by the Mysore based Berunda Adventure Club and is being held over six rounds across India.
TSD rallying (Time Speed Distance) places a lot of emphasis on maintaining clear-cut timing and average speeds that are at or below the legal limit, on different segments of a route. Events are conducted on a carefully chosen predefined route, which may be a public road or a country back road, following traffic rules and in the presence of other vehicles. Each participating car has a driver and navigator who are provided with route instructions, in addition to instructions to keep a team on course with assigned average speeds for each stage of the route.
Each team comprises of a driver and navigator, and unlike racing or other forms of rallying, the role of the navigator is equally, if not more important, in the success of the team. The navigator has to bear in mind the route instructions, calculate the average speed and ensure the team is on track and not behind or ahead of the schedule as both scenarios attract penalty points. Since normal cars are used for this form of rallying, with basic safety equipment, anyone can participate and experience the thrill of motor rallying, thus bringing motorsport closer to the common man.