Finally it is here!! After what it seemed like an eternity to be back on the tracks of the Rally sports in India, the 38th / 2012 edition of...
Finally it is here!! After what it seemed like an eternity to be back on the tracks of the Rally sports in India, the 38th / 2012 edition of K1000 Rally is very near to its reality. In less than 3 weeks the outskirts of Bangalore [Chikkaballapur to be precise], the Rally cars are going to rule the closed streets for a couple of days.
The season 2012 got delayed mostly because of the new regulations being implemented after the highly souped up Group N+ cars getting totally knocked out, leaving just the Group N cars to fight the battle and settle the scores. Not just that, but also the good old workhorse, the 4x4 Maruti Suzuki Gypsy category too getting ousted off the charts. If this has saddened the souls of the already established fans & the 4x4 lovers, there is good and bad news getting tagged along with the new reg. The new regulations however makes things easy for the starters or simply put the young boys/girls who want to take up rallying with the good old Maruti Suzuki Esteem (1300cc) in the Junior-INRC who fall under 28yrs of age. Well aged and experienced have the option of the Group N's in 1600cc & 2000cc with almost a stock setup, barring the wheels & suspension and the crew safety additions. However if you think you are a niche rally driver/team then you can choose a R2 or S2000 car or N4 or even R4 class car and compete, which is naturally expensive. Not to forget the sport itself is not cheap, so its ok!
History
Coming to the event itself, K1000 Rally dates back to early70's when things were a lot different, much alike WRC where the cars and the format itself was not like what we have now. However the competition was as stiff as of the late years, and the teams were preparing for it for a long time to make it achievable and fruitful. A lot can be seen in the community forum here and the biggest of the stories and collection can be seen in this thread, authored by Niaz Ali himself.
K1000 - 2012
Having said all that, and less worry about [atleast for now] with all the lesser details of it, lets get back to the event itself. It may be the 38th event, but the same old obsolete method of 'hide and seek' still prevails in the motorsports fraternity with no clear updates of what is to come to what could be expected! Hope there is a wave of change to sweep these idiosyncrasies of the sport [,which is kind of hopeless]..
The good news is that a new league has been created which allows even foreign participants can participate in this new league which is called Indian Rally Championship [IRC, not to be confused with the Intercontinental Rally Challenge]. This is open for cars in Group N [2wd], N4 & R4 class. This is infact a very good and welcome move by the Federation [FMSCI], as this opens up the closed loop of the sport to a wide reach, which in contrast to the earlier but limited competition so far seen in only INRC. As Srilankan's who came in 2010 with their Mitsubishi Evo IX & X could be the most anticipated at the beginning [as their logistics involved is far less compared to other countries], however they too were privateer teams which means a serious hole in their wallet. Also could have been a better competition seen if not even the highest form, the WRC itself suffering with funding lacking the title sponsor for the sport, hoping is all we can do! The new regulations and GP says a lot on the newly induct-able cars, but for locals it is the practical reality which turns off..
Well with the new car in the APRC's Team MRF, the Skoda Fabia S2000 Evo unearthing those gravel rich roads could be expected, but!! Would there be much of competition here?! However, in 2010 the event was claimed an APRC candidature status, [which was scrapped well before the SS1 went live] which gave us a good glimpse of what the all-4's can do. And still there are news and rumours about Subi's entering the muddy K1000 scene, atleast by one team which braved enough to announce about its debut. Hope there would be more, if not less! Just keeping the fingers crossed and see some real stuff, apart from the boring FWD cars for decades [which were pretty good too, but we need those all-fours ASAP]!!
The POLL setup for the event is down this page, which also tells more Subaru stories.. which is kinda naaaice!!
OK, enough is enough!. Here are the Documents of the Rally, below for your reference.
Rally HQ:
From : Friday, 21st, September, 2012 0900 hrs
To : Sunday, 23rd September, 2012 1300 hrs
Angsana Oasis Spa & Resort
[Coordinates: Lat=13.1772135, Lon=77.5658656 or 13°10'54"N 77°33'34"E]
Main Doddaballpur Road,
Addevishwanathapura Village, Rajanukunte
Bangalore – 560 064.
Phone: +91 80 2846 8892
Fax: +91 80 2846 8897
Rally Organiser
Karnataka Motor Sports Club[Coordinates: Lat=12.9901058, Lon=77.578751 or 12°59'24"N 77°34'43"E]
# 64, 2nd floor, Railway Parallel Road,
Kumara Park West, Bangalore 560 020
P: +91 80 23343638 / 39(fax)
E-mail: info@kmsc.in
Website: www.kmsc.in
For more updates and news, will be reported in this page and also in the News Channel and the beautiful Facebook Page.
_ ______ __________________ _ __________________ ______ _
Flash from the back!
2006, [Group N+1600cc Ford Fiesta ]
2007, [Group N+1600cc Ford Fiesta ]
2008, driven by Vikram Mathias, when Red Rooster Racing was giving Team MRF a tough time at the competition. [Group N+2000cc Mitsubishi Cedia Lancer]
2010, [Group N+2000cc Mitsubishi Cedia Lancer]
2011, [Group N,N+2000cc Mitsubishi Cedia Lancer, Maruti Suzuki Esteem & Gypsy 1300cc]
FMSCI - INRC | Round 1 - 2012 | K1000 Rally - Update :
Driver & co-driver, Lohitt Urs, Sujith Kumar won the 38th K1000 Rally with a comfortable margin of nearly 36s to the closest & second placed duo, [driver] Amittrajit Ghosh & [co-driver] Ashwin Naik. Karna Kadur with his co-driver Somonitha Ghosh were nearly a minute behind the rally leader & finished third overall.
In the 1600cc category of the Indian National Rally Championship, Aditya S and co-driver Kariyappa KB managed to brush
aside the challenge from other known names clocking 1: 32: 47.1 to lead
the class. They were placed 8th overall. Siddharth Ragnekar and Nitin
Jacob (1: 32:39.6) were following them in second place with Prakyat H
Shirole and SM Bharath in third and overall 10th. They clocked 1: 34:
58.8.
Vikram Rao Aroor/ Anoop Kumar DS pair became the first
casuality followed by Sriharsha/Udaykumar, Sirish Chandran/ Nikhil Pai,
Chetan Shivaram/ Rupesh Kholay and four other cars. INRC 2000N class saw
13 cars while 1600cc had 14 and Junior INRC has 12 to make it 41 on the
start list. In all, 16 cars failed to finish the day.
Young
talented teenager Dean Mascarenhas along with navigator Shruptha Padiwal
of Mangalore beat more experienced drivers to take a comfortable lead
of over 2 minutes and are assured of their second K-1000 win. Placed
second in the Esteem Junior INRC category are Karan AM (co-driver
Shanmuga SM) and behind them Vineet Tom Vincent and Sob George are in
third.
IRC: Zuhin A / Musa Sherif 1 (1hr, 24mins, 34.6secs).
INRC (2000cc): Lohitt Urs / Sujith Kumar 1 (01:22:45.4); Amittrajit
Ghosh / Ashwin Naik 2 (01:23:16.6); Karna Kadur / Somonita Ghosh 3
(01:23:49.2).
INRC (1600cc): Aditya S / Kariappa KB 1
(01:32:47.1); Siddharth Ranganeskar / Nitin Jacob 2 (01:32:59.6);
Prakhyat H Shirole / SM Bharath 3 (01:34:58.8).
Junior INRC:
Dean Mascarenhas / Shruptha Padiwal 1 (01:27:10.1); Karan AM / Shanmuga
SM 2 (01:30:04.0); Vineet Tom Vincent / Sob George 3 (01:34:42.0).
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