2011 Indian National Rally Championship: Rally of Bengal

iSporter Balakrishna Jayasimha sums up the action from the last leg of the 2011 Indian National Rally Championship, the Rally of Bengal.

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The season ending back to back rallies of the INRC with Round 6, the Rally of Odisha in Bhubaneshwar round 7, the Rally of Bengal at Durgapur brought a closure on this year's Indian National Rally Championship. The unfolding of events post the Coffee Day Rally the 5th round at Chickmagalur had left many an INRC fan gasping for breath. At the Coffee Day Rally Gaurav Gill (co-driver Musa Sheriff) was in a comfortable lead at the end of day - 1., an unexpected gear box problem for Gaurav on day 2 saw Lohit Urs (co-driver Srinivas Murthy) take the honours. While this can be taken as a case of pure bad luck, what transpired behind the scene revealed a different story.

Apparently both Lohit and Amittrajit Ghosh (co-driver Ashwin Naik) were asked to let Gaurav through so that the Championship would have more or less been decided in Gaurav's favour. Lohit who was disappointed to say the least about the preparation of his car refused and went on to win the Rally with Gaurav finishing 3rd. This led Lohit to drive as a privateer in both Bhubaneshwar and Durgapur. Before the last 2 rounds Lohit had this to say; "I have my best regards for MRF Tyres, but do not want to drive for MRF Racing." While Lohit took the spot-light, another gentleman driver Arjun Balu (co-driver Sujith Kumar) who has been with Team MRF for a good part of 17 years also called it a day at Chickmagalur. Though his statement said that he was retiring after a long stint with the Team, grapevine has it that he too was not happy with the car preparation for some time now and quit out of pure frustration. Arjun was probably the most likeable personality on the INRC circuit for the past 2 decades, which is in total contrast to the requirements of the modern day Rally driver. All in all the INRC will miss a familiar face on the track.

Though the move by Lohit was keenly watched at Bhubaneshwar, due to the lack of preparation time, his car broke down in the 1st stage itself leaving Gaurav who won, with little competition to clinch the INRC title with a Rally to spare. Team MRF had only 2 cars for both Bhubaneshwar and Durgapur and with Lohit being the only other driver in the 2000 N+ the number of cars in the 2000 N+ was reduced to 3.Lohit redeemed himself at Durgapur by finishing a creditable 2nd.

Karna Kadur (co-driver Somonnita Ghosh) who put up a spectacular show in Chickmagalur to win the 2000 N category to put him just 12 points behind leader Rahul Kantraj (co-driver Vivek Bhatt) continued his form by winning in Bhubaneshwar and finishing 2nd in Durgapur and thus clinching the Championship in the 2000N category. Rahul though winning in Durgapur had lady luck desert him in Bhubaneshwar and had to retire early thus giving Karna a relatively easy win. Aniruddha Rangnekar (co-driver Nitin Jacob) won the 1600 class with a very comfortable margin. In the 1400 Star Cup Karan A.M. (co-driver Shanmuga S.N.) took the Championship. Old warhorse Sanjay Agarwal has won the Gypsy class though he was pushed by Shafeeq Ur Rahman from Chickmagalur throughout the season.

The grid for both the Rallies were less but expected because of the logistics involved for Privateers to transport the cars to both Bhubaneshwar and Durgapur. There were 21 cars in Bhubaneshwar and though a Transport subsidy had been granted both the Rallies it failed to garner a bigger grid.

With the conclusion of the Championship for the year 2011, we now need to fast forward to 2012 which will bring with it a set of challenges. Though the 2011 season ran really well with all the rounds being held and on time, the withdrawal of Red Rooster Racing at the beginning of the season was a dampener in terms of the competition.

The 2012 season as of now will be without a promoter for the first time in 3 years as the contract between IMG/PSP the promoters and the FMSCI ends this year. So far there have been no bids to run the Championship going forward. This will affect the running of the Championship as it will now be left to the individual clubs to raise funds for the running of the individual INRC event if they bid for it in 2012. It needs to be seen how many of the clubs will be willing to do so.

Also, there is talk of the 2000 N+ class being removed from the Championship in 2012 which though leaves a level playing field robs the sheen out of the Championship. There is also talk of bringing in the 4WD cars for the next year. Whatever the talk is the decisions have to be taken right away as we are just 10 days away from the New Year and a brand new season. So till next year god bless and good speed!

Dr. Balakrishna Jayasimha (BK) is the secretary of the Karnataka Motor Sport Club and will try and bring iSporters closer to the sport of Rallying. BK started rallying in 1986 has participated in nearly 60 national-level rallies.