OUR BUREAU
Dirang (Aruchal Pradesh), March 29: The majestic mountains of the Eastern Himalayas reverberated to the adreline-triggering sounds of rally cars zipping around the Lopon Stadium in the heart of Dirang town in Aruchal Pradesh’s West Kameng district on the first day of the 3rd JK Tyre Aruchal Festival Of Speed on Tuesday morning.
More than 2000 people cheered India’s top rally drivers who put on a fasciting display of speed and car control on the twisty track inside the stadium. The loudest cheers were, of course, reserved for the drivers from the Northeast India led by 2002 Raid de Himalaya winner Lima Jamir of galand. The commander of the 315 Infantry Brigade that guards India’s border with Tiber, Brigadier Shailender Singh, flagged off the rally at the stadium.
Tuesday’s event was the autocross where cars had to zip through a 3 kilometer-long demarcated track in the stadium. Every competitor had to complete three rounds of driving and the best time clocked in one of the three rounds was taken as the score. On Wednesday, the competitors will have to drive through five kilometers on a track prepared over a muddy farmland for the sprint stage at the picturesque Sangti Valley near Dirang and then compete on a five-kilometer steep climb through apple and kiwi orchards at Rungja village. The winners in the different categories of this unique motorsports event will be declared on Wednesday evening.
Mali’s Suresh Rai, nine-time winner of Raid-de-Himalaya that is considered to be one of the toughest rallies in the world, Indian tiol Rally champion and Bangalorean Rahul Kantraj, another celebrated rallyist Gaurav Chiripal of Delhi and Bangalorean Dean Mascarenhas, the hottest young rally talent in India today, and Northeast India talent Jitu Kalita, among many others, are participating in the event. The JK Tyre AFOS is a unique motorsports event since it combines three forms of off-roading—Auto-Cross, Rally Sprint and Hill Climb—on a single platform. No other motorsports event in Asia has these three off-roading forms on a single platform. The 3rd edition of the AFOS is also one of the richest motorsports events in India with a total prize money of Rs 8.5 lakh.
Dirang town, which serves as the gateway to the world-famous Tawang Mostery, the second largest mostery in the world, is hemmed by the majestic snow-capped mountains of the Eastern Himalaya and lies in the lap of pristine ture. Surrounded by virgin forests and gurgling streams, Dirang is famous in the north eastern part of the country for its Yak Research Center and apple and kiwi plantations.
“Our full support to the JK Tyre Aruchal Festival of Speed, is part of our constant endeavor to promote and develop motorsports at the grassroots level and nurture talent in far corners of the country. India’s top racing and rally drivers such as Hari Singh, rain Karthikeyan, Karun Chandhok and Armaan Ebrahim, to me a few, have come through JK Tyre’s grassroots development programme that includes rallying, karting and circuit racing. We hope that the JK Tyre Aruchal Festival of Speed will not only heighten the interest of the people in the North East about motorsports, it will also help to unearth new rallying talent from that part of the country,” said Sanjay Sharma, Head, JK Motorsports.
“The JK Tyre Aruchal Festival of Speed, which has become bigger and better with every passing year, is all about promoting motorsports in the Northeast, which is very rich in talent. For drivers from the region it’s a dream come true to compete and rub shoulders with some of the best rally drivers in the country. But the biggest takeaway from the JK Tyre Aruchal Festival of Speed is that it promotes tiol integration in the truest sense. Our organising team is drawn from across the country and the participants from different parts of India represent the vibrancy of our great country,” said Lhakpa Tsering, President, Motorsports Club of Arunchal.