JSB Car Rally - Winner`s perspective

[Abbas]

Dear Bhpians,

Foreword:

A TSD car rally to celebrate 100th Birthday of our spiritual leader Syedna Mohammad Burhanuddin had taken place starting from Burhanpur (M.P.) and covering 6 destination which includes ujjain, ahmadabad, mandvi, jamnagar, surat and mumbai on 27th feb 2011 and ended in mumbai on 5th march 2011. This event was an FMSCI closed event organised by Jamiyat Saifiyah Burhani and was co-organised by RAYO Racing with SIFA as result evaluating partner. In this event a total of 128 cars from across the globe participated in which my team Visakhapatnam got overall 1st with London team coming in 2nd and mumbai coming in 3rd.

Introduction:

Myself along with 2 of my friends murtaza and shabbir participated in this event representing visakhapatnam. We registered our team in the month of december 2010 and then the preparations began. i had always been a Motorsports and automobiles buff to the extent that people around me say i can practically survive on petrol/diesel and coolant and my body runs on engine oil and not blood. i love anything that goes fast and was preparing myself for a speed rally. But then cam the shocker, its a TSD event. i had absolutely no idea what a TSD event was until i met ........... SUDEV.

Things Falling in Place:

i googled a lot to learn what is TSD and tip and tricks of the trade. But couldn`t find any substantial results. As i am a regular at TBhp, it stuck to me that once sudev had a thread running regarding some TSD workshop. I immediately searched for it and contacted him. He told me had a workshop scheduled in December something but since it was Delhi, it was too far for me to attend. Time passed on and i subscribed to his "TSD Camp" thread. Then around January someone proposed sudev an idea of having a camp at mumbai. This was it, going to mumbai is convenient to me since i quite often go for business there. I contacted him again and booked a slot.

Sudev`s Camp at Mumbai's Mirador Hotel:

Reached there at 9:15 a.m. and most of the participants have arrived. Met sudev and alka for the first time. Sudev then introduced us to each other and made us all comfortable. As the camp progressed, the twisted questions in my mind slowly eased out. The road book simulation part was the toughest to understand in the first go. It took me time to understand the calculation as my a slow learner. But slowly i got a hang of it when alka and savera (one of the participants) helped me out. The workshop was a great learning experience as i was a blank slate about TSD before the workshop. Anyone who wants to learn the fundamentals of TSD rallying and can put it to practical use with absolute focus is assured of a podium finish in my opinion. By the end of the workshop i made some good friends, as in sudev, alka, savera, kaushal, purvesh.

Coming up ..... The Practise, Modifications, Rally experience and Results

[Abbas]

The Practise

After i returned from sudev's workshop. I had another 1 month before the rally flagged off from burhanpur. I knew it for sure that if i didn`t practice the navigation, i am going to forget whatever i had learned. Firstly i thought my other 2 teammates home to calculate since i was the only one to attend the workshop. Then one weekday, 2 of my teammates would do a recce and make a mock road book of around 50 kms and let the 3rd guy navigate. 3 weekends passed and we realised certain shortcoming (just like sudev had mentioned) that pens, paper, stop watch keep falling in a moving car and its tough to write in a moving car. So we decided to fabricate a custom workstation in the rear for the navigator where he could write, calculate etc(see the pic below). We also made stationery depot next to him and kept everything in abundance. Through this practice we also came to know who was fit for what job. Then on i took the driving seat, murtaza took the lead navigator job(since his calculations were spot on) sitting right behind me and shabbir took co-navigation job sitting next to me.

the navigator use to calculate time for each tulip and tell the co navigator to write a slip on stick pad with direction, time of arrival, distance to go and sector speed. Co navigator use to write this on a slip of paper and stick it on my windshield just below the sunshade. By this it became very easy for me to just concentrate on reaching 1 tulip on the right time. So considering each road book had close to 350-450 tulips, i use to get 350 - 450 slips on my windshield. The 4th weekend we asked our friends to prepare a roadbook for us in visakhapatnam and we practiced in full gear.

That`s it. A press meet was organised and we were flagged off from vizag toward rally venue burhanpur on 23rd feb. Here's the pics.

[sudev]

I like the "custom" navigation station behind the "captain"'s seat!!

Nice start.

[oldmonk]

Originally Posted by Abbas

total of 128 cars from across the globe participated in which my team Visakhapatnam got overall 1st

Congrats!!

Originally Posted by Abbas

Then one weekday, 2 of my teammates would do a recce and make a mock road book of around 50 kms and let the 3rd guy navigate. 3 weekends passed and we realised certain shortcoming (just like sudev had mentioned) that pens, paper, stop watch keep falling in a moving car and its tough to write in a moving car. So we decided to fabricate a custom workstation in the rear for the navigator where he could write, calculate etc(see the pic below). We also made stationery depot next to him and kept everything in abundance.

Man that was some serious preparation..

Originally Posted by Abbas

the navigator use to calculate time for each tulip and tell the co navigator to write a slip on stick pad with direction, time of arrival, distance to go and sector speed. Co navigator use to write this on a slip of paper and stick it on my windshield just below the sunshade. By this it became very easy for me to just concentrate on reaching 1 tulip on the right time. So considering each road book had close to 350-450 tulips, i use to get 350 - 450 slips on my windshield.

and innovation!

What's that box on the passenger side dashboard? Doesn't look like Terratrip.. How did you use it?

[jalsa777]

hey guys...
congrats on the win,

analyzing your performance at the rally showed that it was your consistency that paid off.
difficult task that, being at it for 6 whole days.
Bravo.

Awesome performance guys.

Originally Posted by oldmonk

What's that box on the passenger side dashboard? Doesn't look like Terratrip.. How did you use it?

that box is a GPS device installed by the organizers.
It was for them to track the participants.

The participants themselves did not get any information out of it except the time.

Also, in case of emergency, the participant could press an 'emergency' button on it thus alerting the organizers

[Abbas]

Originally Posted by jalsa777

hey guys...
congrats on the win,

analyzing your performance at the rally showed that it was your consistency that paid off.
difficult task that, being at it for 6 whole days.
Bravo.

Awesome performance guys.

Thanks Jalsa, I had seen you a couple of times in the park ferme wearing the POLO CUP black T-shirt. Thought of coming to you and ask you about the same but something or the other announcement kept me busy.

[Abbas]

Rally Preparations

We were ready with all the documentations as per the SR, but the only piece of document that troubled us was RALLY INSURANCE.

When we inquired with the organizers about the same, they said its a usual thing and any insurance company will be able to provide. But when we went to Bharti AXA (from whom are our was insured) they denied us. Likewise, most of the private companies denied us. Not because they couldn`t provide us as per their frame work, but because they were not aware of such a thing being given to anyone in vizag.

Again, Sudev and savera stepped in and helped. Sudev mailed his copy of rally cover and savera belted out in detail how to go about it with oriental insurance. I took a print of her mail and armed with sudev`s cover copy, we went to oriental insurance, who agreed to do it if we terminated our existing insurance with bharti axa and took a new comprehensive with then, on which they agreed to give an add on rally cover. This costed us a bomb, but the problem was solved.

On a broader perspective, one thing you learn from sudev is to how to get organised. Which going forward helped us and the reader will come to know about it too.

We made 3 sets of copies of every documents, carried breakdown kit, Stanley tool kit, important fluids, safety gloves with D shackle and slings in case the car needed to be toed.

The car and documents were all set and off we go to rally venue burhanpur.......

[Rehaan]

Nice stuff Abbas. Seems like you guys really put a lot of effort into preparing. A well deserved #1 i'd say.

Incidentally, i saw the whole convoy driving from the gateway of india to chowpatty beach on March 5th. I was wondering what it was about -- and sure enough, i see this thread now

cya
R

[Abbas]

Rally Experience

The rally was of 6 legs:

Leg 1: Burhanpur - Ujjain
Leg 2: Ujjain - Ahmadabad
Leg 3: Ahmadabad - Mandvi
Leg 4: Mandvi - Jamnagar
Leg 5: Jamnagar - Surat
Leg 6: Surat - Mumbai

We reached burhanpur on the 25th. 2 days prior to the flag off. Rayo and his team had taken over the rally organizing part. We reported ourselves and got the car thru scrutiny. SIFA guys installed a GPS (red box) unit on every cars`s passenger dash which monitored our moments (See the pic below). This box was of no help to the participants as the screen showed just the rally clock. Rest of the data were weird signs. However, we synced our clock with this clock which most of the participants didn`t.

In the pre-rally briefing, Rayo explained basic TSD stuff to everyone and then came the shocker announcement. Since in our community, hardly anyone knew what a TSD event was, rayo and his team decided that for the first leg they would also indicate the time in the speed chart.

My team was heartbroken when we came to know this, because this would have made everyone very competitive and our initial strategy to gain lead in the first leg went for a toss. Anywayz, once the road book and speed chart was given to us for the first leg, our team decided that we would ignore the time column in the speed chart and follow the fundamentals we learned. My navigator scrapped the time column and did his own calculations.

The leg was great and the feeling of completing the first leg was awesome. We reached ujjain and got the provisional results which showed us 5th. This result lifted up our spirits, and now we knew that our fundamentals were right. We didn`t use the time in the speed chart were others did. Still we managed 5th.

Leg 2:

We were given 5 star hotel stay and great food at every place. The next day we started our second leg from ujjain to ahmadabad. Now, just before the flag off there was an announcement that from now on, there will be no time column in the speed chart and the participants should calculate on their own. We jumped in air when we came to know and Hi-Fi`ed each other. We won this leg, and in overall points tally we were 2nd.

Leg 3:

By the this all the participants got the hang of what TSD is like. By the end of ahmadabad to mandvi leg , when the provisional results came out, we were 12th on this leg. Still we were overall 2nd, since there were completely new people in the leader board. They didn`t have a chance overall because they made tons of penalties in the first 2 legs. We analysed our problem and came to know that it was a small calculating error which resulted in a chain reaction of calculation error.

Leg 4:

From leg from Mandvi to jamnager we introduced dual navigation, lead navigator use to do tulip to tulip calculation and co navigator use to do speed change to speed change calculation according to speed chart. At the end of speed change both of them use to tally their time. If it was correct, then the navigation was correct, if not they use to correct themselves. By this method we never made silly calculation error, like we did in leg 3. By the end of this leg we got 10th position and we were still overall 2nd. The penalty difference from 1st position to 10th were just 30 secs. This was getting bloody competitive.

Leg 5:

Jamnagar to surat was the toughest and longest of all the legs with a total distance of 540 kms. The same competitiveness continued. We got 9th position with the difference of just 48 seconds with the leader. Since the leader board was constantly changing with new teams coming on the top, the key here was our consistency. We hit overall 1st by the end of this leg.

Leg 6:

Surat to mumbai was the shortest leg of all. There was heavy traffic on this route because of flyover construction on the, we got delayed due to this and ended up 12th in this leg. We were kind of lucky, because most of our compitition was stuck in the same position, and they inoccurred the similar penalties.

We were welcomed like a celebrity by Mumbai people and we thank them from the bottom of our hearts for this when. Like Rehaan said, we were put up at ITC, parel and from their all the car paraded in convey where people welcomed us and congratulated us for completing the rally. The parade ended at Intercontinental where we had to check - in for the night and attend the award function and closing ceremony on 6th march.

Award Function:

Award function was something like filmfare award night. We knew we were among the top 3 team. The 3 teams were called back stage and then mumbai team was announced as 2nd runner's up. so we figured we were either 1 or 2nd. Then london team was announced as 1st runner's up. That`s it boy, my team of 3 hugged each other and jumped in job. The next thing we knew, the big LED screen opened up from the middle and we entered the stage with fireworks and those colorful paper flying all over. Armaan Ebrahim handed us the trophy which when lifted like all the we had worked for has finally paid off. we were given a hero`s welcome when we returned vizag on the 8th.

Firstly, i would like to thank SUDEV, it is because of his fundamentals and learning that we could manage this. Also, would like to thank savera for answering my queries on insurance. The JSB organizing team led by Murtaza Bootwala and Abbas Ghadiyali for giving us this platform to showcase our passion. Last but not the least, our beloved Aqa Moula Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin saheb for his blessing. We wish him a happy 100th Birthday and a healthy life for years to come.... Ameen.

i will now let the pictures do the talking and the results will be posted in the next post.

[sudev]

Hey Abbas you are giving me more credit than I deserve. I was just a guide but it is you who took the learning and used it to fullest to win the event.

Reading your account brought home the fact once again "TSD Rallying can be extremely competitive"

Congratulations once again for the splendid show.

[Abbas]

Results

Our car no. is 72. See the screen shots of the results below. They are in the following order.

Leg 1
Leg 2
Leg 3
Leg 4
Leg 5
Leg 6
Overall.

---- THE END ----

[jalsa777]

Lovely report.

Seeing the results pics here made me remember those days,

being up till 3-4am compiling them and then getting up at 5.30am for start preparations was crazy stuff,
by then end I had become an irritable character due to lack of sleep