Sultans of speed-Mountain autocross in pune on december 24

[rahul_intlad]

Just seen an ad in the times of india pune edition,that a mountain autocross will be held on december 24,at 8.00 am organised by Maharashtra Automotive Sports Association[MASA].

Am putting the ad just as it is:

Sultans of speed ,a gut wrenching ,mind bending autocross for four wheelers.The challenging race track stretches across rugged mountainous terrain that will test the steel of both car and driver.

For entry forms and spectator invites contact: MASA office,37/12,Prabhat road,Shirish Bungalow,Corner of lane No. 7,Pune-4
Telephone-> (020) - 25679030/32917583.

Kindly note:
Only 4x4 SUVs,MUVs and cars above 1500 cc are allowed.

Event at a place called Wildernest near Sinhagad fort in Pune



Ps:
I am in no way associated with the event and PMing me will not be any help for you.Just put this thread up for any interested Team-bhpians who may have missed/not seen the ad.

Heres the entry form + more details:

Entry form

[torqueunlimited]

Just found out about this recently. I will be taking part in this event and a friend of mine who will be coming down from Aurangabad will be with me in this event. Anybody else taking part?

[rahulvilas]

Had read this ad a week back...was contemplating to take part in my S-10 but was apprehensive whether the suspension could withstand the rough terrain...also a family function has come up in the afternoon on the 24th 100 kms from Pune ...Am in a real fix.

[torqueunlimited]

Hey guys, just to let you know. All those who are interested to watch the event, they need to register their vehicle as a Spectator Vehicle. I'm not sure if there is a registration amount, but you can drop by at their office. Address is given in the post below.

Today is the last day for registering your "Spectator Vehicle".

[superavi]

Maharashtra Automotive Sports Association has directly lifted the Ferrari logo.

Ctrl C and Ctrl V. How cool is that?

Superavi

[shrivz]

The event was pretty good.

It was a 1.1km dirt track which was pretty fun to drive on!

Here are the qualifying timing sheets:





only two t-bhpians participated
Bhushan Musale (evo6)
Shrivatsa Sinha (shrivz)

torqueunlimited & redarrow were there as spectators

couldnt get hold of the final timing sheet, tho evo6 finished 5th (i think) don't know my final ranking, since they only announced the top 6.

being my first motorsport event apart from the Go-karting, it was a great experience!

Overall a pretty decent event!

cheers!

[Mpower]

Congrats to participants. Would love to see pics.

OT, there used to be an annual hill climp at Sinhagad fort..is that still happening?

[rahul_intlad]

Congragulations guys,hopefully you all had a real nice time.

Wish this turns out to be an annual event.

[torqueunlimited]

I was a real fun event! I had video recorded Bhushan's(EVO6) and Shiva's(Shrivz) lap but my handycam's head got damaged and so the whole recording got corrupted... Another friend of mine has also recorded it, will take it from him for sure. My bro participated in the Forester and he won first! Beating a Prado, Pajero and my friend's Tucson.

They changed the track on the second day especially for the 4x4 SUVs, and made the mud more thick and deep only on a certain part of the track. During a trial run of this specific, the Forester, Tucson and the Pajero got stuck so they decided to cancel it and gave the 4x4s the same track as that of normal cars.

The announcer was some oldie and was THE most irritating thing present there! He had no knowledge about cars. He called an INRC spec lancer a Lancer Evo 6! And he kept announcing the names wrong all the time! No idea why they didn't take him off...

I timed Bhushan around the track at 3:14 and Shrivz timed 3:22.

Pics coming up soon.

[shrivz]

My experience on the track:

23rd Dec (Practice and qualification)

We first walked the track and saw every corner carefully and tried to memorise the track.
There after, our first lap was a warm up lap so that we get a feel as to how the car behaves on mud.
I took this as a moderate run, but didnt take it too easy as I would'nt have been able to judge cornering speeds.

Push a little too hard and you've got under steer, brake a little too hard and turn, and you've got oversteer, which if not countered correctly leads to a spin. Throttle hard, and you're spinning all over the place losing time.

Second lap and timing starts, this time, pushed a little harder than the first lap and managed to clock a decent time!

24th Dec (Final Race)
I was 8th on the grid and was completely charged up. Bhushan warned me not to go overboard and to keep my cool while driving. So, I did that for the first lap and estimated a good time.
Then, got into the second lap and started pushing harder. Second hairpin after the straight, locked my steering to the right and braked to a halt, stalling my engine. Luckily didnt go off the track, so I avioded the 2sec penalty. Restarted my engine, reversed a bit, and went on to complete the circuit. I lost an easy 7 - 10seconds in that mishap.

It was a great experience! and I will surely participate the next time any motorsport event is held in Pune!

Edit: I just wish, the MASA guys have a better timing system next time, since all these timings were taken on the stopwatch by MASA officials. I remember our Go-Kart track in Pune had transponders and we used to get a print out of our timing, and there used to be and human error of about 1-2 seconds with the stopwatch.

cheers!
Shrivz...

[a4_attitude]

waiting for pics............

[EVO6]

Well my experience is pretty much the same as Shirvz..

Yes Shirvz.. I stood 5th..

Some flaws in the Race held..
1. Like shirvz said Time keepers were on hand stop watches.
2. There wasn't enough practise sessions given. What will 2 laps do specially in a mountain terrain.
3. No final results were displayed for all paricipants so there was no way to find out what was the difference in timing.
4. In qualitfying just the timing sheet was given but no details on penalty were mentioned.
5. No practise was given to the 4x4 guys on the different track which was specially made for them and a result of a bad special track all 4x4's were getting stuck which caused a major delay and because of which provisional results were not put up on the notice board.
6. There was no separate class for modified and stock cars which is very unfair.

But overall it was a fun event and good experience..

Cheers

[torqueunlimited]

As I said before guys, My handycam's head got damaged so I couldn't record any videos on the MiniDV so I took photos in the Photo mode. The quality isn't all that great though.
It got damaged halfway through, so I was able to take only the photos of the SUV 4x4 category(in which my bro participated).

The 4x4 Line up:


The Organizer's Pajero got stuck in the mud on the frist trial run:


Even the Tucson got stuck in first trial run:


My Bro(Amit) and his Forester in action:




And even he got stuck in the mud! :


The Tucson in action:

[torqueunlimited]

[Kinetik]

very sweet pics the forester in its domian one of the best handling SUV's , suprising the pajero got stuck inspite of all its off-road capabilities