[ex670c]

TPC2011 – Event Report.

First and foremost I would like to thank all the competitors, who made TPC2011 a success.
The KTM Jeepers and the BODA members have taken the competitive off-road scenario to the next level.

Every team put in a lot of hard work in preparing themselves and their vehicles, but the team which came out on top were, the ones who were WELL PREPARED, willing to takes risks, had good spotters and worked as a team through thick and thin.

This year as organizers we added a detailed driver’s briefing which was dubbed as the “The Pipe Challenge.”
Every vehicle was given a Competition Handbook, which covered the general Rules of the event, the Sequence of Special Stages and Maps of the Terrain, indicating man-made obstacles, which was the biggest threat to the conduct of the event.

The Adventure Zone campsite was brilliant, in terms of logistics, comfort and cost. We are happy to say that participants got comfortable air-conditioned tents, deluxe toilets and excellent food on all days. The packed lunches were adequate and tasty, and participants were provided with 5-lit water cans, plus tetra-packs of fruit juices etc. in individual ice-boxes.

Electricity being erratic in these parts the Air-Conditioners were not working full-time, but the pleasant weather and intermittent showers made thing better in the evening. We are working on a full-time generator for TPC2012, so even this inconvenience is removed.

The Teams
1-1 Shanawaz Khan, Prithvi & Siddu (Spidey, MG413W &MG413W)

1-2 Mahendran, Raghu & Vimal (MG413W, MM550XD & Major)

1-3 Sam Kurian, Prem Kumar, Javeen Mathew (Invader, MM540DP, MM540MDI3200TC)

2-1 Swastik Viji, Rajesh N & Robinson (MG413W, MG413W & CJ3B)

2-2 Guhan Subramaniam, Rajesh & Dr. Anthony Raj (MG413W, Thar CRDe & Thar CRDe)

3-1 Mhd.Ali, Baskar K & Siddharth ( CJ3B, MM540DP & CJ3B)

3-2 Reju Kurian (TLC80 Series)

5-1 Manzoor, Renjith P & Jose (MM540, CL340, Invader)

5-2 Arun, Santosh & Satish (CJ5, MM540 & CJ3B)

6-1 PrabhuAV, Pradeep & Preetham (MM540DP, Thar CRDe & MM540)

6-2 Benji, Tinku, Kurian Kurian (CJ3A, CJ6 & TLC80Series)

7-1 Amit Tomar, Vijayanand & Rajkumar (CJ500D, CJ5 & MM550XD)

7-2 Vijay Reddy, Lokesh & Prashanth GV (MM550, MG413W, MG413W)

The Special Stages were manned by
SS1 – Maj SR Roy & UBS
SS2 – Arka & Guru
SS3 – Vikram R & Ranjith R
SS4 – Senthil
SS5 – Bala & Ganesh
SS6 – Vijay K. & Goutham Gopal
SS7 – Deep


DAY 01
We left the campsite at 7:00 am, after an early breakfast.
The participants were split into Six groups of two teams starting from each SS, this was done to reduce waiting timing and give all teams an opportunity of opening a SS.

OTR Distance for Day 1 - 52 kms: Wallahjahbad to Chenglepet and back.

Six Teams were flagged off from their parent SS. The participants had to find their own way across the terrain and execute their own recovery, and return to the Parent SS to Close the Days Run Time. It was a blistering hot day with temperatures nudging 40 C and humidity close to 85%. However, most of the vehicles and participants held out very well. The large supply of juices and ORS came in very handy.

The various SS:
SS 7 - Table Top + V-Pits (Deep)
SS 6 – 5 Point Figure of 8 (Vijay & Goutham)
SS 5 – 5 Rapid Climbs with rutted run (Bala & Ganesh)
SS 4 – Technical SS Vehicle Recovery (Senthil)
SS 3 – Articulation Dunes (Vikram & Ranjith
SS 2 – 5 Point Climb on Table Top (Arka & Guru)
SS 1 – V Pits Climb In and Climb Outs (Maj SR Roy & UBS)

DAY 02
Was cheerful to the participants as the weather was less demanding.
We reached the riverbed by 07:45hrs, and the teams started from their Parent SS.

OTR Distance for Day 2 – 24 kms: Eechur to Irumbulacheri and back

The various SS:
SS 1– 5 Point 4 step Climbs (Maj SR Roy)
SS 2 –5Point V-Rut Climbs (Arka & Guru)
SS 3 – 5 Point Rock Table Top Saddle & Water Pit exit (Vikram & Ranjith)
SS 4 – Technical SS – Tyre Changing without Jack or Lifting Device)
SS 5– 5 Point Mud Pit (Bala & Ganesh)
SS 6 – 5 Point Sand Pit Climbs Short Step (Vijay & Goutham)
SS 7 – 5 Point Sand Trough Climbs (Deep)

TPC2011 came to an end with a hotly contested Individual Special Stages Competition, with every one giving it their best. We reached the campsite at 19:30 hrs.

After tea and freshening-up, we assembled on the lawn for the to unwind.

The Technical Quiz has been cancelled due to popular demand and time constraints.

While the scores were being tabulated and all appeals and clarifications were being made, in fact one appeal was turned down due to a photo-finish, yes we have 7900+ pics of all the SS and 4hrs of Videos!!!!!!!!

Results of TPC2011

The Winner, Palar Challenge 2011 (Presented by RK Auto Corp) & 6 Leatherman Utility Tools presented by Young India Films
Team 1-1 Shanawaz Khan, Prithvi, Siddu, Jaggu, Chetan & Nitin (Spidey, MG413W &MG413W)

Runners-up & First Amongst the First Timers of TPC2011– Team 1-2 Mahendran, Raghu, Vimal, Siva, Fazul (MG413W, MM550XD & Major)

Second Runners-up of TPC2011 – Team 1-3 Sam Kurian, Prem Kumar, Javeen Mathew, Nikhil, Andrew, Jilu (Invader, MM540DP, MM540MDI3200TC)

The Winner of Technical Event TPC2011 (Presented by TECHENCLAVE.COM)
2-1 – Swastik Viji, Rajesh N, Robinson, Manu, Sujith (MG413W, MG413W & CJ3B)

Most Performing 4WD of TPC2011
The First – Shanawaz Khan (Spidey)
The Second – Mahendran K (MG413W)
The Third – Prithvi (MG413W)

Individual Special Stage CompetitionTPC2011
First – Siddu (MG413W)
Second – Swastik Viji (MG413W)
Third – Mhd.Ali (CJ3B)

Regards,

Arka

PS - The pics will follow in a few days as we have 500+ pics of each SS

[SuperSlick]

Thanks for sharing the details Arka! Been eagerly waiting to read and see the action pics/videos since Sunday! Whoa, a photo-finish in an off-roading event?? Can't wait to see that!

Once again congrats to all the winners and participants as well as the organizers!

Hope to join the 'Live' action someday!

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Congratulations to the winners and organizers for pulling off yet another super challenge. Awaiting the pics and incident reports.

[Samurai]

Congrats to all the winners! Kudos to the superb organizers. Looks like the event was dominated by Gypsies. I see no Thars in the podium at all, surprising.

[beejay]

Great going Bangalore Boys, its not surprising they won. They have real well geared vehicles, very competent drivers, good technical people, gurus of off road and most important they have fun while at it. Congratulations.

[raj.barcode]

Congrats to The trio who won the TPC challenge and Siddu, where is the treat!!!

[gsferrari]

The Gypsies definitely had an advantage in this year's event but they took a beating. Several broken lockers, bent axle housings, broken king-pin bearings and many burnt clutch plates. The Jeep's were tougher mechanically but in places where the Gypsy was able to generate momentum over a short run-up, the Jeep fell behind.

The crawler and locker enabled vehicles had a MAJOR advantage in some of the Special Stages.

Impossible to say that the Gypsy is better than the Jeep because on my SS (SS2 on Day 1) a few Gypsies damaged their lockers, transfer case mounts on one of the climbs. Thar was also unable to make this climb but a well prepared MM5X0 belonging to the Kerala team was able to make it.

Thar clearly fell behind on the technical stages that relied on mechanical ability rather than brute force. My SS was battered by the time the 4th team had passed through and then climb 4 which was the deal-breaker until that point just turned into a highway.

The Land Cruisers just showed up, leveled the place, laid down a strip of tarmac with paint markings and moved on. My advice to teams next year is...follow the Land Cruiser around Palar and you'll have a better chance!

[headers]

Originally Posted by gsferrari

The Gypsies definitely had an advantage in this year's event but they took a beating. Several broken lockers, bent axle housings, broken king-pin bearings and many burnt clutch plates. The Jeep's were tougher mechanically but in places where the Gypsy was able to generate momentum over a short run-up, the Jeep fell behind.

The crawler and locker enabled vehicles had a MAJOR advantage in some of the Special Stages.

Impossible to say that the Gypsy is better than the Jeep because on my SS (SS2 on Day 1) a few Gypsies damaged their lockers, transfer case mounts on one of the climbs. Thar was also unable to make this climb but a well prepared MM5X0 belonging to the Kerala team was able to make it.

Thar clearly fell behind on the technical stages that relied on mechanical ability rather than brute force. My SS was battered by the time the 4th team had passed through and then climb 4 which was the deal-breaker until that point just turned into a highway.

The Land Cruisers just showed up, leveled the place, laid down a strip of tarmac with paint markings and moved on. My advice to teams next year is...follow the Land Cruiser around Palar and you'll have a better chance!

I beg to disagree to the above GS - The vehicles that were setup properly did not have breakdown issues at all .


The THARs performed better than my expectations, - But without AC and hardtop, they seemed to struggle!!

[MileCruncher]

Congrats Arka and team for conducting a superb event.

Look forward to the pictures and videos of the various SS and vehicles.

Cheers

[fazalaliadil]

Arka,

It seems to have been organized to levels of army precession/ standards.
The obstacles sound challenging, testing the man and the machine combination.


A very good chronology of events starts this thread, looking forward to the stills and videos of the same level.

Regards,

[ex670c]

Hi Guys,

Pics from Day#1 SS1. Manned by MajSR Roy and UBS.

IIRC it was climbing on to a sand table top and make in a U -Loop through 4 V-Pits.

Regards,

Arka

[Samurai]

Vehicles with open differentials, did they stand a chance at all?

[esteem_lover]

Congrats Arka and the gang. And congrats to the winners and better luck to all other participants. Like samu said, why no thars in the podium ?

[headers]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Vehicles with open differentials, did they stand a chance at all?

Driven well - they did perform well !! It was a test of Man, his driving skill, his ability to use his co-driver and his skill to conquer the terrain!

[khan_sultan]

Originally Posted by Samurai

Vehicles with open differentials, did they stand a chance at all?

There is no doubt that locked diffs help

BUT

Siddu, with a 100% bone stock gypsy, recorded the fastest time in the individual SS -- and that too in almost dark with headlights on.

Prithvi, with open diff, got the 3rd most performing 4WD award

So, drivers also matter