[Shubhendra]

Track 3 ( Day 1) : I loved this track as it was longest track with one small water fording patch. It had interesting as well as scary entry point. It was my first track of the day, we reached (remember, due to confusion we came to this track 2 hours late) the entry point only to find out that many participants refused to enter the track and only two vehicles ( one jeep and one gypsy) attempted this. When we looked at entry point it was small but sharp hill created by small stones crushed by stone crusher at the starting point. It was so sharp that we couldn’t walk down through it, as we were already late, I decided not to walk the track and simply got overview of track from Marshal. As soon as I entered the obstacle in 2L, vehicle started picking up speed and sliding due to loose stones but we managed it comfortably. Once you reach down, you had to take right, go straight, take left and enter second patch which contained artificial ditches dug up in distances for articulation test. For jeep it was cake walk but gypsies had hard time here. Once you clear this obstacle, you had climb small but steep boundary then again steep decline to enter into a water body, after water fording you need to again climb small incline to reach gravel track this leads you to starting point. Although track was not difficult for seasoned offroaders but it had incline, decline, sharp curves and articulation test to test offroading skills.

Starting point of track 3


Steep decline




Funny Moment, when one local person was trying to get down through this mound but he couldnt control him


Jeep from Goa


Viewers


A marshal waiting for jeep to come


Tricky entrance to second obstacle of this track


When people couldnt judge the track






This is what i hate about Thar Crde


We completed all three tracks by 4:00 PM and rushed to camp site which was around 15-16 kms from the venue, as we wanted to rest to cover last night sleep as well. By the time we reached camp site and settled down, people started arriving and our power plan nap went for a toss.
Photo of campsite at dawn


Photo of campsite at dusk


Tent to stay



It was now time for get to gather, jeep talk and few drinks with fellow offroaders. Cocktail party and DJ were also arranged by organizers. Once everyone settled down and was having good time, Organizers announced winner and runner ups from today’s competitive event.
1) Winner – Sanket Shanbaug – Gypsy king MPFI (Satara)
2) First runner up – 550 from Goa ( can someone write his name, please)
3) Second runner up – Majid Sheikh - MM Classic (Poona)
Special recognition to:
a. Mr Raju Sheikh from Poona for camaraderie
b. Mr Faisal (not sure about name, Rockcruisers fame) from Hyderabad. Salute to Mr Faisal, at the age of senior citizen he came all the way from Hyderabad and participated in event. Hats off sir.

Prizes


Winner from Satara


First runner up from Goa


Second runner up from Poona



to be contd.

Shubhendra Singh

[fazalaliadil]

The name of the Gentleman of Rock Cruisers from Hyderabad is Mr. Afsar Hasan, a thorough gentleman.

Nice photographs again. show us, which were the toughest of all if possible with pics.
Regards,

[khan_sultan]

Shubendra, thanks for sharing this. REALLY awesome trail & arrangements. Loved it. Please share more

Originally Posted by Shubhendra

Steep decline
Attachment 1016555

Too good. Was this loose small crusher stones? didn't they slip & slide the vehicle when coming down? How was steering control/braking on this slope. Must be super fun. The picture is awesome

Viewers
Attachment 1016559

Looks like a scene staright from the movie Lagaan

Tricky entrance to second obstacle of this track
Attachment 1016561

When people couldnt judge the track
Attachment 1016562
Attachment 1016563

hmmm, entering an obstacle sideways has it's own risks and calls for a steady balance of steering & throttle. Best to approach straight, if possible

Photo of campsite at dawn
Attachment 1016567

Tent to stay
Attachment 1016569

The best picture of the lot. Really surprised to see this. Individual tents for participants. Just tooooo good. Never seen something like this before. Really appreciate the effort & planning that went into this. How did one get so many tents?

Once everyone settled down and was having good time, Organizers announced winner and runner ups from today’s competitive event.
1) Winner – Sanket Shanbaug – Gypsy king MPFI (Satara)
2) First runner up – 550 from Goa ( can someone write his name, please)
3) Second runner up – Majid Sheikh - MM Classic (Poona)

Cool. How were the winners decided? Timing or points?

[Shubhendra]

Originally Posted by khan_sultan

Shubendra, thanks for sharing this. REALLY awesome trail & arrangements. Loved it. Please share more

Will soon share second day pictures along with few random pics

Too good. Was this loose small crusher stones? didn't they slip & slide the vehicle when coming down? How was steering control/braking on this slope. Must be super fun. The picture is awesome

It was loose small crusher stones, few jeeps slipped and slided ( including me, see picture of my black classic while descending). i didnt break fearing further slide but steering feedback was there.

The best picture of the lot. Really surprised to see this. Individual tents for participants. Just tooooo good. Never seen something like this before. Really appreciate the effort & planning that went into this. How did one get so many tents?

Ayub Bhai bought these tents brand new along with many other things.

Cool. How were the winners decided? Timing or points?

It was based on timing ( how fast you complete track)


What we missed in Gokak event was rock crawling which was scheduled for day2 and later on cancelled due to time constraint.

Shubhendra Singh

[Shubhendra]

Originally Posted by fazalaliadil

The name of the Gentleman of Rock Cruisers from Hyderabad is Mr. Afsar Hasan, a thorough gentleman.

Nice photographs again. show us, which were the toughest of all if possible with pics.
Regards,

Fazal Ji,
Thanks for info. Mods can you please change his name in one of my post.
Toughest obstacle was in Track 1 ( if you refer my write-up, i have mentioned that). please refer pics, where white Gypsy is facing to sky. Many couldnt clear that obstacle and many couldnt clear that obstacle in maximum allowed attempts ( three attempts). but Few did it in one go. and i did it second go.
this obstacle was tricky because there was no place to gun you jeep, key was to get momentum as soon as you come out of water. having said that, there was two sharp turns after water and before climb which proved to be a major hindrance.

Shubhendra Singh

[Guna]

Amazing stuff! This is the most extreme off-roading I have come across on T-Bhp so far. Thanks for sharing the report and congratulations to the participants.

[fazalaliadil]

Thanks Shuhbhendra,
What was the reason for the extreme tilt of the 540/50 number 232, while water fording? Did all follow this track or did this one veer off course?

Classic shot is the local guy doing the slope on two wheels.
Very nice captures, who is Neha Singh, have we met?
Regards,

[Shubhendra]

Originally Posted by fazalaliadil

Thanks Shuhbhendra,
What was the reason for the extreme tilt of the 540/50 number 232, while water fording? Did all follow this track or did this one veer off course?

i am not sure but there might be two reasons:
1) although there was path clearly marked with the help of sign strip, but few vehicles knocked them down in order to clear obstacle fast.
2) although mud was not slippery but many vehicles had AT/HT/NDMS tires which digged down few ditches over a period of time.

Very nice captures, who is Neha Singh, have we met?

You have not met Neha yet, but you might soon. She is my friend and budding offroader. we have recently bough a CJ3b for her.soon you would see a thread on her CJ3B.

Shubhendra Singh

[Shubhendra]

Day Two OTR:
Day two was quite relaxing, everyone woke up quite late ( read 7:00 AM)and local children had to work hard to wake us up. I had to uninstall and pack my tent and by the time we got ready after checking our jeeps, breakfast etc. most participants were already disappeared to line up at Goakak stadium. As per Tulip map given to us, total trail was around 32 kms with obstacles scattered around Gokak city.
Obstacle One:
First obstacle was river crossing followed by slippery incline exit, it was situated next to city on main entrance, and led to congestion due to visitors and motorists wanting a glimpse of action.

This obstacle was not at all tough but many jeeps and gypsies stuck on incline.



I was particularly impressed by 10-11 years old boy from our Poona group (he was accompanying his grandfather) driving one week old gypsy with original F78 tires. He cleared this obstacle in one go, where few old timers got stuck.

Our dear friend and old timer Sandeep Anand from Poona lost his fuel tank in river, although he crossed the river but one of the marshals saw tank floating in river. He did rest of the OTR and journey back to Poona on a makeshift tank arrangement.

First obstacle took almost 2-3 hrs to finish for all vehicles.

Next obstacle was again river crossing few kms from first obstacle covering 11-12 kms, but when we reached there with marshal we got to know that due to depth of river this obstacle has been cancelled. We moved on to third obstacle some 6-7 kms from second obstacle, which was attraction of whole event. It was hill climbing, you need to follow path marked by white limestone powder, go up to the top clearing few big stones and stone steps on the way, take left ( few drivers had a sweat of the day here) and go down following marked path. While Jeepers enjoyed this to the core, gypsies and thars had a hard time. It was a well calculated and designed track designed by Ayub Bhai. But this event must have consumed most of the day, as initially they allowed next vehicle to enter only when preceding vehicle has come downhill. Many drivers took hell lot of time, but by the time organizers realized this blunder, it was past noon and 20-30 vehicles remaining to finish trail. At that point organizers started sending vehicles in batches where every vehicle used to finish one part and then wait on hill to next vehicle to move on and so on. But by that time damage was already done. One solace from heat and long waiting queue was crowd watching these stunts. They treated all of us like stars, asking questions, taking photographs and admiring us. There were people everywhere, we had to literally stand next to our jeeps to protect it from youngsters peeping into vehicles and trying to touch everything, but it was fun.





as were done with hill climbing, While waiting for rest of our friends , we started identifying few small obstacles here and there to get away with boredom. and it turned out that crowd literally gathered our vehicles while we were doing out antics







Few vehicles (including me) moved on to next obstacle again driving 5-6 kms. It was again river crossing with big rock boulders, which was easiest obstacle of the day. As soon as you cross the river, there was an open space where lunch was being served. Once we crossed the river and had our lunch, we started asking marshals about next obstacle. They asked us to wait for some time till they confirm from Ayub Bhai, in the meanwhile we received SoS from our group stating our star gypsy has broken transfer case mount (one of the weakest link in Gypsy), we rushed to spot. Once gypsy was repaired (had to use rope to tie transfer case), we again came back to last obstacle only to get informed that OTR is concluded. They informed us that next obstacle is inside jungle and very difficult, a single breakdown can delay everyone. We (Poona & Goa group of 30 vehicles) pledged them to give one marshal and let us attempt remaining obstacles. But they denied citing logistic issue and risk involved, we reluctantly returned to camp where rest of our team members who were deprived of lunch had delicious lunch. On hindsight I was happy as we all were tired and few of our friends didn’t even have lunch, though we were disappointed as we couldn’t get opportunity to experience trail which we saw on pictures, particularly me, as I came all the way from Poona to do witness second day trail. Once we reached camp, everyone got fresh n up, packing bags and tents and chit chatting.
we were so tired that we couldnt click pictures. except these few



Journey back:
It took us sometime to gather and get ready and line up our vehicles in convoy.
Our convoy



Our convoy was led by One of the best MM classic I have ever seen in India with trailer and I was last jeep.
Red Classic with trailer ( this classic deserves a separate thread). Mr Vishal Jandial


Journey back to home was eventful, first breakdown occurred 15 kms from Gokak. One of MM Classic fuel pump wire got melt by silencer (root cause - wrong routing of wires) led to melting of few fuses. We had all spares in trailer and they all moved ahead, I had to tow jeep to 15-20 kms to the place where our group was waiting. We repaired fuses and moved ahead only to face same problem again, while Vishal got down to check, he realized that wire loom was touching silencer leading to melting and short circuit.
Mr Pathfinder


By the time we reached Mumbai-Bangalore highway (Gokak is around 40 kms from national highway), it was 8 PM. To compensate lost time we all started zipping towards Poona with scheduled dinner plan at Karad. As soon as we were about to reach Kolhapur, we got news that one of our 550 has leaking nozzle (not leaking nozzle pipe). We all stayed back at a restaurant while one gypsy went to fetch 550. This short stop turned out to be a full dinner/drink/masti stop. And after leaving 550 to a garage we could leave Kolhapur by 01:00 AM. After that journey was uneventful, we maintained convoy speed of 90-100 kmph, covering 230 kms in 3 hours. We finally reached Poona at 04:00 AM.

Will post miscellaneous pics soon.

Regards,
Shubhendra Singh

[Shubhendra]

Mods,
Can you please remove last picture, its uploaded by mistake.

Shubhendra Singh

[Shubhendra]

Every event as big as this has some glitches too…. I want to highlight good points as well as glitches so that organizers and people reading this write-up may be able to use these points for future reference.
Positive
1) As an event it was one of the best arranged, we couldn’t have asked for more. It was meticulously planned and almost everything was just perfect.
2) Safety top priority – organizers made sure that proper safety rules are being laid down and being followed by participants. Right from categorizing vehicles after initial inspection, providing helmets on tricky obstacles to continuously checking whether driver and pillion are wearing seat belts. They didn’t allow anyone other than driver and navigator to hop on vehicles during obstacles. Track was meticulously tested to be thrilling at the same time safe enough to avoid any untoward incident happening.
3) Mechanic backup – organizers arranged team of mechanics (8 – 10) with all basic spares in a van. This was at your disposal moment you require them. Good thing was mechanic were very courteous and more than eager to help you. Our gypsy which had broken leaf springs were again on track in an hour and one of jeep with gear got stuck repaired in 30 mins, impressive. Incident I want to highlight – second day morning I was tightening loose bolt of silencer clamp, one mechanic saw me doing it and he offered to tighten bolt and he called his fellow mechanics to check all nut bolts, fan belt, oil etc. he asked me to have breakfast while they thoroughly check my jeep. Nice gesture.
4) Local crowd – as event was well publicized in city, viewers gathered in thousands (I am not exaggerating), they were cheering and clapping boosting morale of offroaders. There was never a dull moment during event. Many local came with their families to witness the event. It was a feel good factor for us as we saw people recognizing this new sport.
5) Food, snack & water – all meal, snack etc served to us was warm, fresh on time. On both days before start of trail, participants were given one carton of mineral bottle (12 bottles), one packet snack to every participant. Box of Hot and fresh lunch was provided to us on trail on time. Never had we had shortage of food/water. Food arranged at camp site was delicious. Tea, milk, coffee and biscuits were available 24x7.
6) Crowd management – there were policemen, marshals to manage crowd, they were on their toe all the time to manage it efficiently. There were few instances when they might have had a hard time but I think might have not thought that thousands of people would turn up.


Negatives:
1) Ranking system: as I explained earlier involvement of too many marshals diluted credibility of points system and participants who couldn’t even clear few obstacles saw their names in top 5. Organizers should have tighter control on this mechanism.
2) Too many cooks spoil the dish: there were too many marshals everywhere, sometimes this lead to confusion as every marshal shared different set of information for anything. For example. On day one, our group was supposed to start from track C. when we reached track C, one marshal asked us to wait, we waited for more than two hours and then we realized that track C is somewhere else and vehicles were participating.
3) Single owner: although Ayub Khan had army of marshals backing him, but authority was not given to marshals and for every/anything they used to ask Ayub Khan. Although I acknowledge the guy (Ayub Khan) and his never tiring attitude, he was everywhere, winching out vehicles, overseeing obstacles, arranging logistics, helping new drivers to clear obstacles etc… but practically it was not possible to manage the whole show single handedly. Delegation of authority would have been made this event even smoother.
4) While On first day vehicles were categorized but second day all vehicles were part of a single convoy. And as it happens in almost all OTRs, participants had to wait for hours to attempt an obstacle in scorching heat. It went so bad that on second day till lunch time we completed only 30-40% of trail and remaining had to be cancelled. It would have been much better if vehicles would have been grouped in 2-3 groups to avoid delays.I really loved second day OTR more than first day competition.
5) First day track would have been more technical. I am not sure whether people would be agree with what I am writing but I feel that 80% of first day obstacles were water crossing which was not at all challenging and personally I do not like water fording. It’s purely my view. We didn’t complete entire track on second day but it was more technical and promising.
6) Organizers should have sensitized marshals and participants about maintaining cleanliness and not to throw litters. Second day I had to literally beg marshals to announce though PAS to participants on maintaining cleanliness in wilderness.

Having said all negatives, my standing ovation to Ayub Khan, Marshalls and citizens of Gokak for giving us a unique and unforgettable experience.
Will see you all next year.
PS: all above mentioned points are solely my opinion and you are free to agree/disagree.
PPS: sincere request to all offroaders to educate/sensitize your friends and fellow offroaders to not to throw litter/plastic etc during OTR. It’s sad that we carry variety of tools/bags etc with us but we can not take back our litters and dump it in dustbins.

Regards,
Shubhendra Singh

[dhanushs]

Super Pics Shubhendra,

It looks like you guys had a lot of fun! IMO, The entry point into the OTR takes the cake! What a way to enter the event!!

Originally Posted by Shubhendra

Our dear friend and old timer Sandeep Anand from Poona lost his fuel tank in river, although he crossed the river but one of the marshals saw tank floating in river. He did rest of the OTR and journey back to Poona on a makeshift tank arrangement.

Good Lord!.. Now, how did this happen? !!

[SPIKE ARRESTOR]

Awesome terrain, awesome arrangements and awesome report. I loved the pic of your Classic making the bow wave.

Originally Posted by Shubhendra

Photo of campsite at dawn
Attachment 1016567

Photo of campsite at dusk
Attachment 1016568

Tent to stay
Attachment 1016569

By far, this is the best arrangement I have seen till date. Hats off to the organizers.

First time i saw cops to manage event

Or forest guards?

Spike

[Twinn]

Shubhendraji You have a flair for crisp write ups.. Your writeup and the pictures really did detail out how the event was organized and the level of fun you folks had.

Hats off to the organizers

PS: Your last signature picture looks great, issmart lagraho ho bhaisaab

[Shubhendra]

Originally Posted by dhanushs

Good Lord!.. Now, how did this happen? !!

Dear Dhanush,
This river has rock bed, there were few big rocks underneath water. few unfortunate people ended up braking something underneath their vehicles.

Shubhendra