Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   4x4 Excursions (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/4x4-excursions/)

-   -   Gokak OTR - 13th & 14th October, 2012 (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/4x4-excursions/126128-gokak-otr-13th-14th-october-2012-a.html)

EDIT:
Kindly make note of the date change for the Gokak OTR 2012.

As the 20th and 21st October dates are clashing with Navratri celebrations, there has been a request for a change of dates from many off roaders who want to participate in this event.

The event has been advanced by a week and the new dates are 13th and 14th October 2012, which again is a weekend.
----------------------------------
Dear Jeepers,

And off roading enthusiasts on the forum, I am posting on behalf of Ayub Khan and the O team of the Gokak (Karnataka)

The track is natural, mostly comprising of water crossing, rock climbing and clay.

Event dates: 20th & 21st October 2012
Day 1: Competitive team event
Day 2: Convoy Rally

The attached pics and (2011) video should give you an insight into the terrain you can expect.

This is a real challenging and technical track for Serious Off Roaders and not for beginners.

For further details contact Ayub Khan on 0 98440 63355

Regards,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcjlT...e_gdata_player

The O TEAM

You can expect this

and this and

this.

Dear Friends,

Kindly make note of the date change for the Gokak OTR 2012.

As the 20th and 21st October dates are clashing with Navratri celebrations, there has been a request for a change of dates from many off roaders who want to participate in this event.

The event has been advanced by a week and the new dates are 13th and 14th October 2012, which again is a weekend.

Moderators are requested to kindly make the respective date change in the thread header.

Regards,

Dear Fazal Sir,

Thank you very much for putting up this information on behalf of Mr. Ayub Khan. i tried calling Mr. Ayub Khan but couldnt get through due to network problem, i will try once agian, but may i request you to kindly update on basic information regarding the participation fees, distance from Hyderabad and accomodation. On rest of the issues, i will speak to him in detail, once i decide i am going.

Dear Adnan,

I am not aware of the details of fee etc. But the accommodation is in independent 4 person tents and a camp out theme.
Regards,

Fazal Ali sir , checked the distance of the Gokak from Hyderabad on google. Even more thrilled by the close proximity to ever green goa . Planning for the event in my gypsy .

Something is cooking among Poona offroaders. we might attend this event with 12-13 vehicles.
Lets see.
Does anyone from BODA, Terra tigers, Charminar, Gulbarga, Goa is coming??

Shubhendra Singh

Shubhendra,

This was one of the best technical events on natural terrain in India, I am unfortunate to have missed out on it.

A very well organized and executed event, I hear.

Since you were there, why don't start a thread on this forum and post pics of the event? As nothing from there is posted except a few on FB.

Congratulations to Mr. Ayub Khan and the rest of the O team.

Looking forward to your inputs.
Regards,

+1,

Where is the event report?

Cheers

Vikram,
Nothing has started on this yet. I want these guys to as it was a very good one we all missed.
Regards,

Your wish, my command....... event report with pics will be uploaded in a while, stay tuned.

Shubhendra

Gokak Event report – from a participant’s eyes
I will start with apology. I was thinking of writing a small write-up for bigger audience (read T-Bhp) from the day we came back to Poona after attending awesome event 'Gokak Challenge 2012' but unceasing OTRs every weekend followed by frequent visit to my best friend (mechanic) sapped my energy.
It all started with a phone call from Mr Raju Sheikh to Poona offroaders. Although event information was shared by Fazal Ji on T-Bhp well in advance and I even went through the thread as well but idea didn’t click to me initially. Our offroader buddies started planning for this event and one night Mr Raju Sheikh (eminent offorader and petrol head) invited all Poona offroaders for delicious tandoori chicken and biryani and to chalk out plan for ‘Gokak Event’. Many people turned up (few people like me came in lure of Biryani) and a plan is made and agreed upon by all attendees. And then started flurry of activities, several calls were made to Mr. Ayub Khan for bookings, Vehicle check-ups/repairs, tools, camera etc.
We planned to start our journey on 12th October at around 08:00 AM so that we can reach Gokak (around 360 kms from Poona) before dusk. While pulling out information for event arrangement with Mr. Ayub Khan we came to know that tents have been arranged for stay. Few fellow offroaders were wary of staying in tents thus we thought that after reaching Gokak we would evaluate arrangement and if required we would book room in hotel (later it turned out arrangement was beyond our imagination). Most of the vehicles ( 8-9 gypsies, 6 jeeps, 1 Pajero, 1 Q5) finally left Poona in the afternoon few offroaders including me, couldn’t leave Poona before sunset due to work commitments. First group from Poona reached Gokak in the evening as planned and settled down in tents and hotels, while our second small group had another plans.
“It’s all about journey, not destination”. We took this seriously!!!! We (1 MM Classic, 1 550, and 1 Gypsy) took around 12 hours to reach Gokak. We must have taken at least 8-10 tea breaks, 3-4 bio breaks, 3-4 snack breaks, 5-6 toll stops, ice-cream break, fuel breaks, dinner break, puncture break, tiredness break etc etc
Somewhere on highway for a puncture break

We finally reached Gokak at 04:30 AM in the morning on the day of event when everyone was deep in sleep inside tents. Even though we received words of appreciation from few friends who reached last night about arrangement and food but when we saw the same in reality, whhow man, too good. The stay was arranged in a big farmhouse (Jadhav Farmhouse), ample space for everything, more than enough security guards supported by CCTV for 24x7 tight vigils, signboards for everything.
They neatly arranged around 10 tents with capacity of two in a row (there were 100 tents to accommodate 200 guests) under coconut trees with green carpet between tents. Tents were allocated to guests when they made the payment, thus enabling guests to directly move to their tents as soon as they reach farm house. All tents were bought brand new with clean bed sheets and mattresses. They also had 2-3 large boards which had around 40-50 points to charge mobiles/cameras/laptop etc. Tents were good enough in size to accommodate two adults of medium size, but my friend (6 feet 3 inches) who was accompanying me (5 feet 10 inches) couldn’t adjust. But as we reached 2-3 hours before event we thought it’s better to stretch for some time rather than wasting time putting up our own 4 person capacity tent which we ultimately did. Volunteers overseeing accommodation were kind enough to provide additional mattresses for our tent. Fumigation was done during evening to keep mosquitos etc away. Another highlight of accommodation was bathrooms etc. organizers made temporary steel enclosure with shower, western commode, tissue paper, freshener etc. the same were being cleaned frequently. Few showers were arranged in open space for not so fuzzy guests. Another noticeable fact was that although there were almost none women participation (only 2 female participants from Poona and one from Goa) but organizers made very good arrangement for them too, Thumbs up for that. Food was delicious, hot and always on/before time.
As soon as we engrossed in sleep loudspeaker voice woke us up, it was Mr. Ayub Khan speaking on PAS to wake up all participants. There were few children who peeped inside tents to wake up sleeping offroaders. When I came out of tent, there was chaos everywhere, sound of engine, aroma of fresh Idli, Upma, Poha etc. few people were running to get registration done, few were cleaning jeeps, few were having breakfast and few like me were still in tents.
Morning Shot of sleeping jeeps

Well prepared jeep of Mr Ayub Khan

Loved this sticker

Gang of classics from Poona ( we have now have 5 MM Classic in our group)

After few reminders from Ayub on loudspeakers we finally got up and got ready. As we came early in the morning we couldn’t do registration formalities. Registration counter was full of late entrants but was still manageable and well controlled by team of marshals. Once we completed our registration we received itinerary of two days (it was very very detailed), Tulip map for second day OTR, T-Shirts, stickers, badges (too good quality) etc.
After registration and breakfast we moved to a stadium where flag off was organized. All vehicles were lined up based on vehicle number we received during registration.

preparation at tenth hour

Ayub Khan briefed us about first day event in details.

All vehicles were thoroughly checked by Marshals for safety and functional 4x4. Vehicles which didn’t have four point roll cage and seat belts were marked by red circle stickers and were not allowed for tricky obstacles. Vehicles which had these things were marked by green circle stickers. It helped marshals to spot vehicle well before obstacle and route red stickered jeeps to another obstacles through chicken route. During event, in all tricky obstacles, it was mandatory to wear helmets which marshal provided to participants.
Day 1 Competition Event:
It was time based event and there were around 60 vehicles participating, which were divided into three groups of 20 vehicles. First day event was organized at quarry with many natural obstacles. There were three tracks. All participants got opportunity to walk tracks before they put their vehicles. Before start of tracks, navigator had to start timer which marshal time keeper was holding few mts away from vehicle, run to their vehicle and as soon as navigator jump into vehicle then only driver was allowed to switch on their vehicles. Then you need to finish track and return to the point you started. Once you reach starting point your navigator had to run to where marshal is standing and stop the stop watch. Once you are done, then time would be documented in sheet and signature of driver is taken to avoid disputes later on. Looks transparent? But it turned out that involvement of too many marshals led to lack of coordination that resulted into exposing loopholes. Will talk about it later, don’t want to spoil party now ;)

First time i saw cops to manage event

Track 1: IMO it was most challenging track where maximum vehicles either got stranded in water or couldn’t clear one tricky steep incline. track started with small decline then you need to take right, cross small mound of stones, take left and small but sharp decline, take left and go straight for another 20 meters, take right, small decline, 100 mts of water fording (20% vehicles had to be winched out) at the end of water fording again small incline, sharp U turn, small run-up, sharp left and steep decline ( around 40% vehicles cleared it and less than 20% cleared it in cutoff of three attempts). After climb you had to take right and there was sharp decline and then you had to reach staring point covering around 1.2 kms of gravel track to stop timer. As per organizers all participants would get three attempts to clear any obstacle and clearing all obstacles was necessary to get you qualified for the event. But it turned out that many participants couldn’t even clear particularly this obstacle and sill they got podium finish (I am not doubting organizer’s motive, IMO it happened because too too many marshals were involved and something must have been gone wrong while collating data for all tracks). As per organizers if someone did not want to attempt any obstacle and wanted to take chicken route or if participant couldn’t clear the obstacle in three attempts which was maximum permissible (again this point was not followed by many participants) attempts then participant would be disqualified from competition.
This track saw maximum breakdowns due to water as well as maximum number of flying jeeps/gypsies.
Start of obstacle

This Gypsy ( driven by Sathish Shetty )was shod with low profile HT tyres, which resulted into this

Vehicle was towed to side of track to clear the path, but they forgot to winch out this gypsy and participant had to manage by his own

Below gypsy was driven by Mr Raju Sheikh, he cleared first track easily


Below gypsy was driven by Mr Kumawat and it was first OTR, drove too good as a first timer, albeit with some scary moves




A well maintained Classic of Vishal Chavan ( pathfinder in T-Bhp)



MM Classic of Majid Sheikh

Nicely done up MM Thar from Hyderabad ( Mr Faisal's RockCruiser team)

Mudslinger's Jeep



My Classic




Stay tuned for more pictures
Shubhendra Singh

Track 2: This track had three water fording patches. At start you need to negotiate a curve then decline and then cross water filled patch with not so slippery mud at the exit point of this patch was small but steep incline followed by sharp u turn. Shoot your vehicle towards next patch through gravel and comes long and curvey water filled patch with few ditches in between. As soon as you get out of water body after negotiating a incline, gravel track leads you to starting point. Few stock vehicles had hard time including me, when silencer sucked water ( it was my mistake as i wanted to change gear from 2L to 3L so as to cover track fast)leaving us stranded in middle because of no response from engine ( engine not died but idle), but I soon gained response and inched forward before silencer again sucked water. Vehicles with snorkels and modified silencers had good time doing this. few jeeps managed to give a flying shot as well






















To be continued

Shubhendra Singh

Shubhendra,

This was a very nice OTR, technical with a lot of variations and natural obstacles, very well organized by Mr. Ayub Khan and team. The Gokak OTR will only grow and be keenly looked forward to every year, my belief.

It is nice you guys from Pune could make it, I personally was caught in some personal work and missed it out knowing I would continue to regret it.

The Jeeps, especial your Classic's trio are looking awesome. Very nice photographs, thanks.
Regards,

Even i strongly believe that this event would be more challenging year by year. BTW preparation for next year's event has already been started.
Thanks for appreciation.
Picture courtesy - Neha Singh

Shubhendra Singh