[Shubhendra]

The Gokak Challenge (TGC) 2013 is scheduled on 9th and 10th of November 2013. It’s a two day event which will consist of trail driving and competition. To make the event enjoyable this year participant would be divided into two groups.
First group will do trail driving on day one and second group will attend competition track. Same would swap on day two. It has been done so that people spend more time on doing what they come for (offroading) and less time on waiting in queue. Keeping in mind difficulty of track and ensure safety of participants Roll cage and seat belts are MANDATORY (for your information, all vehicles would be scrutinized for above safety points before start of the event and non-compliant vehicles would not be allowed to extreme obstacles). Winch and snorkel is advised so that you can get more marks by completing obstacles in less time else you can take bypass.
Entry fee is 4000 per person for entire event which includes (stay, snacks, meals, water etc). co-driver is must for all participants.

Ac no: 31999165524
Name: 4x4 Gokak rally.
Bank: State bank of india.
Brach: Gokak.
ISFC: SBIN0000840

Please reach out to Mr. Ayub Khan for more information @984406355

PS: I am not part of organizer team. Wanted to share information for the benefit of interested offroaders

Link to last year event report: http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/4x4-excursions/126128-gokak-otr-13th-14th-october-2012-a.html

Short videos from last year's event:
1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvzkRsk1QgE

2)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0XIDDQjdig

Teaser pic:


Will upload more pictures of recce as and when i get the same from Organizers.

Regards,
Shubhendra Singh

[fazalaliadil]

Ayub Khan and the Gokak O Team,

Wish you all the very best for the upcoming event. Unfortunately I am not available for the dates. Looking forward to the report and some eventful pics.
Regards,

[Shubhendra]

Returned back yesterday early morning after successfully completing the event and long drive back home albeit with small breakdowns.
I have been part of few events, read participants experience about too many events and heard event feedback about almost all events held across India. I am convinced to say this now that this event has surpassed all of the expectations I had. Be it obstacles (they had everything rock crawling, articulation, river crossing, mud, incline, decline etc etc), stay, food, beverages, hospitality, mechanical support (you can’t get such a support from your regular mech as well). Entire event was simply flawless.

Dear friend and fellow offroader Soumya Banerjee (genesis on T-Bhp) was recognized by O-team as best offroader. Whereas timed event on day 1 was won by another dear friend Krishna Malvey from Poona.
Will post detailed report and pictures in a week’s time.

Shubhendra

[fazalaliadil]

Shubhendra,

Looking forward to your detailed reportage and pics.
Heard the event was very good and as last year regret missing it.
Regards,

[Shubhendra]

Originally Posted by fazalaliadil

Shubhendra,

Looking forward to your detailed reportage and pics.
Heard the event was very good and as last year regret missing it.
Regards,

this event is in my 'must attend' list now.
i didnt have my friend and photographer like last year. waiting to consolidate all pictures. will start report very soon.

Shubhendra

[Twinn]

Originally Posted by Shubhendra

Dear friend and fellow offroader Soumya Banerjee (genesis on T-Bhp) was recognized by O-team as best offroader. Whereas timed event on day 1 was won by another dear friend Krishna Malvey from Poona.
Will post detailed report and pictures in a week’s time.

Kudos to Sowmya Dada Saw some pics in which he is clad with neck rest and holding a trophy.

On a lighter note was I really thought that its a lifetime achievement award that is given to the Bollywood folks

Way to go guys, eagerly waiting for pics and reports.

[genesis]

Originally Posted by Twinn

Kudos to Sowmya Dada Saw some pics in which he is clad with neck rest and holding a trophy.

On a lighter note was I really thought that its a lifetime achievement award that is given to the Bollywood folks

Way to go guys, eagerly waiting for pics and reports.

Ya Ya, make fun of 'old' folks.
After being out of the circuit for a year since i busted my neck, this year has been good fun.

More than the 'award', it was the sheer fun of so many people coming up to you and talking during the course of the day. The whole TOWN was into it.

Here is a scene from the equivalent of 'peepli live' or the last match of lagaan



No pressure on Shubhendra!

So now on with the speech: On receiving the award, I would like to thank my parents, my wife, my mechanic, my hairdresser, my spotboy, the petrol pump guys who made so much money during the journey from Mumbai to Gokak....

Naah, would like to thank Ayub Bhai for the amazing arrangements, deeply thought out tracks and obstacles, crazily efficient mechanics and most importantly to the attention to detail and the pride that each member of the marshal team showed.

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Dear Ayub Khan,

Congratulations on the event. I heard it was wonderfully organised and the participants loved your hospitality arrangements!

Congrats Genesis on the achievement! (loved your speech )

Awaiting pics and a detailed report.

[Shubhendra]

Foreword: after attending 2012 ‘The Gokak Challenge 2012’ (link: ), I didn’t even think twice before making my mind to attend this event. Plans were made, remade and remade. Vehicles were prepared, ruined, re-prepared. We had too many (read: 25+ ) vehicles from Poona this time and they all were leaving early morning on Friday (8th November, 2013). As I was too occupied in work, I couldn’t leave early. As it’s a flat 8 hrs drive in a jeep, and I didn’t want to reach early and wander here and there.

This time we had two more vehicles from Bombay. Genesis’s original petrol CJ3B and Harshil’s 550 with DiTurbo engine which was undergone heart transplantation 2 days before the event. Thus we had:

1) Mr Shetty’s MG413 MPFI
2) Mr Shetty’s MM550 XD3P turbo with 35 inches tyres, air adjustable front suspension, and few more features
3) Genesis’s CJ3B, 3+1 GB with hurricane engine
4) Harshil’s MM550 DiTurbo
5) Nishant’s MG410 with rear body chopped off
6) Mr Bhatkar’s MG410 with super wide low profile tyres
7) My MM CL340

We had planned to leave Poona by 2:30 PM so that we can reach Gokak by 9 or 10 PM. Which would have been allowed us time to relax, meet people and have dinner. I want to mention Ayub bhai’s hospitality, I messaged him about our travel plan and had requested him to book our tents in sequence so that we can stay next to each other. He not only confirmed that, he also insisted us to have dinner at base camp. When I told that we may get late, his reply was – boss, you are coming from so far, its our responsibility as a host to provide you food. I am touched !

Journey to Gokak:
As usual, three vehicles dropped off as they were getting late and we started with a small convoy of 4 vehicles (CJ3B, CL340, 550Di and shortened Gypsy). As Soumya and Harshil already reached my place well in advance, we left my place after lunch at 3 targeting to reach Gokak by 10. We were continuously cruising at 70-80 and making good progress. We reached Sankeshwar (42 kms before Gokak) by 8:30 PM, and we were quite happy that we would be able to reach Gokak by 9:30 PM unlike last time when we reached Gokak early morning though we started at the same time.

at a Tea break


But all our happiness was short lived. As soon as we crossed Sankeshwar town, there was a big speed breaker and metal fuel pipe from pump to carb tore off of petrol 3B. Luckily I had a pipe in my Jeep which I use for extracting diesel from tank for various purposes, that plastic pipe fitted snuggly and we again started towards destination. 10 kms later, we had one more breakdown, rear propeller shaft of 550 Di came out from front portion. We removed rear prop shaft and resumed our journey slowly towards Gokak in FWD mode.
Finally we reached Gokak at around midnight. Base location was similar to last year, but they made changes in the way setup their tents. All tents we set-up neatly, secured by guards, CCTV and Marshals. 24x7 availability of tea, coffee, mineral water, charging points, neat and clean toilets with tissue paper, freshner, closed and open bathing space with shampoo and soap. I couldn’t have asked for more.

We did all formalities/documentation and received our welcome kit, which contained

1) Assorted stickers
2) Key-chain
3) T-shirt
4) Cap
5) First-aid kit
6) Itinerary of day 1 and 2
7) Tulip map of trail drive
8) Vega offroad helmet (one each vehicle for drivers)

As promised, waiters were waiting just for us to serve us hot biryani (veg and non-veg) at 1:30 AM in the night, kudos !
I was constantly in touch with Ayub bhai during breakdowns and he had assured that vehicles would ready for next day OTR and he kept his words. His team of mechanics which had
1) One senior marshal heading this team
2) Electrician
3) 5-6 Young but knowledgeable, courteous, professional and very very enthusiastic mechanics who can teach a lesson or two to good mechanics we have in big cities
4) They had provision to repair puncture tyres on trail
5) Gas and electric welding machines
6) 24x7 supply of parts (you read it correct, Mr Arif who owns a spare parts shop offered to extend his services day and night, without any extra charge). And to keep everything transparent, bill was made by shop owner on your name and you pay the amount mentioned in bill. No bill, no pay ! Marshalls took extra paint to coordinate this process, and sometimes they come running to you holding their phones asking your name
7) Icing on the cake – mechanic support was FREE OF COST, I once even insisted them to take few hundred rupees for attending my breakdown, they politely refused
We met mechanics and explained our problems, during conversation we found out that they just returned (at around 1:45 AM) from attending a breakdown and were having dinner. We didn’t have heart to persuade them to repair our jeeps right now. And next day they repaired both our jeeps well before event

A good morning view of camp site









To be continued......

PS: Mods, keeping in mind the flow of story and limit of posting pics per thread, it will be in parts as separate threads.

Shubhendra Singh

[Shubhendra]

Day 1:
As explained, we had to leave base camp by 7:30 AM to reach Gokak stadium. Where flag off would be done by some minister. Though everyone managed to reach venue by 8:30 – 9:00 AM, our dear minister sahib were running late (as usual), flag off happened at around 10:30 AM and convoy was taken to customary round of Gokak before heading towards trail.

Some pictures at assembly point







Future offroaders




















O team briefing to participants


Star of the day


We take all safety measures, co-driver of petrol Jeep with fire extinguisher ready, in case


Desi jugaad done in Genesis's jeep which worked pretty for next two days and return journey of 500 kms


Convoy drive to track


In the meanwhile, Ayub bhai briefed everyone about do’s and don’ts, tracks, obstacles etc. one good point was, almost all obstacles had ‘Chicken Route’ and every obstacle had marshals guiding you. event was divided into 2 parts, competition and trail driving. Day 1 had three compulsory tracks (A,B and C) to complete if you are competing and fourth track (D) was optional. Day was supposed to be concluded by completing a terrain trail drive, which I later found was best of day 1.
I also want to clarify one thing. There were rumors that forest department had raised objection and event might get cancelled. For your information, all senior officers were there in full attendance. And 50-60 + policemen along with senior officers were there to manage crowd and entire event.

All pictures courtsey Rizwanuddin Aman, Sidharth Bhivate, Nachiket S Bhatkar, Ayub Khan and few other FB friends from where i picked these pictures.

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Wonderful report Shubendra. Really feel bad about missing this one. My vehicle is finally nearly ready and will attend most OTRs next year starting with the BLR one.

Ayub Khan has done an exemplary job!

[vroom666]

This is awesome. Just reading about the arrangement and support made available as listed by Shubhendra gives an idea of how immaculately planned this event was. Kudos to you Ayub Khan & the O Team. (btw what does O in the O team stand for?)


Shubhendra - Very nicely explained and am looking forward to the next part

[Shubhendra]

Originally Posted by Tejas@perioimpl

Wonderful report Shubendra. Really feel bad about missing this one. My vehicle is finally nearly ready and will attend most OTRs next year starting with the BLR one.

Doc, you missed few great outings this monsoon ! Lets visit Tungarli again in April

Originally Posted by vroom666

Kudos to you Ayub Khan & the O Team. (btw what does O in the O team stand for?)

O = Organizing team

[DeClutch 4X4]

Kudos to O-team and Shubendra ji for crisp narration. am Sure this is one of the best organised event i am reading about so far in the recent past. Regret missing this one due to time required in traveling. Next time will make this happen with Bolton Concepts team. right Godfather??

[vroom666]

One more Q out of curiosity: How was it for the participants & organizers alike with so much of crowd around the venue? Did it prove to be a hindrance in controlling & were there any instances where the crowd were too close for comfort? I am total novice to these events having participated in just one for now - but some videos of the 2012 event looked very very crowded to me and I am guessing it was the same this time as well? Isn't it uncomfortable to have so many people around when you are doing the obstacles?