[nithz]

Pioneers tennis club somwarpet is conducting an offroad event on 6th September, 2014.

Attaching here with details of registration.

[nithz]

attaching few pics on the way

[arun27g]

Finally participating as a part of Mangalore Offroaders Club. About 11 participants from our club. Will be in Somwarpet on 5th night. Hope to see more BHPians WITH their stickers

[arun27g]

Adventurous in chilling rain and winds, slush and great fun are expressions I would use to describe my first OTR event. Yes, I did it, completing everything thrown at me without getting stuck and of course, learning new things in the process. A gang of 13 entries went as a part of the Mangalore Offroaders Group. Sanjay Shet (of the Carz Spa fame) was the leader and he arranged everything from getting us entry forms, getting us registered and also pushing us to "leave together" and "return together".

On Friday, September 5, we assembled at Kadri Hills in Mangalore, after lunch. The convoy consisted of a healthy mix of CJ3Bs, a CJ500D (mine), and a few new generation Thars



and drove off towards Somwarpet, some 165 kms from home. We stopped enroute in Sullia for some repairs on 2 of our jeeps. Was difficult to control the Thars from zipping away, nevertheless with some great management skills, all of us landed up in Somwarpet at around 8 30 PM, a drive that took nearly 7 hours, a full 3 hours extra than the normal time that would be required. Still, considering 13 of us going in a convoy, I thought this was a great achievement. The welcome party and the registration commenced during dinner time at the Pioneer Club.

The sponsors for the event were Kingfisher Blue, and the event flaged off by a veteran offroader from Suntikoppa, Mr. Vinod Shivappa.


that is me, waiting to be flagged off, with my back to the dias announcing the rules!

Lunch packets were distributed at the start of the event as a learning from the previous year's experience. A boiled egg was a part of the packet, at which I smirked, only to realise later that it was a great idea.

Three announcements caught my attention in particular (might have been a norm, but since it is my first OTR, it did)
1. It is an event to have fun and enjoy nature, so strictly NO OVERTAKING and NO RACING
2. In previous years events (this one, I believe was the 8th year), it was noted that participants hesitate to offer assistance during recovery
3. No alcohol consumption during the entire event.

Whilst, the 1st and the 2nd were by and large followed to the letter with many participants coming forward during recovery, the 3rd one was purely academic.

The route primarily included private lands and forest lands, the trail was hilly and rocky, filled with slush climbs/descents. The sorounding villages of Shetalli, Hoballi, Haraga, Jakanalli, Hanchinalli, Kannalikatte and Bettadalli, some 10-12 kms away from Somwarpet town contributed to the trail layout. The total trail was around 50+kms. Press reports quoted that there were 40 participants, though my guess would be about 60 at aleast.

It was indeed a great event, especially for me, got baptised into OTR events and now await the next, most likely a private event of the Mangalore Offroaders club. There was a competitive event on Sunday September 7, which I could not attend due to some prior commitments. Will update the forum as and when more information comes in.

I am posting a few pictures we clicked along the way and some videos. Pictures and video credits, go to the "missus", Prajwal Baglodi, Zaheer Manipadi, Kirit Patel, Rohit Salian, Kumaran Paulraj, Chandra Kumar and Sanjay Shet

Cheers

This is me on full frontal attack


A level road slush, surprisingly many jeeps got stuck


Bettadalli hill climbs














Waiting to begin the 2nd hill climb filled with slush and rocks on the trail


Waiting for the others to join us. Mr. Jagat Nanjappa was around with a XDP engine with so low noise, we mistook it for a petrol engine!. He said it was a “Open Air Filter”, that’s why the less noise


Relaxing mid-way, waiting for the rest of the gang to join us

http://youtu.be/2rHEfd1TrLg

http://youtu.be/QvlYVgdJUh4

http://youtu.be/uR_FgC8SrsQ

http://youtu.be/d9whTZUPNLI

http://youtu.be/7Jsd9_ZGQCE

http://youtu.be/M36IrU6nNVM

http://youtu.be/vELEeE2bKyU

http://youtu.be/VHzW2I2FCDY

http://youtu.be/nWVAUtAAsJQ

http://youtu.be/hU2DqHqnlgk

http://youtu.be/VvoOER8rvZc

http://youtu.be/_M_isxAQBVQ

[Samurai]

Thanks for the report. Pioneer Tennis Club always does a great job in organizing the OTR. I would have attended except for the wedding of my two colleagues. But my first cousin in KA-19 Gurkha was there.

[arun27g]

Yes indeed Samurai, the event was quite wholesome in nature, arrangements were fantastic and their efforts to adapt to learnings from the previous events is commendable.

Your cousin, we did cross paths. By far he was the only one on Force Gurkha, a black KA19. We did stay in the same hotel and we were one behind the other in the initial line up.

Cheers

Here, posting 4 more high resolution videos, courtesy Prajwal Baglodi

http://youtu.be/A4PHFEj2Bg8

http://youtu.be/1Kajjnkdkbo

http://youtu.be/D0K1-W5l5MI

http://youtu.be/ly9-O3LN1XQ

[yamaniac]

Nice report. Good to see some familiar faces . Also Rohits's jeep is looking amazing in its stance. Will check the videos later. Cant open them in office.

[dhanushs]

Nice Report and Amazing Videos and super terrain man! I missed this years event.

Which vehicles performed better? And why was it so? Could you please shed some insight?

Thanks!

[arun27g]

Dear Dhanush,

Many thanks. The above was purely a participant's view. Clicked loads of pictures and some videos and of course, had a lot of fun. This was my first OTR. So, I was more excited to finish it without getting stuck rather than make some notes and feed the TBHP forum. Will be more attentive and observant as I score more OTRs.

Some key things I remember, are listed below:

4 groups of 10 jeeps (I think 6 groups) were led by a Marshall. In our group, we had 3 of MM540s, a CJ500D (me), 3 Thars and 3 cj3b,s

While the Thars were simply super in clearing all obstacles with little or no difficulty, I was struggling for a little while until I learnt about the gear L2, post that, it was smooth sailing. The cj3b's were pretty much great until the stream crossing, after which one of them developed a snag in the starter motor, which was sorted out by the service team. The same cj3b had a snag a while later again with the starter motor, after participating in a recovery operation.

The problematic ones were surprisingly two of the three MM540s. One of them had a slight problem landing on its belly in the middle of a uphill climb and getting slightly damaged in the process. But this might more or less be a driver error than of the vehicle. Once recovered, it was great and finished the day without further incident.

The other one was a saga in its own. Initially there was loss of power (I do not know why), then it got stuck in the middle of the stream, stalled and water entered the exhaust system (I don't think water entered the engine block, but I am not sure as I lack the expertise to judge). It continued to give many problems and finally, had to be towed back to Mangalore. It is looking for a new owner now.

Apologies for not being to shed more light. However, will try and make future posts more detailed.

Cheers

Arun