[haryan]

hi all ...
Just returned yesterday after a weeks holiday in Nilgiris .. Infact my holiday also had featured Mysore Safari Rally ...I thought somebody would have reported already about the Rally the second round of INRC ... as i did not find any report ... thought i would give the report ..
Mysore Safari Rally had 21 entries in all classes..
this Rally had already created some sensation with JK Tyre deciding to come back into Rallying in 1600 cc class with Naren Kumar and Vikram Mathias , Both Ex MRF Champions , and Team MRF fielding Mysore Lad Lothit Urs , Arjun Aroor Rao , Karandip Singh and Arjun Balu , all in Maruti Suzuki Balenos , Jiby Malliakkal with Nikhil Pai as his Co driver Represented GULF Chettinad Sporting team in Honda City VTec ... ... Rahul Kanthraj , Ranjit Ballal finished the
1600 cc line up in privateer Balenos
1400 cc lineup had last years champion Pritveen E Rajan , Sanjay Agarwal , Phillipose Mathai , and the rest of the field was Rally Star Cup guys and Two Gypsies ...
the Rally consisted of Four Super Fast and good gravel stages which were to be repeated thrice and Day two was Two Super Specials near Lalit MAhal Palace grounds

May 27th Friday : Ceremonial flag off took place at Mysore Palace Grounds and all the Rally cars proceeded to Kadur Inn in a Parade where the rally headquarters was situated ...

May 28th Saturday : Rally Flag off took place at Kadur Inn at 8 30 AM and wound its way to the First stage BILIKERE ... Team JK Tyre's Naren Kumar and Vikram Mathias showed their Intention of Rubbing MRF 's pride into ground straight away and Blasted off into lead on the word go ..
from BILIKERE the rally went to Second Stage Hosapura .. and the JK cars kept up their pace and were leading the whole pack followed by MRF cars .. In 1400s a big fight was ensuing between Pritveen and Sanjay while Philopose faded away ... Third Stage was MARUR and it was a lovely Gravel stage and Vikram Mathias and Naren Kumar delighted the crowds with another spectacular stage timings ... Then Came FOURTH Stage NIGUDANA HALLI ...... JK Tyres cars of Naren and Vikram averaged the super fast and super smooth gravel stage at 120 Kmph and that lead to that stage being cancelled as the INRC rules state that there should be no stage averaging more than110 KMPH... so it became a transport run to other competetitors ....
It remained the same till the end of the day with Naren in lead followed by Vikram .. and in the last stage of day with about 3 KM to go Naren Crashed into a COW head on and destroyed his car .. leaving Vikram in lead and in 1400s Pritveen gained a 9 second lead over Sanjay after intense battle..
May 29th Sunday ... Day Two :
it was only ONE super special stage run TWICE near Lalith Mahal Palace ... run in reverse order of the competetitors .. Naren entered the second day in SupeRally format ..
in 1400s Pritveen who was leading Sanjay by 9 Seconds comfortably made a major mistake in one corner and lost 23 seconds to Sanjay and eventually the Rally also ... Lohith Urs who was in Second Place Overall also made an Mistake and lost his place to his teammate Arjun Balu ..
Vikram and Naren as usual entertaine the crowds with masterly display and Naren turned out to be the fastest of all followed by Vikram .. then came the DRAMA ... Vikram checked into the Regroup / Service Two mins ahead without following his timecard and MRF immediately protested and MOTORSPORT IN INDIA was back to Politics and Protests in the Stewards Room ... Lateron Both JK tyres car were disqualified for running an Illegal rear Suspension mounts ... Surprisingly both the JK cars were prepared by LEELAKRISHNAN and two MRF cars of Both Arjuns was also prepared by him .... Stewards deliberations went on late into the night and Prize distribuiton which was to be held at 7 30 pm took plave at 11 30 pm at Kadur Safari ...So the Final Classification was
overall :
Arjun Balu .. Team MRF
Lohit Urs .... Team MRF
Arjun Aroor Rao ... Team MRF
Karandip Singh .... TEam MRF
Jiby Mallaikkal ..... Team GULF CHETTINAD SPORTING
1400:
Sanjay Agarwal
Pritveen E Rajan
Phillipose Mathai
Rally Star Cup
Chetan
Joshi

and JK TYRE has threatened to back off from the motorsport .....
what a sad end to a Lovely Rally with big Organising Glitches and BAD SPECTATOR CONTROL.....

[khaadu75]

Hey Haryan ..kewl write up !! U lucky that u were there but didnt u get any picsof the action ?? Well the end just signifies wat the Indian rally scene is all about .... POLITICS , POLITICS & some more POLITICS !!! It sucks to see the est Indian rally driver being put under the hammer for soem god damn personal ego .. I dont know the ectual reason for MRF spitting out these 2 drivers ( does any one know the actual reasons ), but wat shud matter is that JK is looking to come bak and that only sounds a better prospect for the future of indian rallyiing , so instead of slamming/dis qualifying them ppl shud b encouraging them . Though a very strange point that u made, the reason for their ousting was the suspension , then how come the other cars had a diff suspension though prepared by the same tuner or is the tuner also to be vblamed in this case ..

In short a sad ending to a great rally .... when will the kids grow ?? Or better mayb MRF shud have a personal rally championship where only MRF cars run so that ways they r guaranteed not to lose .. petty = petty !!'

cheers

P.S -- post some pics if u can !!!

[Rtech]

MRF immediately protested and MOTORSPORT IN INDIA was back to Politics and Protests in the Stewards Room ... Lateron Both JK tyres car were disqualified for running an Illegal rear Suspension mounts ...

Well the end just signifies wat the Indian rally scene is all about .... POLITICS , POLITICS & some more POLITICS !!! It sucks to see the est Indian rally driver being put under the hammer for soem god damn personal ego .

I dont know the ectual reason for MRF spitting out these 2 drivers ( does any one know the actual reasons ), but wat shud matter is that JK is looking to come bak and that only sounds a better prospect for the future of indian rallyiing , so instead of slamming/dis qualifying them ppl shud b encouraging them .

Guy's, did you actually read what you wrote?!?

Haryan clearly states the reason for the exclusion of the JK cars i.e. they were running illegal suspension components that gave them a performance advantage. Then Khaadu goes on to say it's politics because another team protested against this?

Haryan, I would have thought you would have understood the procedure, as you say you are with the APMSC and working on the Deccan rally this year.

Khaadu, I suggest you spend some time reading the rules before classifying everything as politics.

The JK cars were running uniball's on their cars, giving them a distinct performance advantage. They failed post event scrutinee because of that. It had nothing to do with MRF, nor did MRF protest on their cars. I strongly suggest you guys get your facts right before making strong statements. Unless you think that they should be allowed to run illegal suspension!

[khaadu75]

Rtech, Sorry that u mis understood watI wrote coz if u read clearly u'll notice that in a later part I wrote about the strangeness of the same tuner preparing the cars but one team passing scrytiny and the second not passing !! The only reason that I can presume is that either Team JK asked for that suspension and the tuner shud have known that the mentioned suspension was illegal .. so thigs don't fall into place some how ..!!!

Rtech, mayb u cud explain a bit about wat they were thinking or wat was teh tuner thinking ??

cheers

[Rtech]

Well, I can't explain what made the JK cars run with what they did. I guess only the guy preparing hteir cars would be in a position to do that. But, I also heard that it's not Leela but his partner who is preparing the JK cars.

Either ways, I was refering to your line:

so instead of slamming/dis qualifying them ppl shud b encouraging them .

So you want the organisers to gift them a win even though their cars were found to be against the technical regulations? That be encouraging...the wrong behaviour!

Also, a similar thing had happened to MRF 2 years ago when all their cars were excluded from the NAshik rally, so the question of favoritism does not arise.

[khaadu75]

LOL ... I take those words bak !! Mayb I was bit quik shooting off but wat I basically meant was that its strange that same tuner prepared the cars but one set gets dis qualified whereas the ther didnt !! And no I wudnt want the organisers handing out wins inspite of having a advantage in their tech specifications !!

soory ...

cheers

[haryan]

Originally Posted by Rtech

?

Haryan, I would have thought you would have understood the procedure, as you say you are with the APMSC and working on the Deccan rally this year.

!

Rtech .... i do know what i wrote and i am not saying about the suspension .... at the end of leg II ie super special stage Vikram / Sujith car No.1 checked in two mins early into the regroup and MRF Tyres protested ...
Sujith told everyone that COC of the event Shivu Shivappa called him in and he checked in ... Shivu Shivappa also accepted that he did call him in ... thats what i am saying .... Protests and Stewards making decisions .... that is not how rallying should happen according to me .... Rallying should be won on Rallying tracks not in stewards room ... IE is a sad thing to happen ...
[/quote]It had nothing to do with MRF, nor did MRF protest on their cars.[quote]
MRF did protest on Sujiths Early check in but not on Suspension of JK Tyre cars ....

[haryan]

Originally Posted by Rtech

Also, a similar thing had happened to MRF 2 years ago when all their cars were excluded from the NAshik rally, so the question of favoritism does not arise.

its never favoritism thats making motorsport bad but our lenience towards rule breakers ....
I think MAI should give very Strict and sterner punishments to those who play outside the rules .... All these guys are very much seniors in Indian Rallying and they tend to take the rules lightly ... Running Illegal suspension parts and claiming that they got the rule wrong ...
there should be some rethink on the punishments to the rulebreakers

[Mpower]

Hey Guys

Chill please. There are so few of us in TBhp who are into rallying.....so lets not piss each other off.

Lets look at the big picture. As for me, I am thrilled to hear that Team JK is back. I had stopped following rallying because it was simply a case of Naren vs Vikram.
I hope that Hari Singh can come back to rallying as well. I always thought he was one hell of a driver. Hope to see some Lancers and Petras as well.

I knew that Naren going back to MRF would be a long shot, but was surprised to see Vikram follow suit as well.

Anyways, I guess with 2 star drivers and Leela on their side, it makes sense for JK to be back in the sport because they are now guarenteed of winning. I hope they dont back out because of silly reasons because they can easily win the C'ship this year.

Who knows, MRF, crazy as they are might bring in a foriegn driver just to beat JK.

Originally Posted by Rtech

The JK cars were running uniball's on their cars, giving them a distinct performance advantage

Rt, what exactly is a uniball, is it like a ball joint? I thought the mounts were the issue. Not familiar with the homologation requirements here.

And lastly, Haryan............thanks for the great report. Job well done. Did you see any bikes or was it cars only.

[Mpower]

Originally Posted by khaadu75

It sucks to see the est Indian rally driver being put under the hammer for soem god damn personal ego .. I dont know the ectual reason for MRF spitting out these 2 drivers ( does any one know the actual reasons ), but wat shud matter is that JK is looking to come bak and that only sounds a better prospect for the future of indian rallyiing

Khaadu, Naren left because MRF did'nt give him a Group A Lancer for APRC's only event in India. They chose to bring in foriegn drivers. Naren was desparate to prove himself and so he pretty much sponsored himself with some help by JK....this meant burning bridges with MRF. Don't know the story with Vikram....with Naren gone he would have been the clear No.1 driver at MRF but he chose to jump ship too. I thought Leela was exclusive to MRF since he is ex-MRF........but I guess not.

[Montoya]

Great write up haryan. Post some pics please.. Well here will be bad spectators when youu end up having unfair advantages like in the case of the JKs..

[Rtech]

Originally Posted by Haryan

Protests and Stewards making decisions .... that is not how rallying should happen according to me .... Rallying should be won on Rallying tracks not in stewards room ... IE is a sad thing to happen ..

Originally Posted by Haryan

its never favoritism thats making motorsport bad but our lenience towards rule breakers ....
I think MAI should give very Strict and sterner punishments to those who play outside the rules ....

Now I'm totally confused as to what you are trying to say?!? First you say people shouldn't protest, then you say they should be really strict?!? Isn't that exactly why there was a protest and why they were excluded on technical grounds??

[Badcheetah]

Hey friends ,
i am new member to this site and iam surprised that people are talking about the results of the mysore rally , and the outcome of this rally was known to us long before the event .
lets face it , MAI is MRF and FMSCI is JK. both these guys dont give a damm about the sport and all they care about is the press coverage they get and the advertisments they can publish in the newspapers and magazines after the event . lets face it a MRF backed team will never win a JK event and visa versa.

since i also belong to the same gang, perhaps i can say thay till the time JK had not made it open that they would be running 2 cars with the EX-MRF drivers as a part of Team JK , all MRF cars were rnning on Dynamics , a suspention which was fabricated to suit the suzuki balanoes by leela and i personally have seen that they ran on steel mounts , but because it was a MAI event , so no one dared say any thing and i guess it was a done thing as it makes more sence to have them on . i mean if you are going to leave the choice of the suspention open , why not have the mounts free as well . i talk from experience , rubber mounts would break in the first stage if you oull the car . so i dont know why this tamasha about the rules being broken .
i personally stand to gain if JK enters the rallying scene again and would love to see both the companies fight again. I WOULD LIKE TO TELL EVERY ONE THAT 8 OR 9 YRS BACK WHEN BOTH THESE TEAMS USD TO RUN , THE TOP GUYS FROM BOTH THE TEAMS WOULD CRASH THEIR CARS OR BREAK SOME THIGN LEAVING US PRIVATEARS REACH THE PODIUM , NOW WITH THE SAME POLITICS ON I GUESS I CANSAY THAT THE SPORT HAS GONE TO THE PITS AGAIN ,
BOTH THE GUYS SHOULOD SIT ACCROSS THE TABLE AND SORT THEIR DIFFERENCES OUT AND LET THIS BE A SPORT.
RALLIES ARE WON ON THE STAGES AND NOT IN THE STEAWARDS ROOM , THATS ALL I CAN SAY ,
MY WINNER WAS THE WON WHO WON THE RALLY , rest its up to any to decide . cheers ....xxx.

[khaadu75]

Hi Badcheetah, gud to see another one from delhi signing up on team-bhp !! And from ur post it seems u onto the rallying scene ... more details about urself pls. ANd I'm sure we must have bumped into each other around delhi .

And by the way I too am more of a JK guy , had a sponsorship from them a long long time bak for the MASA rally ( '94 ). But I hope that JK does get bak 2 active rallying as they mostly trust the guys from the north in their team. Lol


Cheers

[Badcheetah]

Hi Khaddu 75 ,
Yes you are right , i have been in to motorsports for the last 10 years i guess , started with marshelling and then graduated to driving and navigating.

Hey since u are from himachal have u taken part in the Raid-de-Himalaya ? , also if you have taken part in sanjoba or the autocross , we surely would have met .
anyways , my call sign on the circut is Cheetah ! (Bad cheetah ) as i am the only one who is always ready for a drink !!!! LOL !!!!

anyways take care
XXX
Cheetah !!