[toiingg]

Another 1.3 OHC.

The drag was a total waste of time.

Good to meet some old Bhpians though !!

[planet_rocker]

just because a stock car had 195-60 r14 es100s, it was pitted against a Turbo charged Baleno is beyond my understanding.

Congrats to sgchoudhury@tbhp with his stock 1.3 OHC.

but it was very well oganized IMO. i haven't uploaded the videos yet. expect them in a few days.

[ronk]

That sounds pretty ridiculous!! but its good to see the first official drag in cal..
pics?

[wildchild4lyfe]

haha! thats just funny that upsized tires are considered as mods!!!
also the RS lined up with an EVO is just a joke!

but hey its a start , cz i remember when a CRX from our team was put up against a Scooby out here in Mumbai just cz there weren't enough participants in the category.

im sure the categories and classes next time. Cheers

[cityvic]

All the pics i clicked yesterday.Complete review to follow soon.

[cityvic]

Second set of pictures.

[cityvic]

Last set of pictures.

[//M]

Wow that Jharkhand registered red MG convertible looks sweet !!

[Saurabh M]

Its a 1942 MG-A, belonging to Sashi Kanoria. He has an enviable collection of cars, including a 1906 Moon. But, lets not go OT.

[1100D]

I would not say its a waste of time, probably a good start, lets hope it gets better with time. Atleast something for the usually deprived auto afficiando's without access to a lot of funds.

[IndrojitSircar]

Originally Posted by Saurabh M

Its a 1942 MG-A, belonging to Sashi Kanoria. He has an enviable collection of cars, including a 1906 Moon. But, lets not go OT.

Sir you are correct that its a MGA and Belongs to Late. Mr. Shashi Kanoria's son. The car is a 1961 and not a 1942. He owns a 1906 Renault which is car number for the last few years in the vintage car rally. He also owns a Moon which is a 1923 Model. The Kanoria's have been family friends for quite sometime now and their cars are very well known to us.

Here is a link to his collection - http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/vintag...i-kanoria.html

[anish9000]

Guys any videos of the event???
The MG looks fabulous.

[predatorwheelz]

Well, as everyone knows, 5 of us had registered for this event. We did a lot of planning. We even formed our own team - "Team Vitesse" and got t-shirts made. The competitor nos are given as follows:

1. Sgchaudhuri - OHC 1.3 - Competitor no 5 - 1200-1400cc stock
2. Arindam Sen - Maruti Esteem - Competitor no 4 - 1200-1400cc stock
3. Predatorwheelz - Verna CRDI - Competitor no 3 - 1400-1600cc stock
4. NOS Power - Hyundai Accent - Competitor no 6 - 1400-1600cc modified
5. Evo - Skoda Octavia RS - Competitor no 12 - 1600-2000cc modified

We were required to report between 7-7.30 AM. Met early at my place, last minute prep got done, and we left for the venue. Reached at 7.08 AM and were handed out sponsor stickers to put on the cars.

Here's some pics of us and our cars prepared with the sponsor stickers:











Once registration was complete, first the organizers did an on-spot scrutiny. Then the opening ceremony happened, after which the competitors were allowed to do a walking recce of the track. Here's us serious type racers returning post the recce:





The event started just half an hour past schedule. First up were the sub 1000cc and 1000-1200 cc categories, after which the events of our interest started. And here I shall divulge a little into each competitor's details:

Arindam Sen - My friend Arindam is a polite, non-petrolhead guy and a passive tbhpian (only reads, never registers). He was sweet talked into this event by Joseph and my combined persuasion. And man, he did us proud.



Arindam was first up from Team Vitesse, in the 1200-1400 cc category. His 2004 Esteem had been going great guns in practice. And what a show he put up! In round 1, he was paired against a funny looking, cosmetically modded stock Esteem. He just demolished it, posting an almost 1 sec faster time than that guy.





Here's Arindam all smiles after winning the first round:



In the second round, he beat a guy running a Chevrolet Aveo. This time Arindam posted a 0.5 sec better time than his first run.

In the finals, it was probably a case of nerves. Up against another stock Esteem, Arindam made a slow start and that cost him the race. But kudos to the guy!

Souvik Ghosh Choudhuri - Our man had never turned up for the practice sessions. But in the event he did us proud by winning the first round comfortably against another stock OHC.





Souvik all smiles after the win:



At the end of the 1200-1400cc events, it was looking rosy for Team Vitesse, with wins in both the races we entered. But then my event happened.

Predatorwheelz - I was put up against another Verna CRDI. Fair enough, it would be driver's skill that would decide the outcome.

Me driving to the start line. The Ferrari advertisement in the foreground is none other than tbhpian Cityvic.



Me all lined up for the start



And here I must borrow from Rohin's set of pics to illustrate a point. I made an incredibly clean start, just the right amount of wheelspin and then launch with a wham! As you can make out, I'm far ahead of the other Verna at launch.



Even halfway through, I'm quite ahead of the other Verna



But at this point, it was as if Burt Munro's ghost got into the other car. I suddenly saw the other car starting to make up ground, in an incredible surge of power. Do whatever, I just could not keep my nose ahead. In the end, the other guy juuuust nosed ahead and won by a margin of just 0.2 secs

(One of the marshalls later told me I should not be disappointed as it was almost a photo finish. Err, why couldn't it have been me on the business side of the photo finish?. Still, he had earned his win in a fair way, and I have no qualms about losing.)

And now the nightmare starts.....

NOS Power - Should we call it bad luck? First at the scrutiny, the organizers decide that since he's running 185/60 R14 wheels and ES100 tyres, Joseph's otherwise bone stock Accent should be bumped to the modified 1400-1600cc category. Then they decide to pair him up against Soham Hazra's Baleno, which, if rumours are to be believed, puts out anywhere between 2 to 4 times Joseph's power output!



Naturally Joseph had no chance of winning. He still put on a brave show. But the ending was a no-brainer.

Evo - If Joseph's incident was a sneak peak, what happened with Deval was really the full monty of bad organization. Deval's car is a stock RS which runs a remapped ECU. The scrutineers, with their level of checking, would have had no way to detect had Deval declared the car stock.

But Deval is a fair guy, so he declared the ECU remap and entered into modified category. And the organizers handsomely repaid his honesty, pairing him up against a Mitsubishi Evo 6 (which is rumoured to be modded and making around 400 bhp), driven by INRC champ Amitrajit Ghosh.

It would still have been fine, except it got dirtier in the end. Deval arrived in time, was given Track 2, the right hand side track which was wider and had a greater braking distance than Track 1. Accordingly he did a walking recce of ONLY track 2.

The Champ Mr Ghosh came far later than the time he was supposed to report, earned no penalty time for this (why are we not surprised?). Then he (or is it one of the organizers?) decided that since his was the more powerful car, he should be given Track 2, as it has greater braking distance! You have a Evo 6 with Brembo 6 pot calipers, and you're worried about braking distance?

Of course, no one cared to inform us, until the very last, when Deval drove into Track 2 and was told to move to Track 1. He objected, saying he had not even recceed track 1. We complained to the chief marshall that it was unfair, that we should have been informed of the change. A blind eye was turned on us, saying the decision was made an hour ago, and its our problem if we had not been informed!

My point here is simple. Amitrajit is the champ with the (much) more powerful car. You, I and every idiot knows he'll win. But the least you can do is play fair. Or is it too much to ask?
__________________________________________________ ___________

Anyway, so every story has a conclusion. What did we take away from the event? I'd say a lot of learning, a need for speed and many more events in the future, and a little bad taste in the mouth!

PS - A load of thanks to my wife and Rohin for the pics.

[Cyrus43]

So basically it was a "Drag" which had to timing equipment, moronic Scrutiny team a dirty road. Fantastic! Keep it up organizers!! This is exactly what the Indian motorsports circuit needs isn't it? ............ And you guys said SR was bad...

[octane1002]

@predatorwheels:Any chance the verna was runnin a remap or sumthing??Beats me how a stock verna can claw back like that especially when both cars are in the peak of their powerbands?

NOSPOWER'S car was in no way modified.If running a low profile tyre is modification then whats next?HID kits..power horns..

Pitting a stage 1 remapped RS against an EVO is just ridiculous.But I guess they needed to display the capabilities of the EVO against something.So Deval's car was conveniently made the scapegoat or "Track-filler" should I say