Re: JSB Car Rally - Winner`s perspective Rally Experience
The rally was of 6 legs:
Leg 1: Burhanpur - Ujjain
Leg 2: Ujjain - Ahmadabad
Leg 3: Ahmadabad - Mandvi
Leg 4: Mandvi - Jamnagar
Leg 5: Jamnagar - Surat
Leg 6: Surat - Mumbai
We reached burhanpur on the 25th. 2 days prior to the flag off. Rayo and his team had taken over the rally organizing part. We reported ourselves and got the car thru scrutiny. SIFA guys installed a GPS (red box) unit on every cars`s passenger dash which monitored our moments (See the pic below). This box was of no help to the participants as the screen showed just the rally clock. Rest of the data were weird signs. However, we synced our clock with this clock which most of the participants didn`t.
In the pre-rally briefing, Rayo explained basic TSD stuff to everyone and then came the shocker announcement. Since in our community, hardly anyone knew what a TSD event was, rayo and his team decided that for the first leg they would also indicate the time in the speed chart.
My team was heartbroken when we came to know this, because this would have made everyone very competitive and our initial strategy to gain lead in the first leg went for a toss. Anywayz, once the road book and speed chart was given to us for the first leg, our team decided that we would ignore the time column in the speed chart and follow the fundamentals we learned. My navigator scrapped the time column and did his own calculations.
The leg was great and the feeling of completing the first leg was awesome. We reached ujjain and got the provisional results which showed us 5th. This result lifted up our spirits, and now we knew that our fundamentals were right. We didn`t use the time in the speed chart were others did. Still we managed 5th.
Leg 2:
We were given 5 star hotel stay and great food at every place. The next day we started our second leg from ujjain to ahmadabad. Now, just before the flag off there was an announcement that from now on, there will be no time column in the speed chart and the participants should calculate on their own. We jumped in air when we came to know and Hi-Fi`ed each other. We won this leg, and in overall points tally we were 2nd.
Leg 3:
By the this all the participants got the hang of what TSD is like. By the end of ahmadabad to mandvi leg , when the provisional results came out, we were 12th on this leg. Still we were overall 2nd, since there were completely new people in the leader board. They didn`t have a chance overall because they made tons of penalties in the first 2 legs. We analysed our problem and came to know that it was a small calculating error which resulted in a chain reaction of calculation error.
Leg 4:
From leg from Mandvi to jamnager we introduced dual navigation, lead navigator use to do tulip to tulip calculation and co navigator use to do speed change to speed change calculation according to speed chart. At the end of speed change both of them use to tally their time. If it was correct, then the navigation was correct, if not they use to correct themselves. By this method we never made silly calculation error, like we did in leg 3. By the end of this leg we got 10th position and we were still overall 2nd. The penalty difference from 1st position to 10th were just 30 secs. This was getting bloody competitive.
Leg 5:
Jamnagar to surat was the toughest and longest of all the legs with a total distance of 540 kms. The same competitiveness continued. We got 9th position with the difference of just 48 seconds with the leader. Since the leader board was constantly changing with new teams coming on the top, the key here was our consistency. We hit overall 1st by the end of this leg.
Leg 6:
Surat to mumbai was the shortest leg of all. There was heavy traffic on this route because of flyover construction on the, we got delayed due to this and ended up 12th in this leg. We were kind of lucky, because most of our compitition was stuck in the same position, and they inoccurred the similar penalties.
We were welcomed like a celebrity by Mumbai people and we thank them from the bottom of our hearts for this when. Like Rehaan said, we were put up at ITC, parel and from their all the car paraded in convey where people welcomed us and congratulated us for completing the rally. The parade ended at Intercontinental where we had to check - in for the night and attend the award function and closing ceremony on 6th march.
Award Function:
Award function was something like filmfare award night. We knew we were among the top 3 team. The 3 teams were called back stage and then mumbai team was announced as 2nd runner's up. so we figured we were either 1 or 2nd. Then london team was announced as 1st runner's up. That`s it boy, my team of 3 hugged each other and jumped in job. The next thing we knew, the big LED screen opened up from the middle and we entered the stage with fireworks and those colorful paper flying all over. Armaan Ebrahim handed us the trophy which when lifted like all the we had worked for has finally paid off. we were given a hero`s welcome when we returned vizag on the 8th.
Firstly, i would like to thank SUDEV, it is because of his fundamentals and learning that we could manage this. Also, would like to thank savera for answering my queries on insurance. The JSB organizing team led by Murtaza Bootwala and Abbas Ghadiyali for giving us this platform to showcase our passion. Last but not the least, our beloved Aqa Moula Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin saheb for his blessing. We wish him a happy 100th Birthday and a healthy life for years to come.... Ameen.
i will now let the pictures do the talking and the results will be posted in the next post.
Last edited by Abbas : 15th March 2011 at 17:47.
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