Gopalakrishna-Savera bag Chikmagalur Rally.

The husband-wife team of Sathis Gopalakrishna and navigator Savera D’Souza won both overall and Expert class titles in the Grand Krishna Rally of Chikmagalur in Karnataka held on June 8, 2014. It was the opening round of the 3rd edition of the FMSCI-Indian National TSD Rally Championship.

Time-Speed-Distance (TSD) rallying is enjoyed by a wide spectrum of people as speed is not the main criteria, and the rallies are usually staged on regular city roads as well as smooth dirt roads on the outskirts of cities and participation open in stock automobiles.

This is because the objective of TSD rallying is to maintain precise times and precise average speeds on various segments of a predefined route, the focus being on navigation. It connects with the grassroots level of the sport, is very popular, and is seen as the first step for rally enthusiasts.

 The Expert class which allowed the Bangalore couple the use of unlimited gadgets, upstaged reigning national champion Karthick Maruthi and Sankar Anand (finished fourth). Azgar Ali and Md Musthafa from Kolkata came second and Vishwas (Natarajan) third in both overall classification and Expert class.

 According to an FMSCI press release, Team Tata Motors’ Chidananda Murthy (BS Sujith Kumar) from Bangalore began on a winning note in their category. Amarnath (Mukthiyar) from Bangalore finished second and Ravindra Kumar (Kumar M), also from Bangalore, third in the Stock class.

 Seventeen cars had registered for the National championship (eight in Expert and nine in Stock). Another 15  registered in the local category for the Chikmagalur rally, which was run over 163-kms and covered some of the most scenic spots in the picturesque coffee-growing region of Karnataka.

 Competitors and teams registered for the nine-round National championship will have to take part in a minimum six rounds, with one round in each zonal region mandatory, to Quality for honors.

 The second round will be held in Jaipur on June 28 and 29.

 After being predominantly south India-based last year, the 2014 season of nine rounds will have three rounds in the East zone (Baripada, Kolkata and Ranchi), one each in North (Jaipur) and West (Nashik) and four in the south (Chikmagalur, Bengaluru, Coimbatore and Chennai).

Competitors and teams registered for the National championship will have to take part in a minimum six rounds, with one round in each zonal region mandatory, to quality for honors.

Source: FMSCI