Dambuk: The three-day JK Tyre Orange 4x4 Fury, an off-road event, proved an unqualified success, in terms of being an acid test for driving skills and team work as Chandigarh’s Team Gerrari walked away with a 1-2 finish followed by Team BODA from Bengaluru in the Open class, here on Friday.
The competition, organized by the IMSC Motorsport with active assistance from Abu Teyang, Director of Transportation, Arunachal Pradesh, and held under the aegis of the FMSCI, saw over 20 teams from across India besides a clutch of daredevils from the North-East region besides two Quads.
The event, which is part of the Arunachal Pradesh’s Orange Festival of Music and Adventure which is designed to promote tourism in the region, was conducted in some more beautiful settings along the Dibang and Sineh riverbeds and a Stage in the nearby swamps that was run in the night before concluding on a artificial course of five obstacles.
The ambience for the competition was just perfect, but the competitors had little time to enjoy the natural beauty of the region, ringed as it is by towering mountains and fast flowing rivers.
From the very outset, the contest was intense. The courses were designed to primarily test the driving skills without sacrificing on safety. Each team in the Open class comprised two vehicles manned by a driver and a spotter whose primary duty was to guide the vehicle through the tricky and treacherous sections.
The Gerrari team of Kabir Waraich, Harmanpreet Singh, Gurmeet Virdi and Kirpal Tung led at the end of Day One before surrendering the top position to the BODA squad comprising Prashanth, Rohit, Pradeep Kumar and Achyutha who topped the leaderboard going into the final day.
However, the fortunes fluctuated in the exciting “Show-off Man” Stage that comprised a course of five man-made obstacles. While the Gerrari team tackled the course with aplomb, the BODA foursome got stuck in the ditch crossing and the final rock climb near the finish point which incurred them too many penalty points.
So much so that the second Gerrari team of Gursahib Singh, Padam Chauhan, Dushyant and Gurvinder Singh grabbed the second spot, pushing the Bengaluru quartet to third spot.
The entire competition ran smoothly and despite a couple of mishaps when the vehicles toppled, the competitors walked away unhurt, highlighting the safety measures.
Chow Kemtsing and Chow Sujeewan took the honours in the North-East category while the honours in the Quad section went to Hage Bitu and Jitu Kalita.
Provisional final classification:
Open: Kabir Waraich / Harmanpreet Singh and Gurmeet Virdi / Kirpal Tung (Team Gerrari, Chandigarh) 1 (648 points); Gursahib Singh / Padam Chauhan and Dushyant / Gurvinder Singh (Team Gerrari, Chandigarh) 2 (614.5 pts); Prashanth / Rohith and Pradeep Kumar / Achyutha (Team BODA, Bengaluru) 3 (609.5 pts).
North-East: Chow Kemtsing / Chow Sujeewan 1 (293.5 pts); Aditya Mein / Purgajyoti 2 (272.5 pts); Chow Alia Mamchoom / Chow Jen Indra 3 (257.5).
Quad: Hage Bitu / Jitu Kalita 1 (270.5 pts); Mrinoy Sinha / Naku Hage 2 (255.5 pts).
