Dehradun: Bangalore’s champion rallyists, husband-wife team of Satish Gopalkrishnan and Savera D’Souza head a strong field of 35 entries competing in the three-day, 850-km Uttarkhand Adventure Car Rally which will take off from Dehradun on December 21.
Uttarakhand Tourism is organizing the Uttarakhand Adventure Car Rally from December 21 to 24. The route of the rally has been designed to touch some of the major tourism hotspots of the state through mountains and plains.
Uttarakhand Tourism Minister Mrs Amrita Rawat said that the state has coped with the disaster by rehabilitating the disaster victims. “We have built new roads and infrastructure which is the lifeline of tourism in the state. The rally will spread the message nationally and internationally that the state is once again the ‘eco-adventure tourism destination’ for skiing, white-water rafting, wildlife photography, and now also motorsport,” said Mrs Rawat.
Satish and Savera are winners of Dakshin Dare, Desert Storm and other major rallies. The other top guns at the rally are Ajgar Ali and Jagmeet Gill.
Ajgar Ali, from Haldia near Kolkata, has teamed up with champion TSD navigator Mohammad Mustafa from Erode, Tamilnadu. Ali has major wins to his credit including the top spot in the Mughal Rally 2013 and the Hornbill Rally, Nagaland. Challenging Gopalkrishnan and Ajgar Ali is Jagmeet Gill of Chandigarh, TSD winner of Raid De Himalaya 2013 and second overall in Dakshin Dare. Gill and navigator Chandas Das are driving for Team Maruti.
While champion rallyists from all corners of the country are competing in the rally, there is sizable participation of the youth of Uttarakhand in the rally too. The Uttarakhand Adventure Car Rally is being organized by Himalayan Motorsport. This is the premier Shimla-based motorsport club which organizes the world-famous Raid De Himalaya. The Uttarakhand Adventure Car Rally is supported by Maruti Suzuki and JK Tyres.
On December 22, the Uttarakhand Adventure Car Rally will begin early morning from Dehradun. It will go via Rishikesh, Shivpuri, Dev Prayag, Rudra Prayag, Karan Prayag, Chamoli and Joshimath to end at the ski resort at Auli. The rallyists will cover about 300 kilometers on the first day of the event.
The route from Dehradun to Shivpuri and beyond features some of the most popular stretches in the world for white water rafting. On Day 2, the Uttarakhand Adventure Car Rally will come down from Auli to Karan Prayag. It will then proceed towards Chaukhutiya and Kumerian to reach Ramnagar on the east of Jim Corbett Park. On Day 2, the rally will cover about 280 kilometers of country roads.
On Day 3, the rally will go across some of the most picturesque roads in the state via Nainidhada and Kotdwar to culminate at Dehradun.
Mr Vijay Parmar, President of Himalayan Motorsport, said that motorsport has great potential to grow in Uttarakhand, and will showcase its excellent tourism destinations nationally and internationally.
Through the rally, the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Board hopes to raise further resources to assist those affected by the floods. The rally is open to any brand or model of automobile. SUVs and cars will fight for top honours in their own categories respectively. The Uttarakhand Adventure Car Rally is authorized by the Federation of Motorsport Clubs of India (FMSCI).