Takale Sanjay and his co-driver Mohammad Mustafa, K P Karthick Maruthi and C Shaktivel and Ravindra Kumar BV and Sagar M emerged overall winners of the Monsoon Challenge 2018.
This was announced at the end of the rally at Varca, Goa. The rally was flagged off in Mangaluru on Friday. After covering close to 600-km through several rain-hit parts of Karnataka, the drivers arrived at Varca.
Apart from the overall championship, Mahindra’s adventure initiative had created different categories that includes corporate, ladies, couple, doctor and novice sections.
Category-wise
In Class 2 category, N Maheshwarn and N Murgan topped the chart. In corporate section Arvind Ganeriwala and Arjun SSB, in couples section Deepika Bhaduri and Aman Gulfam, doctors section Dr Ganesh MK and Dr Vikram Jain and in ladies category Shivani Pruthvi and Deepti Pruthvi topped the list.
Akshay Jain and Akhil Nayak topped in the local category and in novice section Koushik K S and Sachin RK topped the chart.
The Mahindra Monsoon Challenge is the first rally in the country held during the peak of monsoon and is fast gaining attention of the international drivers.
Launched by the Mahindra’s adventure initiative eight years ago, it has become a benchmark of sorts in the world of motor sports. The Indian Motor Sports Club, the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI) and the Mahindra Adventure initiative have together given this event an international dimension of rally rules and standards.
Improving spirits
According to Bijoy Y Kumar, chief of the Mahindra Adventure Initiative, there has been improvement of rallying spirits among the participants in every edition of Mahindra Monsoon Challenge and the event was getting bigger and better.
Ashwin Naik, ace international rallyist, and Musa Sherief, president of the FMSCI, said the monsoon puts the drivers and their co-drivers to ultimate test against natural forces – mainly the pouring rains and misty conditions. They appreciated the ruggedness of the Mahindra vehicles that took the punishment of the driving condition in monsoons battered roads and the special night driving segment which has been introduced this year.