Rallyists from Kolkata win 3 of 4 trophies at TSD rally in Darjeeling

Subhro Niyogi,TNN | Dec 21, 2015, KOLKATA: Rallyists from Bengal shone on home turf, winning three out of the four individual categories at the eighth round of FMSCI Indian National TSD Rally Championship (INTSDRC). 

Altogether, 34 teams participated in the rally covering the rocky terrain in the Darjeeling hills. The 150 km circuit included tarmac and dirt roads in and around Darjeeling, Kalimpong, Deolo, Teesta Bazar, Moongpu, Ghum. The event was organized by Ramakrishna Race Performance Management and Gorkhaland Territorial Administration. 

Team Tata members Subir Roy and Nirav Mehta from Kolkata overcame tough competition to claim the MRF Rally de Orange winner's trophy followed by MD Ganesh Moorthy and MK Mohammed Mustafa as first runners up and Sachin Singh and M Prakash as second runners up. 

In the National category, Jogendra Jaiswal and Prosenjit Roy from Kolkata and in the open category Marlon Pillay and Avishek Agarwal from Darjeeling bagged the winner's trophies. The only trophy that eluded Bengal's rallyists was the pro stock category where Amarnath GJ and Mokhtyar Ahmed were declared winners. 

RRPM and COC of Rally de Orange 2015 Amittrajit Ghosh said, "We are aware of motorists showing enthusiasm in rallying in the Himalayas and hence was our initiative to organize a national event in Darjeeling. The support of the North Bengal Police, marshals, enthusiasm and spirit of all the competitors made the event a success." 

GTA Darjeeling principal secretary Ravi Inder Singh said, "After the successful completion of Rally de Orange last year, we decided to make it an annual event to promote Darjeeling Tourism. Like last year, the event went off very well and was enjoyed by all competitors."