Arunachal: Amittrajit Ghosh wins Rally of Arunachal 2018
Itanagar
Amittrajit Ghosh came from the behind to emerge victorious at the Rally of Arunachal, the third round of the MRF-FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) that took place in Itanagar, Arunachal pradesh today.
In a major upset, Ghosh surpassed his other team mate Mahindra Adventure’s defending champion Gaurav Gill who couldn’t finish sixth and seventh stages of the rally due to a technical glitch in his Super XUV500. Gill along with Musa Sherif as co-driver failed to convert his first day’s lead on day one yesterday into a victory and stand 13th overall.
Amittrajit Ghosh with Ashwin Naik as co-driver had finished third in the day one of the rally. Competing in the first tarmac rally of the year that took place from Chimpu to Hollongi near Itanagar, Ghosh bettered their first day’s performance clocking an aggregate timing of 57:33.6 minutes.
“Things were looking grim after the stage one where we finished 9th. We knew we have to push all the way to improve our overall standing. Coming in today’s stages where we were aiming for the second spot but ended up winning. It is the second year we have come for the Rally of Arunachal and it is good to see the kind of support the state government has extended to this event,” said Ghosh.
INRC-2 competitors, Snap Racing’s Phalguna Urs and Srikanth banked on their first day’s performance to finish second at the podium for an aggregate timing of 57:39.5 minutes. However, in the second day Urs was unable to bag a spot among top three in all the three stages of the competition. Team Champion’s INRC-3 competitors, Dean Mascarnehas with Shruptha Padival bagged the third spot for an aggregate timing of 57:57.7 minutes.
The Rally of Arunachal 2018 is a way to promote the northeastern state of Arunachal Pradesh for adventure tourism including motor sports adventure. It is taking place at a time when the India’s Ministry of Tourism has declared 2018 as ‘The Year of Adventure Tourism’. The prize distribution was done by dignatories DC Prince Dhawan, DIG and Dr. Sushi Singh.
The recently introduced Tourist Police showed its prompt response while helping a rally team whose car was stuck in the rough terrain.
Top motorsports competitors from across the country participated in the Rally of Arunachal that was hosted by the Motorsports Club of Arunachal, which is affiliated to the Federation of Motorsports Clubs Of India (FMSCI)– the apex governing body of motorsports in the country. Apart from MRF and FMSCI, the Arunachal Pradesh Police and Arunachal Tourism were also co-organisers of the Rallly.
