| THE
ASIA PACIFIC RALLY CHAMPIONSHIP COMES TO INDIA
by Niaz Ali from Downunder |
 If
you clicked on this article expecting to see dates and locations, I'm
sorry, there is no such rally yet designated for India. But hang on
why can't India have a round of this championship. The answer to this
is that no body in India is game enough to make the desicion to host
a few international events, where the FIA observers can come and have
a look and say "hey these guys can really organise a good event". OK
now I've got your attention and I'm sure to ruffel a few feathers before
I finish this article, but at the end of the day if some one out there
in motorsport land reads this article and then thinks India is a possible
venue then I have done a good article.
Its time that I laid my credentials on the table before someone says
"how would he know". I have competed, in events in India starting out
of Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Calcutta, Bangalore, Mercara, Dibrugar, Jamshedpur,
Hyderabad, and I cant remember where else, I have also organised many
an event at a club level in Calcutta and Assam, while this does not
give me an authority on the sport, it does show that i have competed
all over india, so when I say, that the best venue for this event would
be "Coimbatore", I know what I'm talking about. Crowd control will always
be a problem in India, and we will never get away from that fact, you
cant have spectator deaths in any sport.
I competed in the 1988 cotton city rally, and was astonished at the
roads, the event runs in a windmill park, I don't know what this area
is called but the roads here are phenominal, with amazing run off areas,
and nothing to hit, because of the windmills, no one lives here and
so it would be easy to manage the crowd, you could then run a transport
section to Ooty which is about 70kms away and have a great hill, section
on the second day, to those of you who are of my vintage you would remember
the great ooty-ooty loop of the earlier rally'd'endurances, what a great
section this would be.
 Now
to upset some people, WHO SHOULD ORGANISE THE EVENT Look I know that
all the various motor sport clubs around India have good events, and
most of them are well organised, but who organised the best and mother
of all international events till date, if your scratching your head,
let me tell you the man's name ....Nazir Hoosein..... look Hes not a
great friend of mine, and he didnt ask me to do this article, but I
have to say that best organised event ever in India was the Himalayan
Rally, those of you who have done it I'm sure can't fault the organisation,
(oh by the way Nazir did have a very beautiful wife). He has a lot of
nockers who will speak a lot of derogatory statements about him, and
I've met them too. To every one out there who think's other wise, all
I have to say is first organise an event, the magnatude of the Himalayan,
organise the overseas competitors, etc etc.. Then talk.
 Ok
so you either agree or dont, well that's life, now we need all the motorsport
clubs to give the governing body of this event, five of their best men
to help organise, we need the input of all the great talent we've got,
and put the internal politics in the toilet where it belongs. Right
so we got the event, we have an organisational body and we have a venue,
now what......we need the help of the local goverment and some money
from the tourism department, there will be a lot of exposure that India
would get out of an event like this so how about putting something in.
With so many new cars in india, how about stirring the pot so that we
get some of the factorys interested. Rallying is the only form of motorsport
where you get to see something that you can buy, perform, and unlike
Formula one, where the cars are as far a you can get from a family sedan,
so how about some of the Print media getting on the band wagon, and
dedicating more than one little page to a millon dollar sport that is
thriving in India, Shame on you guys.
I predict that very soon Rallying will have its own dedicated magazine,
just as soon as some of the factory teams start appearing. Take a good look at the pictures of my car at the 1988 cotton city rally,
and dont just marvel at the driver, but look behind and at the terrain,
it is a drivers dream, very fast roads, most corners visible as you
approach them, plenty of run off area's, not rocky or that 'car breaking
stuff ' a real 'maximum attack' event. Just for the record, I started
in 18 position (not seeded) and on the start of the second day had moved
into 3rd outright, and about 30 or 40 seconds away from second outright,
but unfortunately broke a driveshaft 30km from the finish.....BUGGER...
HASTALLAVISTABABYILLBEBAAK
More info on The Asia Pacific Rally Championship:
http://www.power-pictures.com/aprc.htm
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