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The
1984 'RALLY-DE-ENDURANCE' by Niaz Ali from Downunder |
 If
you clicked on this article I will assume that you've got a few,or a
lot of grey hairs like me, but before you read the article let me put
you to a test "What test you say". well its called the Rohinya Iyer
test.
Rohiyna was a good friend of mine who lived in Bangalore, and I never
could tell when he said "Yes" or "NO" , because he had a strange way
of shaking his head, when I say yes my nose goes up and down...Try it...
ok now say NO... did your nose go left to right ..... if it did then
your like me.
Rohiyna's way was that his nose would stay in one place and his ears
would go up and down.... Try it ..... did it work. but if i asked him
a question then he would shake his head and i didnt know what he said.,
so I would shake my nose and he would shake his ears!!!! very confusing
when your trying to ask a serious question.
Now that we got the rules right I want you to do a Rohiyna, every time
you read a fimiliar name.
Ok lets start.
BOMBAY
Suresh Niak.....top tuner and driver........Vimal Shah, driver..........Vikash
churiwala, driver.....Nazir Hoosein, the driver!!......Deepak Chopra
auto developer/driver.....HomiCommisiriat, driver....Darius and Katie
Bathena, revhead duo,........Jehangir Barucha,driver(hot one).....Farad
Bathena, fast kid with an attitude.....Minnoo nanavati, jeep man.........
Shyam Punjabi, driver........Kersi Patel, driver, .....Chubi lalwani
tuner-xtra-ordnair, .....Adi Malgam, Tuner......Sunil Shanbag, driver.
PUNE
.Atul kirloskar/Dilip Desai, these two built the worlds best Rally Fiat,
8550 was the rego
BANGALORE
CK chinappa, the Navigator!!.......Zac, driver.......Dr.Raviprakash,
driver.......Ravi gupta, Spunky driver......Uday Eswaran, very fast
rally driver........Afrose Pasha, racing driver(grp2fiats)....Basappa,
ambi campainer.......Bopanna, also a good ambi driver, A.D Jairam (sr)
absolute master tuner and also built a stunningly fast race car,......Bobby
Jairam, campained a Grp 2 Herald (but I beat him, Naa Naaana na naaaa)
COIMBATORE
Karivardhan, Good driver great sportsman, ......Viddi, the man who was
called 'GOD' for the fast cars he built.....Vijji his partner in crime
and also a stunning driver.........Leelakrishnan, yes the mungrel was
around then, he built a great A1 A fiat......
MADRAS
Dr. saboo, drove a Herald to its limits and was also the scariest looking
competitor, ......Kamlesh patel, the baby faced assisin of the indian
tracks........ K.D Madan, the Navigator and official, who Black flagged
me with a yellow flag. Vicky Chandok, he never grows old........Rajiv
Rai, Driver who brought a starlet to the himalayan,....Sheriff Dayan,
TZ bikie .......T.V. Ramachandran, driver......
MYSORE
Sominder Singh, a legend who beat the works Yezdi team Hyderabad Viccajee/Pestonji,
Ambi duo, The husband and wife team .........Kiran Modi,superfast driver......Shaukat
Khan, known for his shortcuts.......
DELHI
Khundanmal, good delhi drivers..........Sukaja's another Delhi duo who
campained a Fiat131, .........Nikhil Taneja, Teeny bopper who suddenly
appeared......Major Kapoor, Jonga Driver
CALCUTTA
Ashish Rai, the man who took a bottle of bubbly every year to the K
1000, but never won,........Arindam Gosh, arguably the most sucessful
driver out of calcutta(apart from me),......Bharat Parik, the most professional
campainer from the East, Partho, the fattest driver from the East, ......CK
Singhi the thinnest competitor from the east, ......Bishu shah,......Tara
da.....Dipankar ..........Bapi .....Palli ...Dev Sarkar....
ASSAM
Satodia, ambi driver
Look I could go on forever and ever, there are so many but this article
is not about names but of the event.
If you are dizzy by dooing a Rohiniya then you are of my generation,
if you didnt shake your head even once I guess you will not appreciate
the article. The article was written by my good friend Deepak Jouhari,
who navigates for his Brother , and occasionally gives him a wrong call
just to test his reflexes..........which are slow, when your travelling
at 150 kph, so they end up in the trees.
Right lets get into it
On the 6th of July 1984, all roads led to the Kanteerava Stadium for
the start of the 'RALLY-DE-ENDURANCE'. The first car to be flagged off
was the 1983 winner Yetrhiraj, by Dr. Jeevraj Alva at 1 pm sharp.
 The
then burnt rubber with some fast transport sectors on its way to Mettupalayam.
Only 30 of the original 32 starters were still running at this point,
and a lot of crucial tulip mistakes had already been made, apparently
sidelining some of the top teams.The two teams that retired were Zacharia
and team with diffrential problems, and N Subashchandra with his Grp'C'
herald, when their steering wheel apparently came adrift.
Before Ooty the special stages began, and it was here that the Dolphins
faced the first of the problamatic slush. Kiran Modi who was driving
the fastest of the 3 dolphins got his car wedged on a boulder in the
mud and slowed prominently, loosing 10 mts to competitors such as Kamlesh
Patel, of Madras and Uday Eswaran from Bangalore
Ooty residents turned out in large numbers to watch the rally screeming
into their town at midnight. After the night halt the first sector points
showed that... Saboo (madras), Eswaran (Mercara), Yethiraj (Bangalore)
and Bose (Calcutta) were occupying the top placings.
 The
cold morning almost made the competitors forget the hot competition
that lay in store for them as they burnt their brakes down the steep
Srirur ghats. It was here that the locals took the advantage, Jinnan
and Jayram were absolutely devastating as the snatched the lead and
got the better of the other outstation competitors.
At the Bandipur control which was also a bunching control, 20 cars checked
in. The most dramatic retirement from the rally came from G.M.Sridhar
who took a shortcut down the Sirirur, not driving but rolling his car,
he did take plenty of time off the pthers, but unfortunately also destroyed
his car, pity. OK Ok the rally is hotting up so lets get back.
 At
the bandipur bunching control only 20 cars were flagged-off, from here
they had 545 kms of rallying left through Kutta, Virajpet, Mercara (60
mts re-group) Mysore and finally back to Bangalore where they were expected
at approximately 3.30 am on the 8th Sunday. Mention must be made of
Y Yethiraj and his team who were the only ones to better special sector
target times (ss3) by three minutes. His driver Satyawart scorched the
road with, some blistering driving, but their luck soon changes when
they broke a leaf spring, in the transport sector - they were running
second at the time.
The cars from Bandipur were now on their way to Mercara, where the first
car of Kiran Modi checked in at 11.14pm followed by Atul Kiloskar, at
11.18 and Uday Eswaran at 11.23. Kiran was flagged off from here at
12.14 - the rallyists were now on the last leg back to Bangalore with
1200 Km behind them.
 The
rallyists checked into Bangalore on Sunday morning and the provisional
results were announced later during the day. The standings were C.K.
Jinan first with 120 penalty points; Uday 2nd with 135 pp. Atul Kirloskar
137 pp; Kirna Mody 140 pp and Uday Nachappa with 144 pp.
It was during post scrutiny that controversies arose after; the disqualification
of C.K. Jinan; Uday Easwaran and Anirudh Deshpande. The reason according
to the scrutineers being that the cars had been entered in Group N (stock),
but the engines had been modified.
 The
competitors concerned were vehement in their denial and according to
Uday Easwaran, the problem was over the ridge created by the machining
process at the factory at the junctions of the inlet port floor and
valve bowl area and no casting imperfections were removed. No dimensions
were altered in any way and as such this does no violate the regulations
laid down by the N.C.R. in any way. Jinan and Uday have taken their
case to the F.M.S.C.I. Tribunal and until a final verdict has been decided
on, the results will be provisional.
 The
organizers on the other hand were definite on the stand they had taken. Mr. D. Shivram, Vice President of the I.A.S.C. said, according
to the Chief Scrutinizers the inlet ports of the cylinder heads had
been opened, the manifold altered and the inlet venturi shape had been
changed.
According to the National Competition Rule no polishing could be done
to cylinder heads of Group N cars. Mr. K. Krishnamurthy and F.M.S.C.I.
steward was behind the officials in their decision. Mr Ravi Gupta the President of the club was very forceful in supporting the decision
and said that the concerned teams deserved to be disqualified.
The final results were as follows - subject to the FMSCI verdict: 1.
Atul Kirloskar - 137 pp; 2. Kiran Mody - 140 pp; 3. Uday
Easwaran - 144 pp; 4. Dr Ravi Praksh and 5. M. Nandakumar.
Dr. Saboo received the 1st sector prize and the 2nd sector prize
place went to Dr. Ravi Prakash. The Suresh Naik Memorial Trophy
which is a team trophy was won by the Madras Motor Sports Club.
 Lastly
the organizers must be congratulated for the way the rally was organized,
and a special word of thanks must be given to the sponsors of the rally
who were M/s Sipani Automobiles, Prakash Road Lines, H.M.T., Vikrant Tyres, SACHS, Armstrong Ltd and Vijaya
Bakery.
The motor sports fraternity are now looking forward eagerly to the next
rally which will be the Karnataka 1000 being organised by the
Karnataka Motor Sports Club.
The Photos in this article are not all from this event, but of the same
era, so no snotty letters please. |
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