DONA PAULA (GOA), July 25: In an exciting turn of events, Chandigarh’s Gurmeet Virdi (co-driver Kirpal Singh Tung) of Gerrari Offroaders Chandigarh climbed up the ranks and took the lead on the second day of Force Gurkha RFC India.
Gurmeet, who was at 3rd position after day 1 of India’s toughest off-road motorsport event, performed well in Prologue Special Stages (SS) 7-12 with 90 points in three of the stages. He has a total score of 987 out of 1,200.
The Force Motors team of Merwyn Lim (Hamizan Bin Abdul Hamid) retained the 2nd position with 985 points while Tan Eng Joo (Tan Choon Hong), the second Malaysian driver representing Force Motors, slipped down from the top slot to the 3rd position with 957 points.
Bijender Singh (Gajender Singh) of Delhi’s off-road club NIOC climbed up one slot to 4th position with 870 points.
Abinav Reddy Nukala (Laxmikanth Reddy Thota) of Hyderabad’s Charminar Off-road Adventure Club, who was at the 8th position on the first day, ended day 2 at the 5th position with 816 points.
Analysing his performance so far, Virdi said, “Yesterday being the first day of the competition, I drove very carefully as I did not want to damage my vehicle. Though we have an excellent backup team, the change in rules this year means that I have to be there at an SS when my name is announced otherwise I will get a DNS (did not start).”
“So, I don’t have the liberty of spending hours repairing the vehicle and then going to a stage later in the day. In such circumstances, vehicle preservation is my first priority. I am hoping for a podium finish this year and for that my strategy is very simple,” he said.
“I will not concentrate on finishing an SS at top speed, but rather on completing it with as little penalties as possible. The one thing that I will avoid at any cost is a DNF (did not finish),” Virdi said.
On the experience so far at RFC India 2016, he said, “The event this year is quite tougher than the last two years. The scale of the event has gone up and everyone is well prepared. Unlike previous editions where there were only 5-6 serious challengers, this year I see at least 12-15 very strong competitors.”
As expected, the stages at day 2 of the Prologue leg were tougher than the initial six stages of the previous day.
The Rajiv Gandhi IT Habitat in Dona Paula, where the Prologue SS were held, was full of slush owing to nonstop rain over the last few days. Therefore, the tasks were quite difficult even at this early stage of the competition.
The top Indian driver of the competition will get a free automatic entry to RFC Malaysia 2016, which is counted among the top 10 toughest motor races in the world. (PTI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel