Thaindian News

Chennai, June 16 (IANS) There is a palpable sense of excitement and expectation among hardcore motorsport enthusiasts ahead of the South India Rally scheduled for June 25-26 in and around Sriperumdubur, near here.

The once coveted event returns to the Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) calendar after an 11-year break, but has not lost any of its charm if the buzz in the rally circles is anything to go by.

Yet, the South India Rally has lost over a dozen entries to the Mughal Rally (June 25-28) to be run in Kashmir and that offers Rs.10 lakh in prize-money. In fact, it has attracted 81 four-wheeler entries at the last count, as compared to about 30 expected for the Chennai event.

Perhaps, a better scheduling would have avoided clash of dates between major events and helped INRC to retain its primacy in the National calendar of events.

The South India Rally, as in the past, offers a very compact route with the MMRT track in Sriperumbudur as the hub with one of the three physical Special Stages running on the outer periphery of the race circuit that forms the Super Special Stage.

The other two Special Stages are located on either side of the National Highway 4 to Bangalore, about 20 Km down the road from the MMRT circuit.

This configuration gives the Rally an overall distance of 290.80 Km, inclusive of 108.40 Km of Special Stages and 182.40 Km of transport section.

Organising committee chairman Manoj Dalal, himself a former top rally co-driver, said: “The Special Stages will be entirely on private properties. The 13.10 km long Aavisa stage, along with IVRCL (10.70) and the MMRT (10.10) will be run twice on Saturday and once on Sunday.

“With SS 1 and 8 being the Super Special Stages to be run at 8 a.m. on both Saturday and Sunday, the MMSC race track at Irungattukottai is expected to provide a vantage point for what should be an enthralling weekend of rallying action for the spectators.”

FMSCI president Vicky Chandhok was thrilled to have the South India Rally back in Chennai as he was one of the participants when it was last held in 1999. He drove a Mitsubishi Lancer (that made its INRC debut) for Team JK Tyre.

“It’s great to have one of the most spectacular rallies of the year back on the calendar after a long hiatus. The organisers have been urged to run more rally stages on private properties to make for a more controlled atmosphere and I am pleased that this initiative has already been put in place by the MMSC and the promoters for this Rally.”