The eighth edition of Himalayan Drive finally came to an end after three days of intense battle here on Sunday, the team of Seikh Ajgar Ali and Mohammed Musthafa were crowned champion of JK Tyre Indian National Regulatory Run Championship (INRRC) 2021.
Himalayan Drive 8 (HD8), which was the Grand Finale of INRRC 2021 started from Siliguri last Thursday and culminated in Darjeeling on Sunday. A total of 24 teams, including seven all-ladies teams, took part in this event.
Several big names in this format of motorsports locked horns in the bid for the coveted crown. The 24 teams had reached the finals after going through gruelling qualifying rounds at the six zonal levels in Northeast, East, North, West, Central and South India.
The duo of Sk. Aniruddha and Raj Kumar Mundra finished second, while the driver-navigator team of Subir Roy and Nirav Mehta took the final step of the podium.
The INRRC Ladies Cup was bagged by the Pune team of Sheena Sabharwal (driver) and Trupti Gupta (navigator) while the team of Jasmeet Kaur & Jyothi Iyengar came second. The third position in this category went to the mother-daughter duo of Nilasha and Ipsita Das from Kolkata.
Apart from the three winners of the INRRC 2021, trophies were also awarded to three winners of the INRRC Adventure category, Himalayan Drive 8 Ladies Cup and the winner of the six zonal qualifying rounds.
The first prize in the INRRC Adventure category was bagged by Jit Mitra & K.Dinky Varghese while the second prize went to the team of Abhijit Singh & Ibrahim Ali Shaikh. The third position was bagged by Nishan Choudhury & Chandrasish Roy.
The competitors had to navigate through some very tough terrains, including dirt tracks, river beds and hilly terrain. The river beds on the first two legs of the rally proved to be especially challenging with many vehicles getting bogged down in the sand, gravel and rocks leading to seeking the assistance of the recovery team to be pulled out.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor