"Motor Sport" , a word that had never came in my mind even in my wildest dreams till I met Anukraman Sir , who used to tell me about Desert Storm, Raid-de-Himalaya and other motor sport events and I used to think that people involved in it must be really crazy to do all these kind of things.
But, this motorsport bug bit me also in September 2008, when I did “Indian Motor Car Rally” with his team and enjoyed every moment of it. I didn’t even know the ABCD of this thing but Sir told me only one thing about being an official in any motor sport event and i.e. “Bahot lagti hai officials ki” and this line of his came out to be true in all the events of which I have been part of, whether it was Indian Motor Car Rally (my first rally as official) or be it Desert Storm 2009 in which I went as his co-driver or would rather say “passenger”, The Monsoon Ride’09 & Polaris ATV Challenge’09.
Team Indian Motor Car Rally
The thought of forming a motor sport club came in our minds when Me, Anirban Sir and Anukraman Sir while we were coming back after finishing with Desert Storm 2009 and were having tea on a roadside dhaba and everything clicked perfectly and thus Western Motorsports came into existence after 2 months.
I still remember that telephonic conversation with Anukraman Sir when he thought of doing our very first event “The Monsoon Ride”. Few lines of the conversation which I remember are
Sir: I am thinking of doing a TSD event.
Me: Great. When are you planning to do that?
Sir: Next Month. Dates are 4th and 5th July and the event will be called “The Monsoon Ride”.
Me: What !!!!!!!!
Sir: What whoot ka time nahin hai, kaam shuru karo ... Entry form design karna hai , shuru ho jao.
And that’s how, it all began , everything came out of nowhere, sitting on laptop throughout the day, searching for different documents, rules and regulations of a TSD rally, making documents (Supplementary Regulations, DCOC manual, Time Cards, Control Sheets, Logo for the event, Logo for the club etc.).Discussing everything on phones, chats, mails working day and night till 4-5 or sometimes even 6 in the morning.(Gosh, I never studied this much for an exam also).
Then I went for the Recce, from Jaipur to Bhangarh, one of the most beautiful tracks I had seen. One thing which I have noticed about Anukraman Sir is his tremendous skill of finding tracks for any motor sport events in which he is involved, be it for the Indian Motor Car Rally, Desert Storm 2009 (The very first night section , yes I was the lucky one to accompany him in that recce also),The Monsoon Ride and Polaris ATV Challenge, each and every track found by him were appreciated by all the officials & participants.
We had only 25 days to go for The Monsoon Ride in which the core team of Western Motorsports(Anukraman Sir, Raj Singh Sir, Aazaad Sir, Anirban Sir, Shalini Ma’m) all of us worked like maniacs for sponsorships, road books ,logistics, planning and execution of the event.
Finally D Day arrived for our very first event “JK Tyre-The Monsoon Ride”.(Yes, finally we bagged in some sponsors JK Tyres, Big TV, Club Mahindra, Trendy Webs, Dhruvan and some more) and everything started as we planned & everything planned for the first day went on smoothly. We received 50+ entries in one month which was a great achievement for all of us being new and no big names from motor sport world.
The next day was very crucial for all of us as everything has to be perfect no matter what comes in our way. None of us slept for last two nights because of the last minute work load we all had, but I salute the spirit of every official of JK Tyre - The Monsoon Ride that everyone reported on time and worked like anything to make the event a success. Everything went on smoothly on the second day also, we did have some critical comments from the participants but we’ll make sure that those things should not be repeated in future. Critics are the part of the game and if healthy one’s which we fortunately had are good for development of an organization.
I would also like to mention Team Northern Motorsport for standing beside us and were there for us for every single moment when we felt we were lagging somewhere. Thank you JD sir, Sudev Sir, Philip Sir, Bharat Sir, Deepak Sir, Rahul Sir, thank you TEAM NORTHERN MOTORSPORT.
While we were gearing up for The Monsoon Ride, came another good news about our next event which was India’s first ATV event “Polaris ATV Challenge”. Right after finishing with The Monsoon Ride, we started working for the ATV event which was announced in the Prize Distribution Ceremony of JK Tyre-The Monsoon Ride.
Polaris ATV Challenge was a 3 day event and god was kind enough to shower his blessings in form of rains throughout the event. A total off-road event with heavy rains throughout the day was a real treat for everyone in those hot humid summers. I would love to mention “Chhotu” (Shalini Mam’s Bolero) who was our companion throughout the event. We had a great time with everyone present right from officials and participants (especially Mrs.Deepa Malik, hats off to her spirit).
All n All it feels great to be a part of something like this, I had always wanted to do something adventurous and would like to thank Anukraman Sir for giving me a chance to experience something like this and accepting me as a part of his team .
By,
Yatin Gupta
