The fourth leg of the Biswa Banga JK Tyre Himalayan Drive 6, India’s only TSD (Time, Speed, Distance) Rally, got off to a bright start from Murti in the Dooars area of North Bengal on Monday morning and entered Bhutan a few hours later. The rallyists drove through a few dry riverbeds and scenic tea gardens. The 135-odd kilometer rally route included a few dirt tracks too.
Defending champions Ajgar Ali and Mohammad Musthafa maintained their lead at the end of the third leg (on Sunday, February 25), picking up just 14 penalty points to notch a final score of 99. The Subir Roy-Nirav Mehta duo, who were just one penalty point behind the lead team at the start of the third leg, slipped a little by picking up 18 penalty points. But with a total score of 104 penalty points – just five penalty points behind the defending champions – the championship is still very open. Captain Vijaykumar Sharma and Chandan Sen were lagging behind at third position with 259 penalty points.
In the local category, media professionals Gagan Sethi and Dhiraj Arrora maintained their lead and picked up 72 penalty points in the third leg, finishing Sunday with 772 penalty points. They were followed in a very distant second position by Pranjal More and Milindo Paul with a total score of 3,730 penalty points. Govind Dalmia and Anand Agarwala finished the third leg in third position with a total of 4,580 penalty points.
On Monday, the competitors initially passed through some dirt tracks in the periphery of the Chilapatha forest and crossed Khunia More to get on to river beds. They drove down roads slicing through tea gardens in Bannarhat and in the vicinity of Binnaguri to get on to the national highway to travel through Alipurduar district, passed the entrance to Jaldapara National Park and Old Hasimara Bazar before entering the next competitive zone that took them through dirt tracks and gravel roads and on to a river bed. The rallyists then passed through the Chuapara Tea Estate and then Bhatpara Tea Estate.
After a sumptuous lunch at the sprawling director’s bungalow of the Bhatpara Tea Estate, the rallyists drove through another competitive section through tea gardens and dirt and gravel tracks before getting on to another river bed, and then driving through embankments and more dirt tracks to get on to another river bed. They then got on to the road to Jaigaon before crossing two more river beds and finally entering Bhutan.
Power Drive 