After four days of cross-country rallying, the team of Ajgar Ali and Mohammed Musthafa successfully defended their title at JK Tyre Himalayan Drive 7. Hailing from the small port town of Haldia in West Bengal, Ajgar Ali, along with Erode’s Mohammed Musthafa, achieved the rare feat of winning their third successive title in the country’s only international TSD (Time, Speed, Distance) rally.
In the national category, Ajgar Ali and Mohammed Musthafa ended with a final tally of 1110 penalty points. Securing the second position were the team of Gagan Sethi and navigator Rajkumar Mundra with 1847 penalty points, while veteran rallyist Jogendra Jaiswal and co-driver Nagarajan Thangaraj were unlucky to end their JK Tyre Himalayan Drive 7 campaign in third position with 2035 penalty points.
In the open category, the team of Govind Dalmia and Anand Agarwal emerged victorious edging past Rohit Agarwal and Kunal Joshi to finish with 9149 penalty points. The Agarwal-Joshi team scored 9691 penalty points securing the second position. Finishing third in this category were the team of Suyash Raj and Mohammad Sharif with 10796 penalty points.
This year’s title battle saw a nail-biting finish. The team of Jogendra Jaiswal and Nagarajan Thangaraj who started the final day (Day 4, Saturday) as championship leaders lost their bid to the crown in the very final moments of the rally by missing the penultimate time control, picking up 900 penalty points due to this single error. The Jaiswal-Thangaraj team had a score of 690 penalty points at the start of leg 5 (Day 4) of the rally that was flagged off on Saturday morning from Kalimpong. They were followed closely by Ali-Musthafa duo with 703 penalty points and at distant third place were the team of Gagan Sethi and Rajku6mar Mundra with 1147 penalty points.
“We made a big mistake (by missing the second-last time control) and we handed the championship title to them (Ajgar and Musthafa). It is a disappointment for us, but the winners deserve the title. Such things happen and we have to take in true sportsmanship spirit,” said Nagarajan Thangaraj.
“We are very happy to score this hat trick. It was a very exciting rally and I can say that the seventh edition of JK Tyre Himalayan Drive was the best TSD rally in the country till date. The competitive sections were superb and posed a tough challenge to drivers, navigators and our cars. The rally routes were meticulously planned to ensure that tricky and tough challenges were thrown at the competitors and tested both man and machine,” said Ajgar Ali. He was also all praise for Just Sportz, the rally organisers. “This rally is always well-organised and everything is transparent,” Ali added.
This year’s victory takes the total winning tally of Ajgar Ali and Mohammed Musthafa to four Himalayan Drive titles (2013, 2017, 2018 and 2019) since the event was first held in 2013. The team of Sudip Ghosh and navigator Arindam Ghosh were the only other team to have won this title more than once (2014 and 2016). Anubhav De and co-driver Chandan Sen won the title in 2015.
The last leg of the rally was flagged off from the Kalimpong stadium by the Chairman of Kalimpong Municipality, Ravi Pradhan, in the presence of senior officials of Kalimpong district. Saturday’s leg was a tough one starting with a steep climb on the road from Mungpoo to Jorebungalow that was lined with verdant forests and offered majestic views of snow-capped peaks of the eastern Himalayas for a few kilometres. This was followed by another competitive section downhill through winding mountain roads of Rohini. The third and last competitive section was a tough drive stretching over nearly 23 kilometers through the bed of the Mechi river that forms the border between India and Nepal.
The JK Tyre Himalayan Ddrive 7, which was organised in association with EXPERIENCE BENGAL (West Bengal Tourism), covered 880 kilometers over four action-packed days. Competitors traversed through the verdant Dooars area of North Bengal to enter Bhutan to reach the enchanting Paro Valley before returning through the Dooars to climb up the Darjeeling Hills till Kalimpong and then descend to Siliguri in the final leg of this premier rally.
JK Tyre Himalayan Drive 7 not only promotes motorsports, but also showcases the enormous tourism potential of North Bengal and Bhutan. This rally has been playing a stellar role in developing ‘People To People’ connect between Bengal and its neighbours in this part of South Asia, besides being an important driver for tourism in the region. Apart from being the only international TSD rally from India, JK Tyre Himalayan Drive 7 is unique and distinct from all other motorsports rallies in the country since it covers a wide variety of terrain ranging from tarmac, river beds, dirt tracks, forest roads and mountainous roads.
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