ZEEGNITION / Ajit Menon
The second edition of the seven-day Rainforest Challenge India was everything it had promised to be: Bigger, Badder and Tougher. But then so were the competitors!
If there was anything in abundance at this year’s Rainforest Challenge (RFC) in Goa, then it was the sheer volume of rain and the level of talent and ingenuity on display. The second edition of the India chapter of the RFC, pegged among the 10 toughest off-road challenges in the world, was ominously dubbed Bigger, Badder and Tougher.
But then so were the competitors. They had come better prepared having watched, analysed and learnt from their previous outing. Their machines were vastly improved, built to cope the massive beating that the treacherous and unforgiving terrain would subject them. Most of all, the competitors appeared stronger, both physically and mentally, and ready to push themselves to their limits. The fierceness and determination in their eyes indicated that this wasn’t going to be some tame competition.
As in the inaugural edition, there were four competitive legs – Prologue, Predator, Terminator and Twilight – each meant to test the driving and recovery skills of the competitors under extreme off-roading conditions. The four stages were further sub-divided into 24 Special Stages though this year event organisers Cougar Motorsport pulled out a surprise adding two more special stages, in line with the RFC format internationally.
The final results table was almost an encore of last year with the top three winners staying the same. Malaysian driver Tan Eng Joo (co-driver Tan Choon Hong) from the Force Motors Team took the winner’s trophy while compatriot and fellow teammate Mervyn Lim (co-driver Hamizan Bin Abdul Hamid) retained the second spot. The Indian duo of Kabir Waraich and Yuvraj Tiwana from Gerrari Offroaders Chandigarh, put up a spirited fight against the Malaysians but had to settle for third place once again. Speaking about his performance Kabir said, “I am happy that we have secured a podium finish this year as well but also a bit disappointed. We could have easily won the competition but that could not happen just because of our bad luck when the tyre of our vehicle came off in the middle of two Special Stages which cost us some crucial points. Anyway, the experience was awesome and now I am going to focus on preparing for RFC Malaysia.”
Kabir and his team-mate have once again gained a direct entry to the RFC mother event in Malaysia in December where they will go up against some of the world’s best off-roading competition.
Chandigarh’s Gurmeet Virdi (co-driver Kirpal Tung), who was in the lead during the Prologue stages of RFC India 2015, was unable to hold on to the top spot and ended the competition at fourth place. The biggest revelation at this year’s event, however, were the Goan duo of Cedrick Jordan DaSilva and Floyd Preston. The two showed immense skill and grit to emerge fifth overall in the competition. At one point, the crowd favourites had even moved up to fourth on the leaderboard ahead of Gurmeet and Kirpal before losing out in the final two stages.
Speaking about this year’s event, Ashish Gupta, Founder & Director of Cougar Motorsport said, “RFC India is the longest and among the toughest editions of the Rainforest Challenge. The fact that this year we had a very interesting line-up of competitors, with national level rallyists and seasoned off-roaders participating in the challenge, made the competition even more intense. For me, each and every competitor is a winner merely because they had the willpower to compete in such a tough event.
With RFC India proving to be massive success, the organisers are mulling starting several smaller chapters of the event in different parts of the country in a bid to promote off-roading culture in India. “I hope that in the coming years, we will see the off-road motorsport talent of the country making a mark in the global off-road motorsport arena,” said Ashish. “Therefore, we are thinking of launching a regional version of RFC India with the intent of scouting for the talent from across the country and bringing them to Goa for the RFC India Mother Event.”
If Cougar manages to kick this off soon enough, the Malaysian drivers might just find the going a lot tougher next year.
