MRF announced as title sponsor of 2016 INRC/IRC and INTSDRC

The first round of the 2016 FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) and the Indian Rally Championship (IRC) will be flagged off in Coimbatore on July 23.

This was announced by Ramakrishna Race Performance Management Pvt. Ltd. (RRPM), the Kolkata-based promoter of the 2016 INRC, the IRC and the Indian National TSD Rally Championship (INTSDRC) at a press conference in Mumbai on Friday.

RRPM has roped in marquee companies like MRF Tyres, Mahindra Adventure, Polaris and Pincon as key sponsors for the upcoming Indian rally season, according to a press release from RRPM.

“MRF Tyres, a market leader in automotive tyres, will be the Title Sponsor of the INRC, the IRC and the INTSDRC for 2016. While Mahindra Adventure and Polaris have come on board as Associate Sponsors of these championships, Kolkata-based Pincon Group has become a Major Sponsor of the INTSDRC as well as an Associate Sponsor of the INRC & IRC,” the release said.

“These sponsorship deals are a very positive move to promote the sport of rallying in India and will lend support to the vision of RRPM and the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI) of taking Indian rallying to greater heights,” the release further added.

Speaking on the occasion, Tamosha Dutta, Director, RRPM, said, “MRF is already an active promoter and supporter of motorsports with a number of initiatives in the domestic and international arena. We are excited that MRF has consented to be a partner and we are confident that this will be the start of a long relationship.

“We are pleased to have on board a number of others who are passionate about the sport. Mahindra Adventure over the last few years has been very seriously associated with rallying, from organising TSD events to winning the IRC with their rally team. Polaris again has been actively involved with rallying through their rally team, which won a major cross country rally last year. Finally, Pincon Group started its relation with Indian motorsports this year by sponsoring Amittrajit Ghosh to a podium finish in his maiden entry in the British Rally Championship and wants to continue and increase their involvement with motorsports in India over the coming years. Together with MRF Tyres, Mahindra Adventure, Polaris & Pincon Group, we foresee great things for Indian rallying.”

FMSCI President, Zayn Khan, said, “I am very happy that RRPM is promoting the INRC and IRC this season. Rallying has suffered from a lack of full-fledged support from sponsors and promoters for a few years and now I think I can safely say that it seems behind us. Rallying equates with probably the purest form of motorsport and a layman identifies with the vehicles competing. Therefore I am very happy that this discipline will now get the required impetus and grow from strength to strength on a yearly basis.”

 The 2016 calendar for the INRC/IRC and the INTSDRC was also announced beginning with Round 1 of the INRC/IRC in Coimbatore in July and ending with the national finals of the INTSDRC in December.

The INRC/IRC 2016 will also see the introduction of the Shakedown, which will be a pre-event procedure conducted to provide some pre-rally practice & testing to all the competitors. Top seeded drivers will also be taking celebrities and media representatives as passengers and driving the 2 or 3 kms. of the shakedown stage in their rally cars.

This year for the INRC/IRC, the terrains would include both gravel and tarmac rounds. Top drivers of India like Gaurav Gill, Amittrajit Ghosh, Sunny Sidhu, Arjun Rao Aroor, Rahul Kanthraj, Karna Kadur and others will all be back in action in this year’s edition. The championships are also happy to be back to having a round in North India with a round scheduled in Gurgaon.

INRC / IRC – Both the INRC and the IRC are speed rallies where the team to finish the stages in the least time wins. The routes of the stages are closed sections of public/private roads which are disclosed to competitors for recce.  Indian drivers in Indian cars are eligible for the INRC while Indian or Foreign drivers in Indian or Foreign cars are eligible for the IRC. However, the cream of the class will all be participating in the highly competitive INRC where Team Mahindra Adventure will be looking to win the championship again this year.

INTSDRC – TSD rallying (Time Speed Distance) is a form of motorsport usually conducted on public roads and very rarely on off-road and dirt sections. The objective of these rallies is not outright speed like stage rallying but to maintain precise times and precise average speeds on various segments of a predefined route. Each team usually consists of a driver and navigator. Teams usually start a TSD rally at fixed intervals of a minute or two.

At the time of flag off, each team is given a route schedule (tulip / road book), which guides the navigator with the route and average speed to be maintained. The ideal running time is calculated by the navigator with the given distance and average speed. Along the route there are several TCs (Time Controls), the positions of which are unknown to the teams. The marshals note the times at which each team arrives at the TCs. The difference between a team’s actual times and the ideal times determine their penalties. (Arriving late and early both attract penalties). The team with the lowest penalties wins. Teams use several instruments like different types of Odometers – Terratrip, Monit, Brantz etc, extra speedometers, GPS and rally computers for precision in their time and speed.

The schedule of the MRF FMSCI INRC (Indian National Rally Championship) & the MRF FMSCI IRC (Indian Rally Championship) is as follows –

The schedule of the MRF FMSCI INTSDRC (Indian National TSD Rally Championship) is as follows –