PANJIM: Gurmeet Virdi (co-driver Kirpal Singh Tung) of Gerrari Offroaders Chandigarh retained the top spot at Force Gurkha RFC India 2016. The three Force Motors teams secured the second and third slots at the end of the day, on Tuesday.
Despite an extremely tough day filled with several hardships including a steering failure during the Predator Special Stages (SS13-18), Gurmeet Virdi managed to retain the top spot at Force Gurkha RFC India 2016 with a total score of 1472 points out of 1800.
The three Force Motors teams secured the second and third slots at the end of the day with Malaysians Tan Eng Joo (Tan Choon Hong) and Merwyn Lim (Hamizan Bin Abdul Hamid) both tying up for the second position with 1460 points and Kabir Waraich (Gagan Sachdeva) at third spot with 1220 points.
Hyderabad’s Abinav Reddy Nukala (Laxmikanth Reddy Thota) climbed up one position to claim the fourth spot with 1214 points while Delhi’s Bijender Singh (Gajender Singh) was at the fifth position with 1201 points.
Gurmeet, who has been consistently performing well so far in the competition, had a steering failure in SS15. But instead of giving up and getting a DNF for that Stage, the team showed extreme will-power when co-driver Kirpal manually turned the tyres of the vehicle to complete the Stage.
Though they got merely 46 points in that task, they won everyone’s heart with their exemplary performance and spirit.
SS18 was the most difficult task of the day and required crossing a series of obstacles, including a couple of hairpin bends, followed by winching the vehicle up a steep slope.
There was also a special marker in the middle of the SS and knocking it meant losing 30 points in that stage. Of the first 21 callouts of the day, there were 6 DNS and 8 DNF in this Stage.
