Cars to vroom in city once more on Monday

After Rally De Mysore, Mysore is gearing up for another vrooming event of rally which includes both ‘ultimate cars’ and ‘TSD(Time, Speed, Distance)’  sections. S Shivaranjini spoke to ace rallyist Lohitt V Urs about his passion and profession.

‘Dakshin Dare’,  National event organised by  Motor Sport  INC of Bangalore,  is conducted  successfully since four years. The  rally which includes a distance of about 1500 kilometers is sponsored by Maruthi Suzuki.

It would start on April 9 at 4 pm from Mysore Palace and via Coorg with dirt track race,Wayanad,  Ooty, Coimbatore,  Satyamanagala would reach Bangalore on April 14. Winner will be declared based on the speed followed by participants in five days.

Ultimate cars section would involve cars specially prepared for rally would run on closed roads on high speed and on regular roads with slow speed, where as TSD rally will be on regular roads with slow speed.

Peak of events

Lohitt V Urs, a participant of ‘Dakshin Dare’ says,  1998-99 were the years where rally events in Mysore was at its peak, but has gone down after that.

But now with all auto-manufacturers coming to India, motor sports will develop gradually. 

As Indian motor sports is a part which provides ground for all manufacturers of motor cars, racing and rallies will automatically reach its best among all sports.

Passion for rally

Lohitt is a mechanical engineer whose passion for rallies was inspired by his father late Vijay Urs, industrialist who was also a rider.

Watching rallies with his father while young, he entered racing through dirt track racing in 1996 and in 2000 he was a National level  champion.  With a list bigger of his national and international  participations and championships, he was the first Indian to win international championship in 2009.

“My mother Nalini Urs,  my family and friends have all encouraged me very much  to make my passion, a profession.”

Lohitt quit MRF group after National championship in 2011 and is presently with Yokohama Tyres and Red Rooster performance and is also associated with projects of Mahindra for designing cars specially for rally. For the event Dakshin Dare, he has a navigator from Thailand, Chupong Chaiwan, one among top rally navigators.

In coming months Lohitt will be participating in ‘Himalaya Rally’ which is from Himachal to Kashmir and ‘Moghul road rally’ in Kashmir which is organised to promote Kashmir and make the world know, ‘Kashmir is safe’. It is known to be the toughest rally.

“Commitment is most important as in any profession, to choose rally as profession. Any one with dedication and confidence can achieve success. There should be no one-day passion towards the sport, but a hard time involvement would make one reach heights,” he says.

Involvement

Everyone cannot have the talent, but who has it will be picked.  But it needs a full time involvement in the sport. One can earn a living by having motor sport as his profession. As motor sport will see a rise in India in future days, folk with a sportive passion will be recognised,” Lohitt adds.

As many as 50 participants are expected to participate in the rally on April 9, a feast for rally fans of Mysore.