Indian Motor racing is roughly 50 years old and rallying 30 years. The pathetic fact is that the common man is blissfully unaware of motor sports, save for the spate of international events televised through star sports and ESPN. 

 Rallying has weathered the harder days and reached a commanding position today. The ten rallies form the National Championship has encouraged even circuit racers to get into it so that there is year long activity. 

 Motor cross, the cheapest form of motor sport and the second most physically demanding sport after football has taken greater strides in the form of Shyam Kothari, Pratap Bhaghwat and Ashok Raja. All the three are from Pune, considered the Mecca of Motor cross in the sub continental. The top three have raced in the U.S. on invitation in 1994. Though they could not match their counterparts in the U.S. and other countries, it was a dream for the Power Machine to race with greater competitors.

Motor sports in India is still the bastion of the crème de la crème, thanks to the low level of sponsorship.

 The known sponsors are MRF Limited and JKTyres, while the invisible sponsors are TVS Suzuki. All three manufacturers use information they gather from rallying for the R&D of their tyres and motorcycles. While these are the companies who spend on the sponsorship of competitors, the scene in Event Sponsorship is totally different. Castrol India Ltd., sponsors the National rally Championship and all the rallies except three. Popular Automobiles, ITC Ltd, and The Club are the other three sponsors.

   The current talk among motor sport fraternity is the new breed of car manufacturers come up in India and the possible sponsorship that could come up from them. Ford and Hyundai have made Chennai their home. Though the Hyundai factory is opposite the Sriperumpudur tracks, there hardly seems to be any move to sponsorship from their end. The other manufacturers hardly seem to be making any progress in this direction.

On the other hand Maruti Udyog has recently started conducting Picnic Events in all the major metros to bring public attention to their product and the recent reduction in cost of Maruti products. The new manufacturers have to match the cost of Maruti, the Indian in thing car and mass produce to reach the Indian mass. This should easily take four to five years more. It is when this happens that the visitors to India would feel homely enough to invest major chunks in motor sport.

Motor sport in India has tremendous potential with a huge populace who could complement the sport. One has to make the common man part of the sport and make him feel one with the adventurous game. Motor sport would only then read as MOTOR COMMON SPORT. 

 Would you believe that the top rallyist in India earns about a crore and a half through the year? Do you know that the preparation of a car for a national rally costs about Rs.50,000? And does it make sense to you that the ace rally driver can collect at least 3 lakh as prize money? This is the kind of money that goes into rallying. But these are only individual cases. 

 Motor sports, an expensive commodity is today available to the common man in India thanks to big sponsors. It is sport where automobile manufacturers vie with each other to send the best team while in other countries cigarette and liquor manufacturers blow up their money to get the attention of the consumers.

 It was 15 years ago that MRF Ltd., then Madras rubber Factory, got into motor racing, which was the only available motor sport event then. Starting on a very modest scale, the red, black and white team brought into motor racing the team concept. Though many other sponsors tried their hands at building teams, it was only Team McDowell which made a worthwhile impact on the red shirts. Coimbatore’s S.Karivardhan with his black beauty formula car then stormed the scene. The managing Director of Lakshmi Mills, he brought in team Lakshmi Mills, about 13 years back.

 In 1992 another tyre company entered the fray. Team JK Tyres; the Delhi based truck and car tyre manufacturers, pooled in a big sum and entered into a deal with Karvivardhan and ran the Team JK Racing. But MRF was the natural leader in rallies which gained prominence in India in the eighties. What started out as basically outings and picnic rallies became more serious and in 1990, the National Championship for rallies was announced. Thought he champion was not paid any prize money at the end of the year, it became highly prestigious to win the title. Starting with two modified classes and one stock class for cars and a modified and unmodified class for motorcycles, today thee are championship trophies for the championship trophies for the champion driver/ navigator in a modified and an unmodified class in card and motorcycles.

 Jasdeep Singh, a rallyist from Delhi who took part in a car rally in the South, found it exciting and informed his friends, Hari Singh and Gurinder Singh Mann and the JK Rally Team was born. Putting together a deal with karivardhan to tune their cars, Team JK made steady progress. Hari Singh, their anchor man, nicknamed mountain rat for his dare devilry, began to make an impact and Team JK started to gain placings. In the years 1992 and 1993, the front runners for JK tyres grew in maturity and driving skill.  In 1994 and 1995, with the last leg of the car championship slated to be held at Hydrabad in December, the infants on the rallying front, Team JK, swept the boards, winning both the driver’s and the navigator’s championships. 

 In 1992, another team, Team Paarel, based at Irinjalakunda in Kerala, made its presence felt on the rally circuit. With four cars and six bikes sponsored by the Paarel family who are basically plywood manufacturers, the team chosen green as its colour and won the tough Karnataka rally in 1993. They are on a lay-off now since they are investing a huge amount in five new factories. The rallying field in the country has been progressing at a rapid pace over the last couple of years. It was only during the Gulf war that rallies and races were stopped to satisfy public opinion on wastage of fuel.

 Rallies were shortened to 750 kilometer as long as they were part of the national championship and their has made competition very tight. Team MRF, Team JK, Team JCT and Team Paarel are the only four teams in India today. Indian car have hardly got into sponsorship for each manufacturer has a monopoly over his product and there is no necessity to advertise his product.

PITCHED BATTLES
The red shirts and the yellow devils-that’s what they are called in the highly charged field of motor sports. Team JK in yellow and Team MRF in red, have quite changed the colour of motor sports in India, in the last three years. 
If the battle of the tyre giants can be compared to anything it could be akin to a Lilliput trying to poke a needle into a giant’s legs-Team JK being the Lilliput and Team MRF the giant. 

 MRF sponsored the first Formula car 15 years ago. JK industries, with hardly any knowledge of the sports, made their entry into the field just two years ago. Team MRF always emerged victorious and there seemed little to stop them. But it had taken them six long years to become this consistent. After initial struggles. Team JK has begun to make an impact this year, Yellow lightning steals the thunder reads one of their ads and for good reason.  

 After winning the season’s opener at Bombay in 1994 MRF pulled out of the next two at Coimbatore and Madras in protest against the decision by the federation of Motor Sports clubs of India to ban one of their drivers and riders. JK took the cue and promptly won both the events. Thought MRF was back after that, they were outclassed by JK in both Popular Rally and Castrol Rally D'Endurance, thereby earning their first ever championship victory in both the Modified and Unmodified class of cars. 1994-1996 have been bad ones for MRF the problems they face from the FMSCI and their own divide and rule policy has spelt disaster for them. This has allowed their competitors to steal a march over them.

 MRF seems to have learned their lessons the hard way. The beating they have taken is perhaps for the best in the long run. MRF has now entered Naren Kumar & Arjun Rampal as their ace drivers for Asia pacific rally championships. Both drivers have shown tremendous skill in competing with ace international drivers winning in Thailand & Indonesia. The future for Indian motor rallying is bright indeed. 

MADRAS MOTOR SPORTS CLUB

Motor sport established its roots in Madras in 1953. in that year, Rex Strong, an Englishman and K.Varugis, raced two 1948 M.G.models from Chesney Hall, on commander-in chief road to the Catholic Centre in Armenian Street in George town.

Address: Madras Motor Sports Club, Guru mansion, 1st floor, 123 / 1, TTK Salai, Alwarpet, Chennai – 600018.
Phone: 4990998
Fax:  24993984

These two people searched around for like-minded people and then they staged a Motor Scavenger hunt. At the prize distribution ceremony that day the winner was the famous Kasim Khaleeli. It was then that a formal resolution was passed to form the MMSC (Madras Motor Sports Club).

Then the MMsc had a prize catch when they managed to secure the airstrip at Shaolavaram about 25 kilometer fro Madras for their race track. In August 1953, the first event was organized for two classes of cars-MG’s and other stock cars. Encouraged by the response and the general enthusiasm, the MMsc organized the first ever official meet on 25^th October, 1953. There was a five lap relay for motorcycles, a five lap race for sports cards and a three lap relay for motorcycle teams.

The fastest man at the meet was Johnny Dye who clocked 72 mph in a Triumph Twin. The popularity of the sport and the tremendous response from the participants from all over the country forced the Club to host the first All India race meet on 17^th February 1954. In addition to a large number of Indian riders and drivers, there were also internationally reputed drivers from Sri Lanka. About 10,000 spectators gathered to watch the day’s events.

 
Zacky Dean, who had taken part in the Isle of Man TT and other international races, lived up to the expectations in his Norton Special. Raja Sinmnathurai, the young participant for whom special permission had to be obtained because he was for too young, won in his maiden attempt. Among the Indians, Hari Rao of Madras won the Bikers section while P.S.Hariharan from Bangalore won in his Jaguar XK-120.

The growth of MMSC has been steady. Starting with a membership strength of 40 in 1953, the club today has over 750 members. This is higher than the total membership of all the other motor clubs in the other parts of the country. Incidentally, 80% of the members are life members.