HYDERABAD: The atmosphere at the dugouts of the four city teams of two groups-Team Mars and Charminar Off-Roaders Adventure Club (CORAC) participating at the Force Gurkha RFC India 2016 at Goa, resonates with the typical spirit of a Hyderabadi. A day into the competition, they’re very surefooted about their takeaways from the event. Their focus is on doing the job for the moment, enjoy the adrenaline rush and forget the rest. They enjoy their break time with chai and music playing in the background.
The Rainforest Challenge is incidentally one of the world’s most demanding 4x4 extreme off-road events that originated in Malaysia and evolved into an extremely tough challenge for 4 x4 fanatics who dream of taking on a jungle adventure; especially as its core philosophy requires the event to be organised in the rainforests during monsoons. The RFC Global Series calendar kicked off in January at Chandigarh and Bangalore. Season 3 of RFC India is being held at Goa this month during the south west monsoons.
In Goa, Team Mars’ Dr. Chaitanya Challa’s vehicle reads a colourful name plate ‘The Doctor’. The CORAC group goes a step ahead in expressing their love for Rajinikanth with ‘Kabali’ written on the vehicle. “We started to prepare 2-3 months ahead of the event and underwent some physical training as well,” says Abhinav Nukala of the CORAC group, twirling his moustache as the event starts off. He talks of the abundance of venues in the city where one can practice for the event, though he actually prepared on the natural terrain of his farms at Vikarabad. “Beyond the event, we’re trying to nurture youngsters to come into the adventure sport so that they get an exposure on a national level,” he adds.
On his strategy of maintaining calm during the intense moments, Abhinav tries his best to listen to himself and his co-driver and forget the world then. “Another team of ours features Jithender N, who’s into his 60s and has undergone two bypass surgeries to date. Our intent is also to support him to the fullest,” he adds. The moment a particular stage ends, there’s no argument or discussion about what could have gone better or any other aspect, a fact that reflects on the event scoreboard with their No.5 position.
The dugout at Team Mars (with two teams led by Dr Chaitanya Challa and Rajasekhar Prabhu) features support staff speaking authentic Deccani. Dr Chaitanya (who runs his clinic at Ameerpet) has definitely grown wiser after his RFC 2015 experience. He made some changes this time — minor ones to his vehicle and a different co-driver; he’s now accompanied by his childhood friend Shabarish Jagarapu. While he hopes his teams does well , he’s clear that he hasn’t had enough practice. “Hyderabad has roads that have more ups and downs and the city was considerably dry for the major part of 2015. So there’s only so much we could have practiced when compared to teams from other states.”
Shabarish feels encouragement to adventure sports in Hyderabad will make them perform better at national events like these. “In Hyderabad, it’s only us or another club organising events all the time in Hyderabad. Only if we see more competition, can we compare and improve,” he adds. Shabarish and Chaitanya are open in their expression of bonhomie and anger with each other. They laugh, “We're hardly calm. Only this morning, we almost chewed each other, but that’s how buddies are.” Having stood 11th the last time around, they’re hoping to turn the tables in 2016.
