Every year scooter rally enthusiasts look forward to Sportscraft’s annual event after the onset of monsoon. It’s hardly raining in these parts, but Shrikant Karani who has been part and parcel of the motor sport activities in the country in excess of three decades, announced on Thursday the 25th Gulf Monsoon Rally schedule to be held on July 6.
“This is a unique rally for scooters and some manufacturers are assisting the riders this season with spare parts. A few riders maintain a scooter only to take part in this rally. The response has been excellent and we hope to receive in all 45 entries. The FMSCI rules will apply,” said Karani who as promoter of Sportscraft will be conducting the 347th motor sport event.
The Gulf Monsoon Scooter Rally has drawn entries from many parts of Maharshtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and from Dehradun and Hyderabad. Bhopal’s Muzaffar Ali and local boy Rustom Patel are expected to tussle for this year’s title. The year’s winner will receive a trophy and Rs. 10,000 as prize money. The first and second runner up will receive Rs. 8,500 and Rs. 7,500.
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The rally will be flagged off at the old mill area of the city at Parel where the tarmac section of the rally will start and proceed to Belapur. “The second part of the rally will be the off-road leg held around the backwoods of Belapur. Thereafter the ‘competition sector’ will be the most challenging as it will test the riding skills of the each participant as they wade through knee deep water, slippery dirt tracks and gravel laden roads. This part of the rally will be run over a distance of 8 kms and three times over,” said Karani.