Tata Motors, the country's largest automobile manufacturer, swept all awards at the country's first ever TSD (Time – Speed – Distance) format based rally championship, the FMSCI – JK Tyre Indian National TSD rally. The company's motor sports team- Tata Motors Full Throttle posted win in all three categories of the championship. The utility vehicle maker put most of its models, including the likes of Sumo Gold, Sumo Grande, Safari Dicor and Vista, in the engrossing battle.
The Tata Motors Full Throttle team was headed by the real life married couple- Satish Gopalkrishnan and Savera D’souza, who managed pole on the Overall INRC TSD Championship in the Pro-Expert category. The team also posted win in the Pro-Stock class category, with the driver-navigator pair of Chidanand Murthy and Sujith Kumar BS, from Bangalore. Further, wrapping things up for the Tata Motors Full Throttle, Kolkata-based Dipali Poddar and Ipsita Das won the female INRC TSD Championship.
Expressing his delight at the immensely inspiring accomplishment and three big wins at the national championship, Ranjit Yadav, President, Passenger Vehicles Business Unit, Tata Motors, was quoted as saying, “We at Tata Motors are extremely enthused by our achievement. Motor sports are of strategic importance to any car manufacturer globally and Tata Motors is proud to have found a winning formula through this victory. It is a platform that we at Tata Motors use to improve on overall performance, safety and quality of our vehicles and is also the most effective way, to have our customers involved. Everyone likes to be part of a winning team.”
Tata Motors Full Throttle was conceptualised in February 2011, as a budding platform for directing the company’s engagement in adventure motor sports, besides developing and testing of Tata models. The highly decorated team has been victorious at many coveted rally championships, such Desert Storm, Raid De Himalaya, Dakshin Dare, Hornbill International Motor rally and the Eastern Mountain Safari rally. The company works closely
with Jayem Automotive Coimbatore, in order to achieve highest levels of performance from its models.
Coming to the final overall results, team Tata Motors Full Throttle managed all top three positions with Satish and Savera at first (78 points), Karthick Maruthi and Sankar Anand at second (71 points), along with Sachin Singh and Chandrasekhar M. at third (57 points). In the Pro - Expert category, Satish and Savera were first (78 points), Karthick Maruthi and Sankar Anand at second (77 points), along with GB Girijashankar Joshy finishing third (68 points). Further, in the Pro - Stock category, Chidanand and Sujith managed first place finish (133 points), Shanmugam Gopalkrishnan and Venkatesh Sekar at second (81 pts), along with Srikanth Gowda and Kuriakose Elias Paarel at third (52 points).
