Auto majors in fray for TSD series

Auto majors Tata Motors, Mahindra and Maruti Suzuki have all confirmed their participation in the 2014 FMSCI-Indian National TSD (Time-Speed-Distance) Rally Championship, the first round of which will be held here Sunday.

Eight other rounds are scheduled for the season in Jaipur (June 28-29), Bangalore (Aug 16-17), Coimbatore (Sep 6-7), Nashik (Sep 20-21), Baripada (Nov 8-9), Kolkata (Nov 15-16), Ranchi (Nov 29-30) and Chennai (Dec 20-21).

Competitors and teams registered for the National Championship need to take part in at least six rounds, with one round in each zonal region mandatory, to quality for the National titles.

The two main categories are Pro Expert and Pro Stock. The Expert class allows the use of unlimited gadgets, while only the stock Odometer and such calculating devices are permitted in the Stock class. An exclusive category for ladies has been introduced this year.

In fact, Team Tata Motors have fielded an all-women's team comprising Vaneeta Kang (Chandigarh) and Nidhi Mittal (Mumbai) who have taken part in many cross-country rallies and are among the favourites this time.

The established Erode combination of Karthick Maruti and Sankar Anand will be defending their Pro Expert title while challenging them will be Tata Motors pair of Satish Gopalkrishnan and Savera D'Souza, the husband-wife tandem from Bangalore who won the 2012 championship.

Defending champions Chidananda Murthy and BS Sujith Kumar from Bangalore of Team Tata Motors head the Pro Stock field along with Amol Satoskar (Goa) and Nirav Mehta (Kolkata).

All the participating vehicles in the Championship will carry the FIA Road Safety logo sticker as part of the FMSCI's campaign to create awareness among youth involved in motorsports on the importance of road safety.