Malaysian driver Tan Joo wins RFC India off-road event

Malaysian driver Tan Eng Joo (co-driver Tan Choon Hong) from the Force Motors team today won the Rainforest Challenge (RFC) India 2015 with an overall score of 2,163 points.
Tan Joo won the week-long tough competition after successfully completing 26 Special Stages (SS) and the Twilight Zone at the second edition of India's only international off-road motorsport event.
Fellow Malaysian driver Mervyn Lim (Hamizan Bin Abdul Hamid), also from Force Motors, came second with 2,095 points.
Kabir Waraich with co-driver Yuvraj Tiwana from Gerrari Offroaders Chandigarh, with 1,941 points, emerged as the top Indians in the challenge in which 22 teams from across the country participated.

As per RFC India rules, Waraich and Tiwana have secured an automatic and free entry in the RFC Mother Event to be held in Malaysia in December.
Chandigarh's Gurmeet Virdi (Kirpal Tung), who was in the lead during the Prologue stages of RFC India, was unable to hold on to the top spot and ended at the fourth position with 1,907 points. Goan driver Cedrick Jordan DaSilva (Floyd Preston) secured his place in the top five with 1,881 points.

"I am happy that we have secured a podium finish this year as well. We could have easily won the competition but that could not happen because of our bad luck when the tyre of our vehicle came off, which cost us some very crucial points," said Waraich.

RFC India is the local chapter of the Malaysian Rainforest Challenge, which is counted among the top ten toughest motor races in the world.
The competition is divided into four competitive legs - the Prologue, the Predator, the Terminator and the Twilight Zone - wherein the competitors' driving and vehicle recovery skills are tested under extreme off-road conditions through various tasks.
RFC India follows a point system and the team with the maximum points at the end of the competition is announced as the winner. The Twilight Zone is considered to be the toughest leg of the competition with none of the teams completing it at the inaugural RFC India last year.

This year, 16 of the 17 teams that entered the Twilight Zone managed to finish the leg successfully and took part in the final two SS, worth 100 points each, which tilted the competition in favour of two of the Force Motors teams.
Cougar Motorsport was the event organiser.