"Come on Sammy, you can do it!” It’s hard to forget Vivek Ponnusamy’s many pleas to wealthy industrialist Samir Thapar that were featured in an hour long video of a stage on last year’s Rally Coimbatore. What everyone remembers better is a more concise video that effectively captured the dueling duo as Thapar fought a fully-prepped, rally-spec Mitsubishi Evo X that had at least 100 horsepower more than the rest of the field.
“No. Stay on road!” Thapar didn’t ‘stay on road’ in that rally, and failed to win a single Indian Rally Championship (IRC) event last year.
By the time this year’s IRC season opener in Nasik came around, Ponnusamy – who shortly after Coimbatore made himself a candidate for the most humourless and uptight individual in history – was himself history, but the 50-year-old Thapar’s desire to win a rally at the national level for the first time since 1997 was unabated.
The Nasik Rally is run on tarmac and further increases the advantage of the Evo X over the next most potent machines in the field – Mahindra’s rallying XUV 500 and Volkswagen’s ever reliable Polo (which has found its way into a lot of customer programs) – but it was not to be.
On the wide and smooth stages of the AVT Premium South India Rally in Chennai, however, he had another go at victory. And, to his credit, Thapar did manage to ‘stay on road’ and do exactly what he needed to win in a car that defending champion Amittrajit Ghosh and defending APRC champion Gaurav Gill would be unbeatable with.
But such is the nature of the IRC this year that it has not really attracted enough privateer entrants or works teams, so that many drivers can battle it out on as even a playing field as possible.
At least ‘veterans’ like Thapar have been able to regain their form, while the likes of Gill train their sights on the world stage.
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