Gutsy Avtar reigns supreme

NAVI MUMBAI: Thirty-one riders started. Only 12 finished . That tells the gruelling tale of the 22nd edition of the Gulf Monsoon Scooter Rally on Sunday.
To say that the conditions were tough would be an understatement ; it was scary at some points. Forget the treacherous mountainous terrain; the riders had to brave the fury of the rains, which has been on without a break since almost a week now, turning small springs into virtual rivers.
But then, this one-of-itskind rally is meant only for the brave-hearts, and Avtar Singh proved to be the bravest of the lot to come out triumphant. Riding a Honda Activa, Avtar displayed tremendous patience and awesome riding skills to upset the likes of seasoned names like former champions Manjeet Singh Bassan, Rustom Patel and Shamim Khan and win the 75-km race with 48.56 seconds in penalties.
Bassan, astride his trusted LML Vespa that has seen him win many titles in this rally in the past, was second at 50.20, with Kunal Rao coming in third at 54.48.
Rather than criticising the conditions, Avtar was wholesome in his praise. "This is how it should be. This is the real monsoon rally . We never encountered such conditions for a long time. There's no value in a win if there's no challenge. I have won here in the past, I have won titles elsewhere, but today's win will remain the best of the lot. It was man and machine against the elements, and we managed to triumph," said an ecstatic Avtar.
Manjeet, a regular in this event for more than 15 years now, too was all praise of the track. "I have been racing here for 15 years now, but this year's race has to be the toughest. It was challenging, but it was fun. Asli monsoon race ise kehtehain. I pray it rains like next year too," the battle-hardened veteran said.
Earlier, the rally had an unusual flag-off from Parel at 8.30 in the morning. All the participants sported black armbands, and observed two minutes' silence as a mark of respect for the victims of the recent 13/7 bomb blasts in Mumbai.
"It's for the first time perhaps that the riders took the start with a black flag, which is normally used to penalise them for breach of rules or riding protocol. This time it was used to denounce terrorism," said Shrikant Karani of Sportscraft, the organisers.
Sunday's rally also saw the return of oft-crowned champion Zubin Patel, who quit rallying after a near-fatal accident in the Raid de Himalayas in 2000. He finished a creditable seventh, ahead of his brother Rustom, who finished ninth.