In the beautiful & scere Aamby Valley City, usually enveloped in calm, will beenamored with awesome sounds on 12thand 13thMarch, 2016as the motorbikes and cars of all shapes, paint jobs, extreme modifications,categories and sizes zoom on the Quarter Mile Drag Strip.
India’s biggest DRAG RACING SERIES (2013 onwards). The T20 of Motorsports & also the World’s Fastest Sport, which has garnered cult status over the years in India is back.
Elite Octane Inc introduced the first ever-international Drag Race (The Valley Run Series) in the year 2013. The series brought 11 Times World Drag Racing Champion – Rickey Gadson to India which attracted International/national eyeballs & was also the chosen platform to reveal a cult film’s 2 releases over the years in India: Fast & Furious 6 & 7 – in 2013 & 2015. The best of Indian Cars & Bikes,
TVR 2016 was a sort of a benchmark in Drag Racing in India. Elite Octane Inc finally has the right ingredients to take this Sport to its highest level. With an efficient team headed by the distinguished Mr. ShrikantKarani (Sportscraft), 350 Participants &over 7000 spectators over a period of 2 days– the 4th edition of India’s most popular &participated Drag Racing event lived up to its expectations & more.
Lamborghinis, Porche, Nissan GT-R, Aston Martin, Ferrarri, BMW, Maserati, Yamaha, Suzuki, BMW, Kawasaki, Ducati, Aprilia, Honda, KTM, Triumph, Benelli among others to set the Valley Roaring.It was by far the most impressive line up ever seen in a Drag Racing event – probably amongst the best in the world.
Founder of Elite Octane Inc&FMSCI DRAG RACING Committee Member – Mr.Rongom Tagore Mukerji said; ”Drag Racing is the T20 of Motorsports & we intend to take this Sport to the highest level. The passion for the sport is tremendeous & more importantly the high speeds are achieved in a controlled enviroment with the prime focus on safety. The 4th edition of the Valley Run series was truly an amazing display of automobiles, sportsmanship, exciting classes and clashes– it wasDRAG RACING at its best”.
The Indian Bike Categories for simply brilliant. Huge turnout from various cities saw some incredible machines modified & tuned to its limits. The men sure were fast, but the ladies werent too far behind. In the M1 Category Ayesha Inamdar from Mumbai stood at 11th position with 50 participants.From the father & daughter duo from Bangalore, Rehana Hajee was the Fastest Female onher Drag Prepped Yamaha RD350. The top honours was bagged by Arvind Ganesh from Chennai for clocking the Fastest time of the event for an Indian Bike.
The Foreign Bike Category was a dream line up. Modified Turbocharged Monsters from Hyderabad to Supercharged stock bikes to numerous other combinations. The category saw stiff competiton &a new Winner was crowned. Nadeem Shah from Mumbai clocked the timing on his BMW S1000RRto become the Fastest Rider of the Event which was also the fastest time of the event. Once again, the ladies werent too far either. Labdhi Shah from Navsari enterted into various categories & secured the Fastest Female Rider of the event on ger Kawasaki Z800 & also stood 3rd in the P3 category on her Harley Davidson.
The Indian Car category did have the usual suspects misssing, but was not short of action. While we saw the first Drag runs of the DC Avanti, we also saw some really exciting modifications from done to Honda Cities& Accord, Zens, Skoda Octavia & Lauras, Fiat Linea, Toyota Corolla, Polo GT, Chevy Beats, Maruti Esteems & many more. Paras Shah from Mumbai took the top honours for the Fastest Indian Car of the Event. The Indian Open Class was won by Anant Singhania in his DC Avanti alongwith the A6 category. The Indian Sports Car sure packs a punch. Nidhi Maru Shah from Mumbai was the Fastest Female Driver in her Toyota Corolla.
Super Car Classes was as exciting as ever. Moin Motiwala & Biren Pithawala’s GTR were a treat to watch them hit the quarter mile timings. Porche GTS, Cayman S & 911, M5, Z4, Mitsubushi Evos, Audi RS7, Q7 & TT, the polular Toyota Supra were few of the cars that made the Foreign Car category action packed. Biren Pithawala from Surat bagged the top honours in his Nissan GTR as the Fastest time for a Foreign Car which was also the Fastest timing of the event in 4W Categories.
There was plenty more eye candy in the exhibiton area with Infinity Motors displaying the BMW M Series, Mini Cooper, Ducati Diavel. Maserati brought in their prize possessions. The official Pace Car of the event was Mercedes Benz & AMG by Autohanger. Kawasaki with their advanced 2016 ZX10R, Suzuki& Indian Motorcycles were also present. The super exotics were hoever brought in by their owners. Mr. Yohan Poonawala’s collection was a showstopper – Ferrari, Lambhorghini, Audi, Bentley, SLS & the glorious Rolls Royce. Aston Martin Rapide, 911 Turbo, Lamborghini Aventador & many more. The Ferrari Challenge European Series Racer & the Complete Man – Mr.Gautam Singhania also graced the event to extend his support.
Other displays included the gentlemen from College of Engineering of Pune with their custom built race car. Raceworks with some awesome racing & valley run merchandise. Red Bull Energy Partner. Oceans Water as the Refreshment Partner. Aamby Valley City continued their association as the Associate Sponor of the event.
All in all, THE VALLEY RUN 2016 has set a benchmark in Safety, facilities, presence, participantion which can only take the Worlds Fastest Sport to greater heigths in India in the coming years.
Photo Courtesy : Cleo Fernandes Photography
