Alhamdolillah, IJC Rally Team is back after a very succesful participation in Thar Mithi Desert Challenge.
We are extremely proud to announce that both the vehicles of IJC rally team finished on the podium with 2nd and 3rd Positions behind none other than Mir Nadir Khan Magsi!
The participating team consisted of
Pajero V6-3000 - Vehicle # 411 (Category A) 2nd Position
Driver - Asad Marwat
Navigator - Shehzad Hamid
Nissan Patrol Pickup - Vehicle # 412 (Category A) 3rd Position
Driver - Nadeem Naeem
Navigator - Zohaib Jadun (weight balancer!)
We are all extremely grateful to Almighty for bringing us back safely and for his eternal blessings upon us!
Going, not going, annuals leaves applied, withdrawn, applied withdrawn and finally didn?t apply till only 4 days were left for the event. This time there was lots of confusion with the organisers owing to one issue or the other, which resultantly put us all at a very tough spot. In the last 3 days NN went extremely ill and was on double dose of antibiotics. Alhamdollilah he recovered a bit few hours before the flight and hence decided to go. Till that time, Pinks and myself were nothing but totally lost on how to handle the situation if at all NN and Jadoon can?t make it and we had to proceed alone. We were relieved when we got a call from NN at 3 pm to pack and let?s go.
We had sent our vehicles to Karachi in the trailer a week in advance as the roll cage had to be installed there. We had our flights booked for Thursday night, 29th Nov 2012. Osman Bhai had arranged for our pick up, boarding and lodging (Thanks Mitsu).
Left for Mithi in a convoy of 4 vehicles early morning on Friday 30, Nov. The day was a strike called by all parties so practically all the roads were deserted. We made it to Mithi just after lunch. After putting our stuff in the designated lodging area, we had our vehicles inspected for ?tech?. After registration we left for reccee of the track in 3 vehicles and returned after sun fall. Osman bhai joined us late night from Karachi as he had to take care of some issues at his office.
The qualification round was very interesting and balloting was done for the firing order. NN had to go as the first participant, MitsuMan on 7th and I was on the 20th. By the time my turn came, the track was in shambles with deep ruts and extremely bad bumps. Anyway it went well and after qualifying we went in Hassan?s Vigo for yet another reccee.
The next day was ?the day?. Nadir Magsi came first in qualifying hence he started his run at 9 am. NN time was at 9:25 mine was at 9:45 and Mitsu was at 10:55. The track was not what we saw a day earlier and the vehicles were all over the track. Bouncing, sliding, drifting? u name any stunt and it was there.
The first round of odd 95 kms was done fine by both the vehicles, however the 2nd round one was real tough one owing to deep ruts created by racing vehicles. I gained few mins in the first one whereas NN did pretty well in the 2nd one. I can still hear the echos of Shehzad (pinks) laughter when we would go off track hitting ?bana? bushes, and at one time a very big bush and would then curse either the track, the tyres, the animals on the track and sometimes myself . He proved to be a true Pink Panther pushing and pushing and pushing me to the limit in driving with his excellent navigational skills as well as sense of humor (cough cough)
The result was a blessing from Allah Almighty, something never to be forgotten and has been posted already.
Many thanks to the entire team for making this one never to be forgotten event.