2017 Rain Forest challenge Day - 5 report

The fifth day of the 2017 Rainforest challenge was held at the same camp site as the fourth day. However, the stages were redesigned and the paths that the participants had to trail was tougher. Day 5 concluded with Gurmeet Virdi and his co-driver, Kripal Singh Tung still holding a strong lead of 1829 points on rank 1. Jagat Nanjappa and his co-driver, Chethan Changappa, managed to secure the second place on the leader board with 1765 points. Driver Siddhartha Santosh and his co-driver Prithviraj AC stood third on the leader board with 1537 points.

The fifth day hosted a total of six special stages (SS), special stage 19, special stage 20, special stage 21, special stage 22, special stage 23 and special stage 24. SS 19 was a re-routed SS 16 where participants winched their off roaders up to an almost vertical incline, twice. SS 20 was a blend of speed runs and making fast U-turns – a few enthusiast drivers kicked their tail out to gives some dramatic shots. SS 21 was again a rerouted SS 18 where the participants had to drive their cars against the stream, make a clock wise U-turn and drive back through the stream to the finish line.

The rest of the special stages, SS 22, SS 23 and SS 24 were in deep forest where the spectators witnessed the drama. Driver Shemy Mustafa and his co-driver, Kurian Kurian of ‘KTM Jeepers’ from Kerala, burnt the clutch midway in one of the special stages and were winched out of the deep rainforest – costing them a lot of time. The individual entrant, Cedrick Jordan DaSilva and Dushyant Khosla did face issues with their car, however they still managed to conclude the day with 1396 points on rank 7.

The RFC 2017 is now left with only two special stages – SS 25 and SS 26, which will be held closer to city limits.