2017 RFC - Final report and results

The 2017 Rainforest challenge has concluded and after a week-long nail biting competition, Gurmeet Virdi and co-driver Kirpal Singh Tung representing Gerrari Offroaders from Chandigarh, have emerged as champions of the Force Gurkha RFC India 2017 Overall. The leaders scored a total score of 2019 points out of 2600. 

Gurmeet Virdi successfully managed to defend his title and is the only Indian driver till date who has won the country’s toughest off-road motorsport competition since its launch in 2014. The overall second position was held by Jagat Nanjappa and co-driver Chetan Changappa of Team V5 Offroaders from Coorg with 1906 points. In an interesting turn of events, Gerrari Offroaders team members, Sanbir Singh Dhaliwal  and co-driver Gurpartap Singh, overtook Siddartha Santosh in the final moments to clinch third spot on the podium with 1685 points.

As the top Indian driver of the competition, Gurmeet will get monetary benefits of up to $8,000. This includes the automatic fully paid-for entry in the RFC 2017 Grand Final in Malaysia that is worth $3,900 and the travel expenses amounting to around $1,100. Moreover, Cougar Motorsport will contribute up to $3,000 towards the cost of arranging the competition vehicle for participating in the Mother Event in Malaysia, to be held at the end of the year.

This is the second consecutive year that veteran Indian rallyist Jagat Nanjappa competed in RFC India. He is satisfied about the fact that he has risen up from last year’s eighth position to the second position this year.

The other key awards that have been announced include the Team Spirit Award to R Sumanth Shenoy from Chikmaglur, the Jungleman Award to Dr. Chaitanya Challa of Hyderabad Jeepers Adventure Association, Most Unique 4X4 Award to ‘The Hornet’ driven by Yamunanagar-based Sushant Saini, Environment Award to William Dwaine Jungen from Arizona (US), the Best Service Team Award to Gerrari Offroaders Chandigarh and the Team Award to Team BODA. The newly instituted ‘Rookie of the Event’ award went to Goan driver Dattaraj Raut Dessai and his co-driver Pratik Prabhu Dessai for their exemplary performance out of all the 13 new teams that made their debut in the competition this year. The Lifetime Achievement Award was given to Vijay Kumar for his outstanding contribution to off-road motorsport in India. Apart from being a decorated off roader himself, Vijay is a mentor to Team BODA.