Second Day – Vellore to Bangalore – 6th August, 2007

CEAT Mumbai Xpress Autorickshaw Rally reaches Karnataka

The CEAT Mumbai Xpress Autorickshaw Rally 2007 moved into its second of thirteen stages on Monday 6th August with a race from Vellore to the high-tech city of Bangalore. Banaglore is one of the fastest growing cities in Asia, riding on the crest of a software and computing wave that is turning the city into the fifth largest metropolis of India. Bangalore was also the first stop in the state of Karnataka for the participants, as they left Vellore at 8am in the morning and headed towards the Bommasandra industrial area in Bangalore.

Monday’s drive was a real challenge and the participants had to compete with the weekday commuter-traffic on the motorways and find their way into Bangalore. To get everyone on their way with a burst of energy after the previous night’s parties, and given the difficulties the racers were having in acclimatising to the early morning starts, the organisers distributed red-bull to all the partipants at the start-line. However the ‘red-bull effect’ was not quite the one intended and led to some driving a bit fastrer and crazier than usual.

Today also saw the second day of school visits as part of the Adopt a Village program, seeing the teams taking supplies and materials along for their assigned schools. Teams Rabbit Gaming, Omega, Don’t panic, Mumbai Vice, the Autocrats and Tukkin’ Crazy all completed their visits, with team Tukkin’ Crazy given a generous welcome by the school and after distributing the gifts they had brought, had the chance to taste some specially brewed local coffee.

Everyone was also coming to terms with the effects of driving in India, which was still only just sinking-in for most of the participants. Many were expecting the rally to be easy and a bit more relaxed than the event had been so far, and were having to adjust to the rather serious task of crossing India by autorickshaw. The day was also quite stressful for the orgasnisers as the flag down for the day was being pushed back ever further after a number of teams got lost on the way.

The missing teams eventually arrived at the hotel later at night in the dark. “Our headlights didn’t work and driving in India in the dark with only a flashlight to guide you is an experience I’ll never forget. Cows appearing from out of nowhere, vehicles driving against the traffic directions without headlights… I am glad we made it” said Darren Payne, driver of the team Victorious Secret.

Several autorickshaws also broke down along the route, perhaps partly due to the ‘red-bull effect’, but were quickly patched up, with other participants such as Joe Pyrek, member of the Wrong Lane team helping many of them with his impromptu solutions. “The best was when I fixed a broken exhaust pipe with a power drink can and a towel. It held out for 15 minutes, just to enough to get to the next service station” commented Joe. The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers lost their petrol tank at one point, which they duly fixed, but when they got to the next petrol station the tank was accidentally completely overfilled with oil by the service personnel. “We had a rough drive on the next 20 miles, but from then on everything went smooth. It is surprising how much these autorickshaws can take” said Sam Hanley, one of the team’s members.

Once everyone had reached the Electric City they were flagged down at Online Suites, the main hotel for the night, which, suitably enough, didn’t have a working internet connection at the time. Nevertheless, everyone unpacked and showered before heading off to the day’s compulsory evening event, which was a meeting of the Bangalore Rotary Club during which, as one team put it, they made many eloquent speeches in which few words were spared greeting the particpants and informing them about the Rotary Club’s many good deeds.

After this was over the participants headed straight for the bar at the hotel, drinking the place dry of everything and anything that contained a trace of alcohol at any point in time. However 72 people with alcohol is not a recipe of quiet and tranquil festivities, and so inevitably everyone was asked to leave, at which point the merry racers went out to explore the city in search of an open bar. Eventually they found the ‘bar on the rooftop’ and all piled in to continue the evening. It was gone 2am before everyone was finally made to leave, at which point it was decided that they would carry on back at the hotel, taking more bottles of drinks with them, the entire bill being paid for by Ian Bayles from Pukka Tuk Tuk in a incredibly generous gesture. The festivities continued well into the night with whoever was still awake crammed into a tiny table tennis room, and an improvised fireworks display supplied by the Fabulous Furry Freak Bros.

On awaking the next morning, the organisers found an overpowering smell from the previous night, of fireworks, drink and people all mixed together. It was probably the first real occasion for the participants to let their hair down and go crazy on the rally and getting up for the next day’s leg of the race was going to be the real challenge.

Tomorrow the race continues on to Hassan.

Pictures can be found here:

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The route:

The Indian Autorickhaw Challenge team is sending out a press release on a daily basis.

For more information Contact:
Aravind Bremanandam, Lead organizer
Phone: +91-44-421-43343
E-mail at:admin@indianarc.com