The following article was published in The Tribune Chandigarh on November 23, 2010.
The Thunderbolt SJOBA Sub-Himalayan Rally maybe a few months away (scheduled for March 25-27, 2011), but the SJOBA team is already out on the dusty, bumpy trails of the mountains doing a recce for the rally. Over the weekend, two vehicles and a team of promising young (and a couple of not so young) ex-Johnians took off from Chandigarh to test the rugged and unknown tracks in the sub-Himalayan ranges."You see, everything has to be just perfect for the SJOBA rally," said Nagendra Singh, president, SJOBA. "And, that is why we were up and about so early on a Saturday morning, checking the tracks the rally will ultimately pass by a few months away. We started preparing the road book for the rally, looked for new, challenging routes to take and also started working out the safety and communication aspects from now itself."
Many kilometers and photographs later, having completed a fair number of routes with a draft of the road-book and GPS tracks, the team reached Koti Resorts for the night, exhausted and full of dust. The road-book and GPS tracks were taken care of by the young lads under the excellent guidance of experienced seniors, who have had a fair share of doing this in the many years that they have been a part of the SJOBA rally.
Sunday morning also started early for the team. All pepped up, the team zoomed off from Koti Resorts early morning onto the dusty tracks once again. As fate would have it, one of the most interesting stretches could not be done because of a landslide, so turning back a little, the team headed off towards another stretch.
A quick lunch at a roadside dhaba was followed by more off-roading and photography, with the youngsters taking over the wheel and letting the elders enjoy the breathtaking view. Due to shortage of time, the team split into two and headed in different directions, finally meeting on the highway in the late hours of the evening. After lots of on-the-spot planning and brainstorming, the team decided on a probable route for the rally, which would incorporate several new tracks which have never been used before.
"Rallying is a sort of addiction and planning a rally is an even bigger one," said Shivneet Singh, a senior member of the team. "Once you do it, you want to keep doing it. You just can't get enough of the thrill, the view, the adventure and the fun," he added.
Two days of hard work, fun and bone-rattling and dusty rides, a highly satisfied team headed back home to Chandigarh, counting down the days till the next recce and to seeing yet another successful SJOBA rally!
