Marnya Chiram-Mari Basar champions of JK Tyre Orange 4×4 Fury
DAMBUK, 26 Dec: The pair of Marnya Chiram and Mari Basar from Arunachal Pradesh lifted the coveted champions’ trophy of the JK Tyre Orange 4×4 Fury with their stellar performance in their Maruti Gypsy.
The JK Tyre Orange 4×4 Fury – an adrenaline-driven off-roading event that has been drawing some of the most adventurous drivers from across the country every year – is the flagship event of the annual Orange Festival of Adventure & Music (OFAM) at Dambuk, in Lower Dibang Valley district, that started way back in 2014 with support from JK Tyre.
53-year-old Chiram, who works as a superintending engineer in the public health engineering department, was the eldest participant in this year’s edition.
Hailing from Leparada district, Chiram proved to the world that age is just a number and echoed JK Tyre’s vision of promoting motorsports across age groups.
Held across three stages, the first stage on 16 December morning involved a five-kilometre run through the dry bed of the eastern bank of the Dibang river. The rocks, boulders, loose sand and tall elephant grass covering the riverbed posed a tough challenge to the drivers.
A couple of drivers also lost their way and had to be rescued. Three vehicles that had got stuck in the river and sand had to be pulled out using a heavy excavator that had been kept on standby.
The second stage, on the same afternoon, was on the western bank of the Dibang. Competitors had to once again negotiate the riverbed, cross a shallow stream of the river and then take the dirt tracks through dense forests.
The third stage on the bed of the Sisseri river, a tributary of the Brahmaputra, was the highlight of the event. The 22-kilometre drive on the dry riverbed strewn with huge boulders, rocks and sand, was the ultimate test of the competitors’ skills and endurance.
The champions, Chiram and Basar, accumulated only 136 penalty points at the end of the three stages.
Following them closely in another Maruti Gypsy was yet another Arunachali team of Nabam Katung and Rubu Tanjang with 141 penalty points.
The third overall position was grabbed by Jaong Singpho and Mili Sanjay, who notched up 147 penalty points.
In the above 2,000 cc category, the pair of Devjyoti Borah and Sandeep Gogoi took the win in their Gurkha, while Pankaj Kar and Suranj Saha followed in the second spot in another Gurkha. Singpho and Sanjay came third in this category.
This festival, supported consistently by JK Tyre, became a key propeller of infrastructure and tourism boom in this remote village of Arunachal Pradesh. With the popularity of the festival soaring high and the local economy growing, the state government has invested to develop connectivity to Dambuk.
The event saw the participation of more than 20 off-roaders from across India.
“The JK Tyre Orange 4×4 Fury has been an event that has helped us realise the vision of reaching out to the nook and corner of the country in our endeavour to promote motorsports across levels. When we started out, motorsport in the Northeastern part of India were pretty much at a nascent stage. It had always been bursting out with endless possibilities nonetheless. We are grateful to the government for its continuous support in establishing a robust motorsport ecosystem in this part of the world, ensuring alongside significant boom in local tourism and economy,” JK Tyre motorsports head Sanjay Sharma said.
Motorsports Club of Arunachal president Lhakpa Tsering, who is also one of the directors of the OFAM, said that starting a festival like OFAM in such a remote village “is nothing short of a daring dream.”
“JK Tyre has been with us from the very beginning in making that dream a reality, and also ensuring in making it big. With this event, locals from not only Arunachal Pradesh, but from the entire Northeast are now taking up the sport professionally. People from all over the world now recognise the motorsport potential of the Northeast through the JK Tyre Orange 4×4 Fury,” he said.
Sikkim’s Gyalshing District Magistrate Yishey Yongda and JK Tyre’s regional head (NE) Feroz Khan handed over the trophies.
