Indian National Rally Championship
Indian National Rally Championship is a rallying National Championship in different classes with a series of rounds, organised under the aegis of the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India, which is the Governing Body or ASN of India recognised by FIA culminating with National Champion Driver and Co-Driver. The driver and co-drivers's championship are based on a point system. The championship first received its National Championship title status in 1988. Karna Kadur and co-driver Musa Sherif became the 2024 National champions after winning the Overall title at Tumakuru on 15 December 2024. He drives for Team Arka Motorsports in a Volkswagen Polo R2. The 2024 National Championship began in Chennai from 15 March 2024 with the South India Rally which is also a round of the APRC Asia Cup.
Rally formats
Prior to the inception of INRC, Motor Rally in India was run on TSD format. During 70's and 80's the TSD events ran into several states with distances covering several days and distances exceeded over 1000 miles.TSD endurance format
Up till 1988, the TSD format was modeled on endurance format with Popular Rally starting in Cochin would have a re-group in Coimbatore or Ooty, covering a few days and close to 1000 km. Same for South India Rally, K1000 or Karnataka 1000, Scissors Action Rally all had routes cris-crossing into each other cities and covered two or more states. Overnight re-grouping was done at different locations and a fresh starting order was issued in a re-group start. Routes were mostly dirt and off-road conditions as well as ghat sections.Stage rally
Since 1988, FMSCI introduced the Stage rally format for the INRC which was then known as the FMSCI Indian Rally Drivers Championship, which usually covered between and Rallies were conducted in low traffic areas in country side. Some events were Day Rallies; others ran in Night only while some had a mix of Day and Night.Over a period, the Stage Distance became shorter and overall Rally was conducted in a few closed stages, closed to traffic. Since 2000 under MAI, the Rally ran as per FIA regulations in a format of a one Day Recce, Two Day Rally and the results were announced by the end of the day. Also stage Marshall Training was conducted by hiring FIA nominated personals by both FMSCI and MAI. Spectator and competitor safety became prime factor in event management.
Also during the MAI years night rallies were stopped as well as Two Wheeler rallying.
Event equipments and communication
Computers were used since 1988 rallies for tabulating penalty points, while HAM radio was the principal form of communication by Rally Headquarters between Time Controls and Marshalls while the teams operated between the drivers and their crews in a different frequency as allotted by the INRC and Ham Clubs. By 2001, standardized electronic Timing equipments were used by all clubs. Also INRC awarded trophies to the clubs for safety and administration, based on a point system audit by FIA and MAI observers. At times a bad event management attracted termination of hosting the INRC round the following year.Teams
The ITC sponsored Scissors Action Rally Team, based out of Coimbatore having strong links to the Coimbatore Auto Sports Club, was the first in establishing a professional rally team in late 80's, eventually winning the inaugural rally in the INRC year 1988. This team had several top title contenders like L. Gopalakrishnan, DPF Krishnakumar and the two were leading the championship points at times during the 88 and 89 seasons.MRF Tyres were one of the major sponsors for some of the leading drivers and two wheelers riders since early 80's, fielding some of the leading as well as new talents in both Four Wheelers and Two Wheelers. Though the team concept was non-existent then, MRF sponsored competitors had their own tuners. It was not until 1989 J. Anand and a year later N. Leelakrishnan would establish the MRF rally units. The Cochin-based Popular Automobiles had the Popular Rally Team and Kirloskar, Veedol Oil and Raymonds used to sponsor drivers from Maharashtra. There were other local Teams like Team Kadur too. Most of these those teams were competing or sponsoring drivers since early eighties. MRF Tyres would also eventually establish a Motorsport division with Anthony Rodricks as its head.
After the introduction of INRC championship title format, several new teams entered into Rallying. The notable entry was by JK Tyres, who in 1992 signed an agreement with S. Karivardhan for Motor Rallying as well as Racing activities. JK Motorsports since then managed by Sanjay Sharma had been in Motor Rallying and Track racing in a major way by sponsoring drivers to international competitions. In 1993 another new team emerged from Irinjalakuda, named Team Paarel which also won the 1993 Karnataka-1000 driven by Vinil Varghese. In 1995 Chetinnad Cements sponsored Chettinad Motorsports started competing in the stock Group N category. So did other Teams like Kari Sports, Kumci Sports etc.
There were other private entrants who mostly filled the rest half of the field.
The MRF rally team continued to flourish under the leadership of Antony Rodrigues and Soman Joseph and several of their drivers set many records during the period. The main drivers and navigators where; Naren Kumar/D Ram Kumar, Karandip Singh/Jaidas Menon, Arjun Balu/Kumar ramswami, Lohit Urs/Chandramouli. Meanwhile, Gaurav Gill of JK tyres joined MRF Tyres co-navigated by Musa Sherif and won many titles.
In recent years, Red Rooster Racing, a new Team based out of Bangalore entered the INRC in 2008 with N. Leelakrishnan as their Technical Director and went on to win the Championship in their debut year. This triggered a fierce battle between Red Rooster Racing and Team MRF Tyres for the next two years and was the highlight of the INRC in recent years. Red Rooster Racing however closed down at the end of 2010 due to financial difficulties but by then, they had won the championship 2 out of the 3 years they entered the INRC.
Two of the Team Drivers, Amittrajit Ghosh & Karna Kadur left to be part of another new outfit, Team RRPM with support from MRF Tyres and went on to win the Group N championship in 2011 and the INRC in 2012 & 2013.
In 2012, another new Team called Slideways Industries joined the INRC with the support of VW and JK Tyres with drivers like Karamjit Singh and Vikram Mathias.
In 2016, Team Karna Kadur and Nikhil Pai became the INRC Champions.
In 2017 and 2018, Gaurav Gill and Musa Sherif of Team Mahindra Adventure won back-to-back INRC Championships.
In 2019, brothers Chetan Shivram and Dilip Sharan from Team Akshara won the INRC championship.
Four wheelers
s and Premier Padminis dominated the rallying scene till early '80s. The Group A IND Premier Padminis continued in the INRC years till late '90s. Sipani Dolphins was a preferred choice for Vicky Chandhok and others who were dominant between 85 and 88 years. Hindustan Contessa Classic and Premier 118NE made brief appearances of which the later was driven by K. D. Madan and Kamlesh Patel, winning the 1987 Karnataka K-1000 Rally.Maruti 800 also had a significant presence as they were already competing in the Sholavaram 800CC class. The INRC's inaugural rally in 1988, Scissors Master Action Rally in Coimbatore was won by L. Gopalakrishnan and Mahendran, driving a Group AIND Maruti 800 for the Scissors Action Rally Team.