Chandigarh residents Dhiraj and Shivali Arora have won the first position in the Monsoon Ride 2009, a motorsport event organised by Western Motorsports at Jaipur on July 5.

Dhiraj is co-owner of Trenz, a chain of artificial jewellery stores in the region. He and his wife are motorsport enthusiasts, and had also participated in the Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm, organised in February this year.

Second in the cars category was Deepika Nikhanj, also a Chandigarh resident. Her navigator for the event was Baljeet Multani, who hails from Jalandhar. Both women are in their late 20s, and work at The American Express in Gurgaon. Deepika says she has a keen interest in motorsport, and always wanted to take part in such events.

"I wanted to participate in the Autocross last year, but met with an accident during that time. When I learnt about the Monsoon Ride, I saw this as a good opportunity and am happy to have won the second position," she says. Deepika's parents reside in Sector 32.

The Monsoon Ride started from Jaipur. Participants went up to the ruins of Bhangarh town and fort, and came back to Jaipur the same day. The route covered nearly 220 kilometers.

The event was based on the time-speed-distance format. In such events, speeding down the given route is not the formula for success. Participants have to clock their speed against the time-controls specified by the organisers. Hence, navigation plays an important role in these events.

Dhiraj's navigator for the event was his wife Shivali. At the Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm too, the couple were together. But since the Desert Storm was their first event, it took time for Shivali to learn the tricks of the trade. "For the first two days, I felt completely lost in handling the GPS (Global Positioning System) and other aids. But soon I picked up, and in the latter half of the rally I was quite comfortable," says Shivali.

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