Thirty-eight cars rallied through the length and breadth of the city under the night sky on Sunday.
Each car had two occupants, a driver and the navigator. The latter guided the former through bustling streets, narrow bylanes and busy highways.
The TSD (time, speed and distance) rally was flagged off from the Calcutta Rowing Club around 6.30pm.
“A Night Out in Kolkata”, organised by the Kolkata Automotive Sports Association (KASA) and the Automobile Association of Eastern India (AAEI), had teams divided into three categories — experts, amateurs and club entries.
The cars had to drive around 45km. The route covered Southern Avenue, Alipore, Hastings, Babughat, Mayo Road, Park Street, Ballygunge Circular Road, Dhakuria, Jadavpur connector, EM Bypass and Panchasayar, among other places.
The finish point was also the Calcutta Rowing Club.
“Night rally is unique in the sense that a lot depends on the navigator. The night navigation is very important. The driver might be in a blind spot. The navigator has to then ask him to take a right or a left turn. The role of the navigator is very important,” said Debasish Bhattacharjee, secretary of KASA.
Control points were set up at different places along the route to check if the cars reached there on time.
“A car can neither be late nor arrive early at any point. Both will attract penalties. A car has to reach at the exact time scheduled for that point,” he said.
Ibrahim Ali Shaikh and Sk Ajgar Ali formed one of the 18 “expert” teams. Ajgar drove a Swift hatchback as Ibrahim played the role of navigator.
Ibrahim, a motorsports enthusiast, finished fourth in the JK Tyre Himalayan Driver, a TSD rally, in April.
“In a mountain rally, you drive through rugged terrains, tea estates, forests and dry river beds. You need a bigger and a stronger car. I drove a Mitsubishi Cedia there. For a night rally in the city, you need a smaller car,” said Ibrahim, who came from Haldia
Protush Roy (driver) and Akash Gupta (navigator) were members of one of the “amateur” teams. They drove a Mahindra KUV100. “This is going to be my first night rally. I am very excited,” Gupta said before the flag-off.
“A night car rally is happening in Calcutta after more than two decades. It is a wonderful initiative,” said Chandan Roychowdhury, secretary, Calcutta Rowing Club.