Opinion: Once-popular INRC needs that big push

The buzz is about the racing and Indians competing abroad. But many a motorsport fan in India would rather attend a rally.

The MRF Rally of Coimbatore 2017 is the first round and is being hosted in and around Coimbatore, the hotbed for rallying in India.

The five round this year will be in Coimbatore (July 28-30), Chennai (August 26-27), Jaipur (September 22-24), Chikmagalur (November 24-26) and Bangalore (December 15-17). Chikmagalur also hosts a round of the Asia-Pacific Rally Championship.

The 2017 season will see a change in the classes. The six classes are INRC, INRC2, INRC3, FMSCI 4WD and FMSCI 2WD. The INRC will be the premier class with the best of the National drivers fighting it out for the championship.

It looks like the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India is trying to replicate the nomenclature of the World Rally Championship.

This move seems to be a good one but there are other issues that are holding the INRC back in what could be a far more popular Championship.

Firstly, a lot of competitors are a bit unhappy that the total special stage distance is just around 70Km and a one-leg affair.

On the one side, this seems to be the logical thing for the organisers due to sponsorship problems. But on the other, a lot of competitors feel it is just too less for a National championship.

The competitors also feel driving 70Km will not really prepare them to move to championships like the APRC.

Organising clubs also have a problem in increasing the stage distance, simply due to lack of stages in the vicinity of the city.

For instance, it is very difficult to find proper stages in and around Bangalore, which hosts the K-1000 Rally under the Karnataka Motor Sports Club. The kind of growth cities have had leaves no space for rally stages.

To find the stages, the organisers have to go far away from the city. Again, this will lead to the crowd not interested to come that far.

It looks like there are a lot of factors affecting the rally championship moving forward.

India has just gotten back to hosting the APRC and is looking at hosting the WRC in the coming years. In this light, it makes sense to give the INRC a big push.