KARACHI: The king of motor racing in Pakistan, Mir Nadir Magsi, maintained his traditional ascendancy in the Cholistan Desert Jeep Rally by winning the prepared ‘A’ class in the 13th edition of the championship, near Bahawalpur on Sunday.

Veteran Nadir, driving 4000cc Toyota SJ Cruiser Patrol, covered the 480-kilometre distance in four hours 32min 09 seconds to lead the pack of 57 drivers in Prepared Class.

By retaining his crown, Nadir completed over half a dozen titles to his name in this tough, exciting and thrilling contest. Nadir’s nephew Jaffar Magsi secured third spot in the same event to maintain family domination.

Nadir showed brilliant and masterly control on long stret­ches, dunes, bumps and dozens of twist and turns as thousands witnessed the speedy vehicles passing thro­ugh their villages in the region.

After winning the first round of 220km, Nadir Magsi showed his vast experience on his powerful vehicle to beat arch-rival and pupil Sahibzada Sultan Muham­mad by just over five minutes.

Nadir won the biggest prize of Rs500,000 for the fastest time and Rs250, 000 for his ‘A’ Prepared Class event besides the trophy.

Gwadar Rally champion Sahib­zada Sultan battled hard before contending with the runner-up spot in four hours 37min 36 seconds. Just two minutes behind him was the fast emerging driver Jaffar Magsi who finished third.

Faisal Shadikhel won the ‘B’ prepared class in five hours 01min08 seconds. Rafiq Ahmed took the honors in ‘C’ Prepared category with timing of 05hr 07mi 43sec and Zafar Khan Baloch won ‘D’ category in 05hr 15min 03sec.

Toyota Highway Motors’ two teams performed exceptionally well. Tushna Patel won the ladies crown while Mansoor Haleem won the Stock ‘A’ contest, covering the 90km distance in two hours 39min 52seconds.

Results:

Prepared “A”:Mir Nadir Magsi 04hr32min09sec2. Sahibzada Sultan Muhammad 04hr37min36secJaffar Magsi 04h39min29sec

Prepared “B”:Faisal Shadikahel 05hr01min08secM.Owais Khakwani 05hr13min55secAsad Shadikhel 05hr23min06 sec

Prepared “C”:Mia Rafiq Ahmed 05hr07min43secGohar Sangi 05hr21min07secAmir Anwar 05hr36min16sec

Prepared “D”:Zafar Khan Baloch 05hr15min03secShaheen Iqbal 05hr30min46secFalal Sher 05hr57min39sec

Stock Category:

“A” Stock:Mansoor Haleem 02hr39min52sec Nosherwan Tiwana 02hr40min51secNoor Nabi 02hr46min27sec

“B” Stock:Zarain Magsi 02hr39min52secMia Afzal Haq 02hr45min22secSajjad Qureshi 02hr58min05sec

“C” Stock:Syed Mobeen Ahmed 03hr00min04secHassan Jhandir 03hr04min49secHaris Khan 03hr05min31sec

“D” Stock:Areeb Haider 03hr21min55secGhulam farid 03hr23min08secMujahid Bashir Joiya 03hr32min49sec

Ladies:Tushna Patel 01hr43min57secAsima Raza Siddiqui 02hr45min52secMomam Saeed 03hr32min49sec

Published in Dawn, February 20th, 2018