Racing isn’t just about driving the fastest. In the time-speed-distance (TSD) format, the driver would be handicapped without his navigator. And a team, whose navigator hails from BJ Block, has just won a national-level event in the format in Bengaluru.

TSD focuses on precision and navigation rather than outright speed. At the start line, navigators are handed a “route book” with the detailed map of the track and terrain, as well as the distances and required average speeds for each segment of the course. He has to constantly calculate the exact time they must reach every checkpoint by and instruct the driver. Reaching late fetches a penalty, reaching early fetches double penalty.

“We won Southern Safari 2 Indian National TSD Rally Championship. Our event was among those who qualified and took part in this race in the last three years but did not win,” said Rudrangsho Dey of BJ Block. “Uday Ganguli of Patuli was the driver, and I was the navigator.”

Rudrangsho is a BBA student at The Heritage Academy and has also been an international-level sport climber since the time he was in Sri Aurobindo Institute of Education. “I did climbing actively till the pandemic and then switched to racing. My father would navigate back in the day, so I guess it rubbed off on me,” says the youth who has been a part of 25 or so events so far.

“Laymen think the navigator’s job is simply that of a map reader, but it needs great patience and presence of mind. And much depends on the tuning between the driver and navigator. Our final event had us travelling more than 400km in and around
Bengaluru over two days, and we were on the road six to eight hours daily,” he says.

Rudrangsho had qualified for this event in 2022 as well, but couldn’t go as the dates of the final clashed with his examinations. “I have to forgo many events due to exams and my father, though happy with my success on the track, emphasises that I must not neglect my studies.”

Write to saltlake@abp.in