The 11th edition of The Valley Run saw over 700 participants and 11,800 spectators gather at the Aamby Valley airstrip for three days of thrilling drag racing. The fastest times of the event were set by Fahim Zahran on his Suzuki Hayabusa and Vicky Sawant in his BMW M5.

1. Fastest car: BMW M5 (Vicky Sawant), 9.971secs
2. Fastest bike: Suzuki Hayabusa (Fahim Zahran), 9.359secs
3. Fastest female rider: Shweta Chithrode (Suzuki Hayabusa), 9.904secs

The Valley Run 2023: Fastest cars, bikes

Since the first edition held in 2013, The Valley Run has grown to become the crowning glory of India’s drag racing scene. Fahim Zahran set the fastest time of the 2023 edition, with a time of 9.359secs astride a Suzuki Hayabusa he personally tuned. As for the cars, Vicky Sawant set the fastest time of 9.971secs behind the wheel of a BMW M5 tuned by Super Car Club Garage.

Roshan Reddy completed the quarter-mile run in 11.712secs to take home the title of Fastest Indian Car of the Event, while Shahrukh Khan set a time of 11.622secs on his tuned Kawasaki Ninja 400 to clinch the title of Fastest Indian Bike of the Event.

There was also a big turnout from female racers. Uvashri Kannadasan Balajeyanthi and Shreya Singh took top honours in the cars classes. Over in the bikes classes, Shweta Chithrode and Samantha D'Souza emerged as the fastest female riders.

Along with the main drag races, the event also hosted a variety of special segments including drifting and stunt shows by Bad Boi Drifts and JK Tyre. At the end of three days of hard-fought racing, the trophies were handed out, and the event was made possible by the help of partners AMG Performance, JK Tyre, Monster Energy, Castrol Power1, Indian Oil XP100, Super Select, Cloud9, Paytm Insider and Inovexic.

“The 11th edition of The Valley Run was one of the biggest editions of the decade-old series. It had its lows and extreme highs. It also had racing incidents and the safety precautions taken showed how important it is for an event of this scale to move ahead without serious repercussions,” said Rongom Tagore Mukerji, director of Elite Octane (organiser of The Valley Run) and promoter of The Elite Cup.

“The Valley Run remains to be one of the most challenging events to execute at a remote location, but, at the same time, it’s special for the entire racing community. I would like to thank the participants for the tremendous support and patience, sponsors along with special guests. Lastly, the core team deserves all the accolades as their relentless efforts ensured that we could conclude the race classes successfully.”

Elite Cup 2023 results

The 2023 Valley Run also doubled up as the final round of the The Elite Cup. Launched earlier this year, the series consisted of three high-profile drag racing events across the country. The first two rounds were held in Hosur and Hyderabad.

Vivek Ramchander took victory in the Pro Stock and Unrestricted Class in his tuned Audi RS6, while Mithun M won the Indian Open Class in his Skoda Octavia vRS. Both cars are tuned by TuneOTronics Bangalore. Fahim Zahran, Saurabh Parab, Prashanth and Shahrukh Khan were some of the winners in the bikes classes.