JAN Racing, in association with APMSC, organised the maiden Deccan Quarter Mile drag race competition at Hyderabad’s Shamshabad Airport, at the same strip where APMSC held four competitions last year. With financial and logistical support, the organisers were able to put up a much improved show for participants and spectators alike. Increased outstation participation and packed viewing stands were a testimony to sport’s growing popularity.

Race day started with Indian bikes taking to the track, with two strokes screaming blue murder as they tore up the strip, leaving a trail of blue smoke and quick times in their wake. Among the small capacity machines, Syed Suban clocked a promising 13.428sec elapsed time (ET), topping the upto 160cc class. The absence of TVS factory team also gave privateers a chance to showcase their machines’ mettle. The four strokes’ efforts weren’t as impressive though, with the quickest bike being a race-prepped Hyosung Comet clocking a 15.296sec ET with Syed Kurshed in the saddle.

The Indian Open class saw regular contender A Anthony missing in action, leading to a complete Team NMW podium sweep lead by Baban Khan clocking a 12.646sec ET followed by Nisar Khan and Karan Lokhande, all astride race-prepped RD 350s.

In the foreign classes, the litre-class machines ruled the roost once again despite sharing the track with their bigger capacity brethren like Suzuki Hayabusas. The quickest time of the day was set by Syed Rahman Ali aboard a Yamaha R1, clocking a blistering 10.095sec ET, which also stood as the quickest time clocked for the day across any class.

Moving to cars, the classes were divided in street-stock and pro-stock categories depending on the extent of modifications, with forced induction cars being classified separately. In the street stock category, the quickest timing was posted by Mohd Hyder Khan who drove a Race Dynamics-fettled Honda Accord V6 with a 14.840sec ET – an astounding time for the heavyweight cruiser! He also went on to dominate the Pro-Stock class, where body lightening was allowed, clocking 14.631sec. 

In the flagship Indian Open class, Hyder once again managed to stop the clock at 13.664sec thanks to additional juice provided by nitrous injection. This was good enough to win the class by almost a second from Keshav Arora, who posted a credible 14.539sec in a turbocharged Esteem.

Lately, the competition in the import class has been hotting up. The battle for top supremacy was once again between A R Shabbir’s dramatic Toyota Supra and Varun Reddy’s Nissan GT-R. The Supra was subjected to a dyno tune before the race and was expected to give the Racetech-tuned R35 GT-R a run for its exotic status. However, it was not to be as the Supra struggled to keep up with the clinically precise GT-R, which posted 11.641sec ET while Shabbir at his best could only manage a 12.834 sec run.

A rematch is in order- so ensure that you make it for the next edition in April to catch all the action