On Sun, 4 Apr 2004 11:33:34 +0100 (BST), godfrey gonsalves <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
While Roman Catholics were pouring out from the Churches a palm in hand being "Palm Sunday" 4 th April 2004 at 0830 hours IST of the Lenten season before Good Friday; the Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru grounds commonly known as Fatorda grounds which was built in a record time of just six months by then Indian National Congress - Minister for Sports and Youth Affairs in 1984 Francisco Monte Cruz of Benaulim was witness to a pre 1960 vintage car rally. The rally termed as "VINTAGE & CLASSIC CAR RALLY "was put in place by motor affeciando Pradeep Naik Proprietor of M/s Ashvek Motors Margao and Sudhir Bekal President of the Mangalore Motor Sports Association. The motto was "old age is smile age" in honour of the motorvehicles who did Goa roads proud pre Liberation 19/12/1961 In fact Mangalore Motor Sports Association of South Kanara was the brain child of Mr Aroor Sripathi Rao. Starting with the first motor rally with 27 cars and 32 two wheelers they have been into motor sporting adventure tourism for well over 40 years The rally witnessed about 49 vintage cars they are classified in categories 1931 - 1940, 1941 - 1950 1951 - 1960, Jeep Mercedes and Volkswagon. The Volkswagon outnumbered the others and Goa does have a fair share of the same. The oldes was Chevrolet 928 GDA 4089 - Mayur Bhagat Naik, a Peugeot 301 1938 GDI 213 Ford 1934 B GA 02 A 4660 Austin 12 1934 WBH 835 Mercedez Benz 1939 GDL 3048 Jaguar 1942 GDF 1345 Inglatera 1952 Morris Minor GDA 2598 Datsun Fair Lady 1961 Mr Subhash Babal Lotlikar a cycle repairer of New Market circle had his Willys 1942 MMV 8492 and a Volkswagon 1960 GDL 3182 The participants had to pay an entry fee of Rs.300/- The rally began from the Nehru stadium went on via the Old Market circle to enter the city and wound behind the Municipal Building and onto the Rua Abade Faria Old market via Colva Road to Green House ( Colva Police Station ) then onwards for a short break and snacks at "Fiplees" and then onward to Varca Church the and then terminated at "Radisson" Resort Varca one of the sponsors of the show. Most of the drivers maintained the fleet with due care for posterity others had to dust up the "old lady" to make it presentable. There was one enthusiast who expressed resentment over the Governments proposal to weed out old cars more than 15 years old by way of a huge motorvehicle tax. Mr D Barros of Seraulim who has a well maintained Volkwagon himself a life member of a reputed automobile association in Pune hoped that the like Europe the Government should set a cut off year say 1961 to allow vintage cars to be maintained for posterity. There were no Buicks and the tradional "carreira" was missing but none the less, it was a great scene for the villages it revived old memories and the famous oldies among the Goans started narrating past memories as the " old ladies " passed by, the city and villages. The most impressive motor vehicle was IGI 1671/4 of Kashinath Naik of Cuncolim it coughed initially almost broke down but then given the proper ignition and push up it made the journey much to the cheers of the crowd. In fact the vehicles had the old engines maintained intact. If at all there were problems the owners complained of the quality of fuel. The rally was flagged off by Minister of Tourism Sports and Youth Affairs and MLA Benaulim Mr.Francisco X (Micky) Pacheco the playboy. According to Mr Pradip Naik he has plans of setting up a showroom at Nuvem Salcete Goa to display these cars and put it into good use for weddings film shootings etc. It is interesting that adventure tourism involving motorsports is gain a fast foot hold in Goa. With thise event being covered by the entire print and visual media Goa can expect a great boost in motorracing and such rallys given its excellent topography. It provided a thrill for men women and children who thronged the venue. >From the Pt Jawaharlal Nehru Grounds Fatorda Godfrey J I Gonsalves Borda Margao Goa [EMAIL PROTECTED] ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
