PANAJI
Goan driver Cedrick Jordan DaSilva (42) and co-driver Mackwin Dias (38) were declared the Rainforest Challenge India 2023 Champions. The duo won the ninth edition of the off-road motorsport competition with an overall score of 2101 points out of 2600, becoming the first team from Goa to clinch the title.
This was the team’s combined score based on their performance in the 26 Special Stages (SS) of RFC India 2023. As the top driver at RFC India 2023, Cedrick has won a free entry to the RFC Global Series 2023 Finale to be held in Malaysia at the end of the year.
Even though Goa has hosted all nine editions of the motorsport event, this is the first time that a Goan team has emerged as the RFC India champions. “A long-awaited dream has come true. I have only one passion, which is off-roading, and I had won all major off-roading events in India except RFC India. So, this trophy was always on my wish list and it means the world to me to win RFC India 2023,” Cedrick said.
Anand V Manjooran (co-driver Chethan Chengappa) from Kerala was the first runner-up with 2019 points and Dr Mohammed Fahed VP (Rajeev Lal), also from Kerala, emerged as the second runner-up with 1982 points. Aniruddha Nandakishor Shete (Akash Malbari) from Maharashtra as well as Bijender Singh (Gajender Singh) from Delhi also made it to the Top 5 of the competition with 1902 and 1853 points, respectively.
Apart from being the overall champions, Cedrick and Mackwin also won the ‘Up to 1610 cc’ category. Bijender Singh (Gajender Singh) won the ‘1611 to 3010 cc “ Petrol’ category while Dr Mohammed Fahed VP (Rajeev Lal) won the ‘1611 to 3010 cc “ Diesel’ category. Ibrahim Firaz Shaik (Dushyant Khosla) were declared as the winners of the ‘Above 3010 cc’ category.
