Indian Autorickshaw Challenge
The Indian Autorickshaw Challenge (also known as Rickshaw Challenge) is an international
The Rickshaw Challenge consists of four events; the two with the most participants are the Classic Run and
History
The Indian Autorickshaw Challenge was started by the Travel Scientists, a motorsports
The Classic Run
This is the shorter and lower impact of the two events, spanning roughly 1000
The route is within the
The championship itself is composed of a series of activities along the route designed to challenge physical and mental agility, with points being awarded for their completion in addition to completing that day's particular route.
Both the Classic Rally and
The Mumbai Xpress
The Mumbai Xpress is an annual
Additional autorickshaw rallies
Tech Raid
The Rickshaw Challenge also includes the Tech Raid, an
Other Travel Scientists events
Travel Scientists, a motorsports
European rallies
The first European event was the Caucasian Rally that started from Budapest on 30 August 2008, from Memento Park and went through Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Kurdistan, before finishing in Yerevan, Armenia, on 15 September.[7] Travel Scientists has organized a number of rallies since then, holding from one to three rallies each year across India, Europe, and Russia.[8] The Azerbaijani Embassy in Hungary had received a notice from Azerbaijan because of the company holding "tours to the occupied territories of Azerbaijan arranged by The Travel Scientists, of which the headquarters are located in Budapest as part of the Caucasian Challenge," according to the spokesman for the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry, Hikmet Hajiyev, in 2014.[9]
Central Asia Rally
Also organized by the Travel Scientists,[10][11] the Central Asia Rally is a road rally in which participants drive vehicles overland from Budapest, Hungary to Dushanbe, Tajikistan, winding through Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, following the path of Marco Polo, the Silk Way and the Pamir Highway.[12] It is not a race, but instead a self-guided tour of the rugged terrain and local culture.[13][14] The course is about 8,000 kilometres long and takes 18 days to complete.
Members of Travel Scientists planned and traveled the route in 2011, and in May, 2012, the first rally took place. Instead of crossing Ukraine as planned, the teams went round the Black Sea from south. A few participants missed the start and several gave up along the way, but about a dozen teams completed the course and arrived at the final destination, Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan.[15]
In 2012 the race went through
In 2013 the participants followed the original itinerary set up on the 2011 mapping trip, from Hungary to Russia, through Ukraine, and the unaltered track further on. After the Caspian Sea, the Kazakh steppe, the Aral Sea, the Kyzyl Kum Desert, the towns of Khiva, Bukhara and Samarkand, the Pamirs and the Pamir Highway, returning to Dushanbe along the Afghan border in the Wakhan Corridor.
Charity efforts
Indian Autorickshaw Challenge is associated with Round Table India[16] in order to raise awareness of and funds for higher education projects for children of India. Participants of the Mumbai Xpress are encouraged to raise funds prior to participating in the event.[17]
References
- ^ "Rickshaw rally to rais funds for kids". Times of India Archived 29 June 2009 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Charity. Mumbai Express. Archived 2009-05-31 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "Route | Mumbaixpress". Archived from the original on 12 October 2009. Retrieved 29 July 2018.
- ^ http://www.indopia.in/India-usa-uk-news/latest-news/294520/Sports/5/20/5 Indopia
- ^ "The auto pilots". India Today. Nandini Vaish 4 June 2009
- ^ "The Science of Travel - An Interview with the Travel Scientist Attila Berenyi - Adventure Herald". Adventure Herald. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
- ^ Vinkovits, Ágnes. "Rally heads off the beaten track", The Budapest Sun, Budapest, 27 August 2008.
- ^ "The Science of Travel - An Interview with the Travel Scientist Attila Berenyi - Adventure Herald". Adventure Herald. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
- ^ "Azerbaijan investigating company in Hungary arranging tours to Nagorno-Karabakh". en.apa.az. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
- ^ "Incredible Car Rallies for Adventure Travellers". Adventure Herald, 27 June 2016
- ^ "Sights, sounds and tastes from the Silk Road". Budapest Times, 23 May 2014
- ^ "Central Asia Rally Was the Worst Journey of My Life". Vice, Jamie Lafferty, 23 April 2013
- ^ "Bangers and cash: driving in the Central Asia Rally". The Guardian, Jamie Lafferty, 10 August 2012
- ^ "Adventure Holidays in the ‘Stan’ Countries". Adventure Herald, 12 January 2016
- ^ "Three Weeks of Challenges". 4x4magazine, 22/11/2012
- ^ "Mumbai Xpress to raise Rs25 lakh for school students". www.merinews.com.
- ^ "Charity | Mumbaixpress". Archived from the original on 12 October 2009. Retrieved 29 July 2018.