Philippos Matthai of Delhi was the fastest in the ‘Time Attack’ event on Day 1 of the Indian National Autocross Championships at the Goa Engineering College, Ponda on Saturday.
The event is being organised by the Indian Automotive Racing Club (IARC) in collaboration with the All-Goa Motorsports Association (AGMA) and Bangalore Motor Sports (BMS).
Philippos ( 39), a lawyer turned automobile garage owner from Delhi, covered the 1.2km route in his Volkswagon 1600 cc car in a super-fast time of 1:39 minutes. He was followed by Amey Desai of Goa who covered the track in 1:44 minutes in the open category and Umesh Rane of Thane who finished in 1:45 minutes. As many as 23 drivers took part in this Time Attack event.
Philippose, a two-times, national autocross champion in 2019 and 2022 has been racing for the last 22 years across the road rallying and dirt track racing formats. He is of the opinion that autocross is a stepping stone for road rallying.
“Dirt track racing is relatively low cost, people are able to witness the entire race and the winners come under the spotlight,” Philippose said. He was happy with the track and said, “It was fast and flowing in some places and technical and tight in some, keeping us on our toes.”
The Indian National Autocross Championships (INAC) events will be held on Sunday from 9am.
