BMW had expected 15 to 20 number of participants but surprisingly, it had to stop the registrations after 40 entries
The first ever edition of the BMW Motorrad Intenational GS Trophy Qualifier kick started in India in the state of Goa a few days back. Over 40 BMW riders have participated in the event in a hope to be the top three winners of the qualifier to challenge the International teams at the BMW Motorrad GS International Trophy to be held at Mongolia next year.
The three day event saw numerous riders arriving at the venue on their respective BMW R1200 GS, BMW R1200 GS Adventure, BMW F650GS and BMW F800GS motorcycles. The first two days of this event were all about the training of the riders. The final day has concluded with the announcement of the ‘Team India’ winners.
BMW says that it had expected 15 to 20 participants but instead received a quite overwhelming response. The company had to stop the registrations after 40 entries. Tomm Wolf, who is the Sports manager at BMW GS International Trophy, is the lead of BMW Motorrad team of instructors. This team has trained riders and finally shortlisted the top three after putting them through a number of difficult tasks.
The first two days at the GS Trophy qualifier started with the training of GS riders. Throughout the duration, there were a range of exhilarating on and off-road challenges held over two competition days like stop in a slope, coffee grinder, elephant turn, tyre mamba, slow race, walk a circle, slalom, parallel logs, walk the bike over stones, the garage as well as practical, teamwork and navigation tests around the region.
The event saw some really experienced riders while there are also many who are some months old in this regard. The criteria for the BMW GS Trophy Qualifier in Goa was that all the participants had to be of India origin and needed to have their own BMW GS motorcycles.
Mr. Sanket Shanbhag from Satara, Mr. Suprej Venkat from Coimbatore and Mr. Winston Lee from Mumbai emerged as the BMW Motorrad ‘Team India’ after three days of the event. The BMW International GS Trophy will be held in Mongolia and it is going to be a 10 day affair. Out of these, 7 days will involve riding, two days will be for in and outbound journey and one day will be dedicated for briefing.
BMW Motorrad International GS Trophy Qualifier Images
