Former rally star Arindam Ghosh elected FMSCI president

KOLKATA: Former rally driver Arindam Ghosh was elected president of the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI) at its 51st Annual General Meeting in Chennai on Wednesday. Ghosh, representing Ramakrishna Race Performance Management Pvt. Ltd (RRPM), Kolkata, pipped his rival BS Gautam from Karnataka Motor Sports Club, Bengaluru in the presidential election.
Ghosh, who replaced Akbar Ebrahim, at the organisation top, will hold office for two years and is eligible to stay in his chair for a maximum of three terms (six years in all).
Ghosh is third from Kolkata to be elected president of the national body after Suresh Kumar of Calcutta Motor Sports Club (1977-78) and Rajat Mijumder of Bengal Motor Sports Club (2005-08).
Kolkata has been represented well in the 10-member newly-elected council with Vir Raina (Calcutta Motor Sports Club), Saurav Chatterjee (Kolkata Automotive Sports Association) and Tamal Ghosal (Just Sportz Management Pvt. Ltd) finding berths.
Ghosh, who had been FMSCI council member twice before, used to dominate the Indian rally circuit from the 1970s to 90s with a record of taking part in over 65 events and top five finishes in about 43 of those. He ended up on the podium in some major motorsport events of the country like the Karnataka 1000, Mysore Safari 500, Himalayan Rally, Monsoon Rally, Indo-Bhutan Rally and others.
Known as a technical expert in the country's motorsport circuit, Ghosh later turned an organiser staging some big money national rally events at different parts of the country along with his company RRPM boosting the national motorsports scenario by becoming the promoter of the Indian National Rally Championship (INRC), the Indian Rally Championship (IRC) and the Indian National TSD Rally Championship (INTSDRC) for three years.
His son Amittrajit Ghosh is also a renowned rally driver and a former national racing and rally champion.
Farooq Ahmed from the Motor Sports Clubs of Chikmagalur defeated J Balamurugan of Spitfire Motor Sports Pvt. Ltd. in Coimbatore to be elected the vice-president.