Former rally champion Hari Singh would take on a challenge any time

The tragic news of former rally champion Hari Singh losing his life in a speedboat accident in the Maldives has dealt a big blow to the Indian motorsport community and, of course, Hari’s family. What really pained me was I felt like he was abandoned somewhere, for lack of a better word. It was hard to imagine what his family has endured. Nobody has yet come out with an explanation as to what really happened.

I last met him on February 8. He was here in Madras with his wife Simran for a friend’s daughter’s wedding and we had a great evening together.

Hari was one of those guys who would never say die. He would take on a challenge anytime, and was pretty calm in most circumstances.

There are so many memories which come to mind but let me tell you the first, as the first memory is always special.

Hari and his navigator Bittoo (G S Mann) had driven down from Chandigarh to Kodaikanal to take part in the south India Rally, which was his first attempt at national rallying. I was running the JK Tyre rally team. He arrived in his Gypsy and after we introduced ourselves to one another, we saw the condition of the car and said, ‘Look, this car is not going to make it’. And he turned around and said, ‘Well, I’ve driven this car down from Chandigarh. I’m sure we’ll finish the rally’.

But the car was in such bad shape, so what I did was, I took him home. Karivaradhan, my late friend from Coimbatore was in Kodi as well. Jointly, between him, me and our mechanics, in two days we rebuilt the car completely from scratch, which is unheard of. We stripped it to the chassis, built the car and that was Hari’s first National Championship victory. This was in 1992.

I would say I had the privilege and pleasure of running Hari, by preparing his car and giving him vehicles which were worthy of him winning four National Championships. Hari was one of the finest rally drivers that existed in this country. He would somehow make sure that the car came home. And away from his rallying competitiveness, he was an absolute thorough gentleman.

Something else I’d like to highlight, while everyone fondly calls him ‘Gypsy King, Hari rallied the Gypsy, he rallied the Maruti Esteem, he rallied the Mitsubishi Cedia, and he rallied the Proton in Malaysia. As far as talent goes, he had plenty.

He was also someone who would happily mentor people. For example, I once took him and a lot of the other JK Tyre team drivers to the Bill Gwyne rally school in England.

Talented a driver as he was, Hari picked up a lot of tips from there. Then when Karamjit Singh — the Asia-Pacific rally champion from Malaysia — came down to do some courses in Madras, which Hari attended, he was imparting this knowledge freely to any rally driver who wanted to enter. He would also advise organisers.

If somebody came to him and wanted support of tyres, or support of transportation, Hari was always ready to lend advice. Whether it ended up in action or not, because he was also governed by the corporates, he would make an effort to ensure that the deserving team and deserving drivers and youngsters got whatever he could provide them.

Incidentally, Hari was one of four members of the Federation safety commission, of which I’m the chairman. So safety was always on his mind. That’s why I can’t understand why on earth these guys were on the speedboat without life jackets, because Hari was one who never compromised on safety.

I’ve never had bad dreams in my life, but these last few days have been terrible.

(Vicky Chandhok is a former race car driver and former president of FMSCI. He spoke to Rohan Alvares)