I have seen most of these lady drivers or navigators of yester years in action and I'll say "Hats off" to them. Not only because they were women but because Motorsport especially bike rallying during the mid 90s was more dangerous and not as safe or organised as it is today. There would be no pre-rally recce those days and navigators would need to perform complicated calculations based on time-charts and riders would need to trust their eyes, skills and of course their navigator. Add to this competitive stages at night and insufficient lighting on the bikes (90/100 lighting kits were available those days but were rare). Whether they won or not does not really matter to me, what does matter to me is the spirit and courage with which they participated in those gruelling rally conditions. Spectators and enthusiasts like me were allowed to use the same rally routes to get to the stages and I know how difficult the route used to be and riding or even riding pillion (navigators) required a lot of courage.
IMO, the order would be as below:
1) Anita Nanjappa was a great navigator and along with her husband Jagat Nanjappa won a lot of bike rallies together. They did not do well in car-rallying though.
2) Anita Kholay and Nawaz Bhathena
Anita Kholay was Rupesh's navigator and girlfriend then (now wife) and participated in a lot bike rallies but did not have as much success as the Nanjappa combo. Also must add that they never had a cash-rich sponsor like the others but still kept participating which shows their love for the sport.
Nawaz Bhathena was mainly in the Four-wheeler category and had fair amount of success but I must say Four-wheeler rallying was/is much safer than two-wheeler rallying. But the fact that she used to drive the four-wheelers while the other two used to navigate must also be appreciated. ![O.T.](https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/images/smilies/Off Topic.gif) , but I must admit I am feeling nostalgic because rallying in India has lost its glory today and I miss those days.
Last edited by S@~+#0$# : 10th August 2006 at 04:53.
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