Mumbai, April 9 (IANS) Deepa Damodaran reinforced her reputation as TSD queen of Western India by defending her JK Tyre Women's Rally to the Valley title. Assisted by navigator Priyanka Videsh, Deepa logged only three penalty points and won the crown and Rs 1,00,000 cash prize.

The rally created a record of sorts even before it was flagged off by becoming one of the biggest rallies 'for women, by women' in the world. The event, conceived, planned and executed women, saw over 600 ladies competing in around 130 cars to propagate women's empowerment.

The rally started from Worli, touched a number of landmarks of the city, including Century Bazaar, the Sidhi Vinayak temple, Shivaji Park, Dadar Plaza, Eastern Express Highway and Vashi before culminating at Amby Valley.

Pradnya Chavarkar (with Parul Shah) and Vinisha Sawant (with Ayoshmita Biswas) claimed the second and third prizes with five and six penalty points, respectively.

"It was a great moment for all of us involved in motorsports to see women running the show all by themselves," Sanjay Sharma, Head-Motorsports JK Tyre & Industries, said.
"Congratulations to each of them as also all the winners."

Like every year, the ladies celebrated their emancipation and growing eminence by decorating cars and dressing up in a manner to give a festive spirit to rally.

The favourite theme this year, not surprisingly, was patriotism. A number of them wore it on their sleeves, literally, turning up in armed forces uniforms and painting messages on cars.

--IANS bbh/pcj