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With a competitor friendly format that has the potential to be repeated throughout the year, the first India Baja Rally teased a more accessible way to go cross-country rallying.

Are Indian rally drivers and riders and their machines capable of handling the rigours of 24 hours of non-stop racing? The answer is an overwhelming no, barring a handful, who possess the necessary skills and fitness and have the requisite hardware. At least, that’s the unpalatable reality that the India Baja mirrored brightly.

The first ever Baja to be held in India, organised by Northern Motorsports on February 13-14, ran over a cumulative competitive distance of 318.56 km for cars and 277.47 km for motos and quads around Bikaner in Rajasthan. Despite being a much tamer version than the traditional bajas held in Europe or the iconic Baja 1000, it was still challenging enough to blow away the majority of the grid on night stages that just about marked 50 per cent of the rally. Consider this: of the 28 bikes and a quad that came under the starter’s order in the moto class just 11 survived the night and of the 23 cars, only 12 made it for the morning restart.

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Going into the rally, India’s top moto pilot, CS Santosh was, perhaps, the biggest attraction apart from the regulars on the rally-raid circuit such as Suresh Rana, Sunny Sidhu and Harpreet Bawa. And, living up to his top billing Santosh, riding a brand-new 2016 edition of Suzuki RMX 450Z, blitzed the field by a massive margin of 58 minutes ahead of Jes David on a KTM 390 and his former TVS team-mate and riding partner Joshua Pramod on the Suzuki 400Z quad, that the Japanese bikemaker launched a couple of months back. Santosh could have been much further ahead had his Trippy not malfunctioned close to the halfway mark in the second stage on the night of February 13.

With Joshua, despite being away from the sport for close to two years, it was heartening to see he has not lost any of the spunk or speed that defined his more than a decade-long career in motocross and supercross. The Bangalore-based rider finished third in the moto-quad class in general classification.

In the four-wheeler category, nine-time Raid de Himalaya winner, Suresh Rana topped the timesheets in the T1 class. The much-anticipated fight between Rana and Sidhu failed to materialise after latter damaged the sump of his Vitara XL7 in the first stage itself. Niju Phadia behind the wheels of a Pajero Sport took the top honours in the T2 class. Veteran of the T3 class, Raj Singh Rathore, walked away with the top honours pretty much unchallenged piloting a RZR 1000.

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Much to the credit of the folks at Northern Motorsports for the smooth conduct of the first ever Baja event in India, the event also saw the debut of live tracking, which definitely enhanced the safety aspect of night rallying. Given the competitor-friendly format of the Baja, this form of off-road racing has great potential of attracting fresh blood to the sport.

Dune school

Riding in the desert requires a special set of skills and technique. So, if one is not equipped with them, what does one do? Well, the short answer would be to go back to school and learn the nuances of dune skimming from those who have mastered the fine balance of desert racing. That’s precisely what the Dune School, organised by Northern Motorsports on the outskirts of Bikaner, set out to do a day before the India Baja.

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The day-long session that involved theoretical and practical lessons was conducted by two of India’s finest riders – CS Santosh and Joshua Pramod. The dozen odd students who signed up for the Dune School benefited a lot as they made significant progress through the day under the watchful eyes of the two instructors.

Santosh and Joshua conducted a series of drills and exercises that aimed to hone various aspects of racing in the desert. Even experienced riders like Rehan Khan, who has been active in motocross and dirt track racing for more than 15 years, went back richer in terms of riding technique in the soft sand.

This was the first of a series of school that Northern Motorsports intends to conduct through the year. One such session is planned prior to the Desert Storm. Interested riders can write to info@motorsport.in for more details.

The First India Baja Rally 2016 In Bikaner Rajasthan

With a competitor friendly format that has the potential to be repeated throughout the year, the first India Baja Rally teased a more accessible way

CS Santosh’s second outing at the Dakar Rally did not go as planned but he showed grit aplenty through adversity

The low-hanging dark clouds gathering over San Salvadore de Jujuy in the wee hours of January 6 painted a brooding picture. The first marathon special of this edition of the Dakar would take the drivers and riders on a 429-km loop around the 16th century township nestled in the foothills of the Andes, straddling the old mule route linking the Tucuman province to the silver mines in Potosi in Bolivia.

The fourth stage of the rally presented the first real test for the participants and the machines with constant changes in the terrain, alternating between sand and rocks. Besides the daunting length of the special section, the vertigo-inducing altitude gain of 3,200 metres posed more than a handful of additional challenge for the competitors. And being a marathon stage, the drivers and riders wouldn’t have access to assistance at the end of the day meant that reliability of the machines assumed paramount importance.

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On such a morning, as the groggy-eyed riders trooped into the dining tent for a quick nibble before hitting the road for the day’s ordeal of 630 km, including a road section of over 200 km, the sole Indian in the Dakar, CS Santosh, was in an upbeat mood. He had good reasons to walk with a spring in his step.

Over the past two stages, Santosh successfully improved his position after slipping back in the opening prologue when the airbox of his Suzuki RMZ 450 Rally got flooded during a river crossing, causing his bike to stall. He finished the third stage in 61st position, gaining 34 places over his second stage finish. It had put him in 81st place in the overall standings. The day before, on the second special, which was the first timed section of the Dakar because the first stage got cancelled due to bad weather, Santosh had made up 31 places.

The twisty marathon special in the Andes had given him better hope of further climbing up the order. The sweet handling of his Suzuki placed him on an even keel against the much faster KTMs, Hondas and Yamahas on the tighter parts of the stage. “It’s a long and tight stage, which should work for me. I need to move up the standings before the rally goes into Bolivia,” said Santosh waiting at the starting time control for the day’s first liaison.

A Proven Talent

There was not an iota of doubt about his intentions or capability in the minds of the small bunch of people who made up the Team Suzuki in this Dakar. His exploits in the last Dakar in 2015 earned him plenty of respect and goodwill among the moto riders, irrespective of their star status. “He is a very good rider and has plenty of speed to make it among the top 20,” said his Andorran team-mate, Cristan Espana, who himself is a former world enduro champion.

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Sitting in the press centre, as the skies opened up, this reporter had his eyes glued to the computer screen as the live tracking went green on the Dakar’s internal intranet. In less than an hour, it became clear that our man was on the move. By the first waypoint, he had gained three more places to move into 58th place. But soon after, something very strange happened. Still within the GPS range of WP1, the live tracking showed that Santosh was stationary. He remained motionless for close to an hour before he got going again. For the rest of the day, the script of the unfolding plot turned from bad to worse. By the last check point, Santosh had slipped right at the back of the pack. Something had horribly gone wrong with Santosh.

By 5 pm, all the moto and quad riders had checked in at the final time control at the Jujuy bivouac, but there was no sign of Santosh. It was only when I met Santosh’s Chilean team-mate, Nacho Carenjo, it became clear that the Indian was in deep trouble. “The mounts attaching the navigation tower to the bike’s frame broke just after the first waypoint. I stopped to help him repair it, but it didn’t look good when he asked me to carry on. All the wires of the navigation system got entangled and he was having problems to get the bike going,” said Corenjo.

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Late that evening, when Satosh was brought to the bivouac by his friend Hemant and his wife Sonali in their hired car, who were travelling through Argentina on a two month vacation and were present at the end of the special, it became clear that his 2016 Dakar adventure had come to a premature end. “The bike’s electricals short-circuited and it stalled permanently at the end of the special. I am out of the rally,” were the first words of a visibly distraught Santosh.

Later in the evening, while having dinner, he narrated the ordeal he faced that day. When the mounting broke near the 100-km mark, Santosh tried to repair it with zip-ties, knowing well that it was not going to last. But for Dakar riders, hope is the only dope. He rode for the next 300 odd kilometres holding the navigation console with one hand. “By the time I reached the final TC of the special, the wires got so badly entangled that the electricals started short-circuiting,” explained Santosh. By this time, the clouds above unleashed their pent-up fury leaving the teeming mass of people in the bivouac scurrying for cover.

CS Santosh Shows Grit at Dakar 2016

CS Santosh’s second outing at the Dakar Rally did not go as planned but he showed grit aplenty through adversity
The low-hanging dark clouds

Every year, a mighty contingent of vehicles and their pilots try to earn bragging rights at the craziest motorsport test there is. Peugeot’s return to the top headlined a hectic event.

On the muggy morning of January 2, the frenzied chaos in the Dakar pits at Technopolis in the suburbs of Argentina’s capital city of Buenos Aires had given way to restrained calm. As the drivers and riders trooped out of the briefing hall, the easy cheerfulness started to seep away. In its place they slowly slipped into a cocoon of isolation that people usually retreat to when confronted by a challenge that will push them way beyond the comfort zone. The start of the 2016 edition of the Dakar was just a few hours away. For 38 years now, the rally has created legends and destroyed reputations. Left men and women with broken bones, bruised egos and even lives have been lost in the quest for ultimate glory.

For 13 days, the gigantic caravan of bikes, quads, cars, trucks, mobile broadcast studios, assistance trucks, catering vehicles, life-saving ambulances and race control trucks raced across some of the most remote stretches of Argentina and Bolivia as part of the world’s toughest rally-raid. This year, unpredictable weather conditions unleashed by a vicious cycle of El Nino in the southern hemisphere posed additional challenge for the participants besides the mind-numbing length of the special sections and long transport sections that defines the Dakar.

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In the Dakar, like in any other form of motorsports, the big teams with huge budgets and manpower, grab the eyeballs, but it’s the privateers, who make up for more than 80 per cent of the field, remain the heart and soul of the rally. Among these, there is still a smaller bunch of maniacs in the moto and quad classes, called Malle Moto, who take part in the endurance race without assistance. After a long hard day, battling the most brutal terrain that the Dakar throws at competitors, they service their own bikes and quads.

This year, going into the race, there were many questions that were playing on the minds of the people. Could Sebastian Loeb, the rallying legend with nine WRC titles, make his mark in the toughest race of life? Who will get the No 1 plate for next year’s Dakar in moto class following the retirement of the five-time winner, Marc Coma, earlier this year? Could the Hondas with the formidable Joan Barreda Bort and Paulo Goncalves in its ranks finally stop the KTM juggernaut in the absence of Coma? Were the Patronelli brothers still good enough in the quad class to dispel the threat posed by the defending champion, Ignacio Casale of Chile and past winner Rafal Sonik? And finally, can Gerard De Rooy and his band of Iveco truckies break the stranglehold of the Kamaz armada? Of course, from the Indian perspective, all eyes were on CS Santosh in the bright yellow colours of Suzuki and Sherco TVS.

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As the Dakar started to unfold, some of the answers became clear sooner than expected. Following the cancellation of the first stage due to bad weather, the battle between KTM and Honda started in right earnest in the moto class. Without wasting much time, last year’s third place finisher, Toby Price, from Australia quickly established himself as the lead pilot for the KTM factory racing team. In the opposing Honda camp, Barreda unleashed his blinding pace. But Spanish rider’s callousness in the speed control zones (DZ-FZ) in the second and third stages cost him stage wins, handing the advantage to Price. But much worse was in store for him in the days ahead.

Like last year, when Bolivia turned out to be Barreda’s nemesis, this time too, the Honda’s reliability in the high-altitude loop of Uyuni-Uyuni that ran around the salt flats of the Salar de Uyuni failed the Spaniard. It left only Goncalves to challenge Price in the high-stake game. With Barreda out of contention, Price controlled the rest of the race brilliantly combining his supreme riding skills with canny reading of the situation. As the pressure mounted on the Honda team, Gocalves made some uncharacteristic riding errors, including a spectacular crash in ninth stage. Ultimately, like his team-mate, the CRF 450 Rally failed him in the 11th stage between La Roija- San Juan. It meant it was Price’s rally to lose. But the battle-scarred Australian was not the one to let go of the opportunity to get his name on the winners’ list. By the 11th stage he enjoyed a cushion of more than 24 minutes that allowed him to cruise to the top step of the podium.

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In the cars, Loeb served notice instantly. The Frenchman behind the wheels of the monstrous 2008 DKR Peugeot won four consecutive stages straight away to emerge as the overall leader by the time the rally stopped for a rest day in Salta. The sheer pace of the Pugs, left the defending champion, Nasser Al Attiyah, piloting the Mini No. 300 gasping for breath. “The Peugeots are just too fast and I have tried my best to match their pace,” was his verdict after the fourth stage.

Loeb’s performance till that point won his share of admirers and sceptics alike. Old Dakar hands among the press crop were quick to point out that the real test lay ahead since the first half of this edition of the Dakar didn’t put too much premium on navigation. It turned out to be prophetic.

On the eighth stage that involved dune crossing and off-piste driving for the first time placing a heavy premium on navigation, the Frenchman crashed heavily after hitting a hole on the ground, that put him out of contention for Dakar title on debut. With Loeb out, it seems Ari Vatanen’s record of winning the Dakar on the first attempt will remain intact for a bit longer. With Loeb out of the picture, Stephan ‘Mr. Dakar’ Peterhansel, and Carlos Sainz, took charge of Peugeot’s fortunes. But on the 11th stage, luck ran out for Sainz following an engine failure. It left Peterhansel with a cushion of more than 24 minutes in the last few stages as he raced towards his 12th Dakar title. Behind the French marque, Attiyah fought on manly taking wins on the eighth and eleventh stages in his Mini Countryman. For most of the race, past Dakar winner, Ginel De Villiers, who has been shepherding Toyota in the Dakar since Volkswagen quit the rally, flew well below the radar. Despite no stage wins, De Villiers brought home his Toyota Hi Lux in third place. “We are very happy with what we have achieved in this Dakar. We didn’t have the pace to match the Peugeots and the Minis. So we need to come back stronger for the next Dakar,” said the genial South African at the finish of the last stage.

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In the quads, as expected the Patronelli brothers remained in control after the first few stages. With no competition under their belts before the Dakar, they took a bit of time to slot themselves in the groove. Between the two, they won eight of the 13 stages to wipe away any competition, but it was Marcos with six best stage times emerged as the winner ahead of Alejandro. Among the trucks, Gerard De Rooy with six straight stage victories in the second part of the rally demolished the monopoly of Kamaz. For the first time in many years, the Kamaz trucks couldn’t match the pace of the Ivecos, though last year’s winner, Airat Mardeev managed to salvage second place ahead of Fedrico Villagra in another Team De Rooy Iveco.

Dakar Rally 2016: The Craziest Motorsport Event

Every year, a mighty contingent of vehicles and their pilots try to earn bragging rights at the craziest motorsport test there is. Peugeot’s return

Vivek Mukherji

Articles By Vivek Mukherji

The First India Baja Rally 2016 In Bikaner Rajasthan

CS Santosh Shows Grit at Dakar 2016

Dakar Rally 2016: The Craziest Motorsport Event

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