While Hero Motocorp are newbies in the world of motorsport, their entry into cross-country rallying is welcome news. For one man in particular.
Leaving home. It’s never easy and particularly so if it is for the purpose of showing your mettle in challenging pursuits like motorsport at an international level. It gets doubly difficult if you are there all by yourself with no support from home to have your back. It has been this way for as long as one can remember in Indian motorsport. Whenever talents good enough to compete in the parts of the world where motorsport is not considered an alien activity comes along, they are usually left to their own devices. In worse case scenarios, their talent gets blunted by having to deal with sub-par equipment, organisation and politics in India.
It’s gotten a bit better of late ever since people were allowed to be able to afford better cars, bikes and equipment to use for racing and rallying in India. But competitors have gotten the message. Get on the world level in India or find a way to compete at the world level abroad or be left behind.
Perhaps no one personifies that belief better than CS Santosh, India’s first ever participant and finisher at the Dakar Rally. Unwilling to settle for just watching from the sidelines, Santosh took it upon himself – financially too – to compete in international cross-country rallies and then the Dakar itself from 2013. There were burns, bruised and busted bank balances but it all led up to him finishing 36th overall in the 2015 edition of the motorsport crucible as a privateer KTM rider.
GETTING HIS BACK
The search for support made him approach Suzuki who offered him support and another attempt this year. But with Suzuki not having an international cross-country rally programme, Santosh stayed on the lookout for a factory deal.
That deal materialised in May when Hero MotoCorp announced that it would enter international cross-country rallying in association with German outfit Speedbrain, which has previously partnered with BMW and Honda at the Dakar and even had riders like Paulo Goncalves successfully use bikes built by the firm.
“It’s a weight off my shoulders as I can finally just focus on my riding and my training,” Santosh told autoX before heading off to compete in the Merzouga Rally in Morocco. “Now it’s up to me to step up to the plate.
“First and foremost I need to work on my navigation,” said Santosh. “I feel that’s still the area I am weakest in so I need to do a lot of road-book training.”
Whether that means competing in more events or even training in Spain, it is something that is now within Santosh’s means thanks to backing from Hero. Part of that backing includes trading riding a Dakar-spec Suzuki at a dusty DLF lot near Delhi for competing at an event like the Merzouga Rally, which is used by riders to qualify for the Dakar.
Of course, as a factory rider, Santosh can be assured of a trip to South America next January and use such an event to work on his riding and get the seat time on a bike that he needs against the best in the world.
Partnering him on the Speedbrain 450 Rally machine will be Joaquim Rodrigues, a former motocross and enduro star who will bring much needed experience to the outfit as they upgrade and the bike that is inspired by the original BMW G450X style chassis.
BEYOND THE FIRST FORAY
Of course, Santosh knows very well that in the long run, just having him tear around the desolate wildernesses of North Africa and South America won’t be enough. More Indian riders need the kind of exposure and experience he has to be able to truly blossom.
One such rider is Aravind KP, who rides for TVS Racing in the two-wheel Indian National Rally Championship, cross-country rallies and supercross events and has won pretty much everything there is to win across these disciplines including the Raid de Himalaya.
It’s believed that after associating themselves as just the backers of Sherco Rally Team at the Dakar, TVS will announce Aravind as a rider at the 2017 Dakar Rally.
“Of course they need to do that,” said Santosh. “It was very clear by the coverage of the Dakar that they didn’t get the attention they wanted without an Indian rider. But whoever that rider is will have to put in the work.”
Speaking to autoX, Aravind echoed Santosh’s sentiments, stating that experience and exposure at events in Europe, North Africa and South America was key and that events in India don’t come close to preparing a rider for that level.
“Rallies in the two-wheel INRC here have a total of 65 km of competitive stages,” said Aravind. “That doesn’t teach a rider the endurance and strategic thinking required to compete in really long events”.
“But I feel that it is something that TVS has realised and now that they have been with Sherco for two years, they can state more terms regarding how the TVS-Sherco team should compete than before.”
It will really be reason to cheer if that means two Indian riders backed by two Indian manufacturers at the 2017 Dakar.
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