Indian tricolour flies at 2018 Dakar Rally

The Indian contingent at the Dakar Rally had a lot to be happy about, despite some big setbacks.

“We want to bring the Dakar to India.” I have often heard Hero MotoCorp’s chief technical officer Markus Braunsperger say this and have wondered what exactly he means by that. 

Given that both of Hero MotoSports Team Rally’s riders from their debut Dakar participation in 2017 – CS Santosh and Joaquim Rodrigues – participated in cross-country rally events in India that very year, Braunsperger may be hinting at Hero’s plans to bring Dakar Rally level machinery and events to India. The rally’s organising body (Amury Sport Organization, which also organises the Tour de France) was at the India Baja last year, which was also another step in that direction. The ASO awarded an automatic qualification prize for the highest placed motorcycle rider who hadn’t yet taken part at the Dakar Rally. 

That prize was won by Tanveer Abdul Wahid, a rider from TVS Racing – the motorsport arm of the Indian bike manufacturer that has had the longest and most visible presence at the domestic front among Indian vehicle manufacturers. 

TVS was tackling its fourth straight Dakar Rally since it joined hands with French motorcycle manufacturer Sherco. And more importantly, it was their second straight participation with an Indian among their three-rider team. Aravind KP was the man who lined up with France’s Adrian Metge and Spaniard Joan Pedrero, while Wahid will undergo another year of participating in international cross-country events and evaluation before Sherco-TVS makes a decision to include him in their Dakar Rally line-up. 

As far as rider selection is concerned, in their two years at the Rally – but helped in no small part by specialist rally bike manufacturers Speedbrain – Hero MotoSports have managed to find two pretty special ones as well as give Santosh an opportunity to compete at the world’s toughest motorsport crucible. 

Last year Portugal’s Joaquim Rodrigues finished tenth overall (classified 12th at the end), and this year after Rodrigues’ opening day crash that left him with a cracked backbone, Oriol Mena – a former junior enduro world champion and Dakar rookie – took a spectacular seventh place overall, while riding Hero’s bike from last year. 

No Easy Roads

The new RR450 was expected to fly in the hands of Rodrigues until he misjudged how steep a drop from a jump at the top a dune was and landed with sickening force. A much-circulated video clip of the incident showed how painful the landing would have been for Rodrigues who is currently recovering in hospital. 

A crash in the second stage for Sherco-TVS’ Adrien Metge – an experienced cross-country rider and participating in his third Dakar – also crashed out and suffered a broken tibia in the process. 

The biggest disappointment for Sherco-TVS came when the much improved Aravind suffered a broken ankle following a crash towards the end of stage five. The disappointment was on account of how much better Aravind had been riding in comparison to his debut last year, when he struggled before crashing out on the third stage.

His consistency had kept him within reach of a top-30 finish. No small feat for a rider who, despite the support of TVS in his career’s formative years, hailed from a country that is some way behind the cross-country rallying centres of Spain, France and now even South America, thanks to the event shifting there. 

That country (India, for those who haven’t caught my drift) was put well and truly on the Dakar Rally map, thanks to the efforts of CS Santosh. With a career-best 35th place overall finish, he is not only the first Indian to have competed in and finished the Dakar but also the first to have finished it three times. 

Privately, Santosh may well rue the debacle on stage three where an improperly fitted fuel tank cap during refuelling of his bike led him to run out of fuel 30kms to the end of its timed section. But that was clearly shelved as he crossed the finish line having made up 22 positions from when he fell to 56th overall (101st for stage four) to cross the line in 34th place before finally being classified 35th, after penalties etc. were taken into account. 

The finishing position is one place better than the 36th overall finish he scored at the 2015 Dakar Rally, when he had to rustle up approximately Rs. 80 lakhs in order for KTM to let him compete with a replica version of their factory 450 Rally bike. 

And though it may look like just a one place improvement on paper, it masks four years of effort. And also, a lucky break by getting a factory ride, thanks to Hero MotoCorp, and personal growth as a Dakar Rally rider that comes down to keeping a cool head in the face of the various difficulties thrown up by the event, particularly this year’s – it has been called by many veterans as one of the toughest.

Aside from his stage four issues, Santosh suffered crashes that left him with an injured right ankle as well as a bloody and swollen face. But he resolutely refused to become among the bike categories’ retirements and give in to being a relative newcomer to international calibre competition. Of course, none of those advantages helped the likes of former winner Sam Sunderland and his biggest rival Joan Barreda finish the rally. So just finishing and gaining places is not an achievement that should be sneezed at.

Hence the reason a lot of praise should be put aside for Oriol Mena and Sherco-TVS’ Joan Pedrero. Mena, dazzled one and all at the rally as he shot into the top ten and Pedrero finished just outside the top ten in 11th place. 

Indian involvement in an arena such as this has already rubbed off on its massive two-wheeler market with the entry and rise of adventure touring motorcycles. Maybe the Dakar really can come to India.