A rally vehicle in action at The 12th Maruti Suzuki Desert
Storm
Satish Gopalkrishnan and Savera D’Souza, often referred to
as Indian motorsport’s first couple, have several firsts to their credit. They
have been winners in the TSD category at all major marathon motorsport events
in the country – The Maruti Suzuki Raid De Himalaya, the Maruti Suzuki Desert
Storm and also the Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare. They have also clinched the
Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) title.
Satish and Savera are now within easy reach of the Ndure
crown at the 12th edition of the Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm. Before the
rally began, TSD national champion Jagmeet Gill had stated that among the top
favourites for the TSD crown were Satish and Savera. His words might prove to
be prophetic.
Mr Manohar Bhat, Vice President Marketing of Maruti Suzuki,
had flagged off the rally from Delhi
on February 24. Till now, the rally has covered the wild outback desert region
of Sardarshahar, Jaisalmer and Bikaner .
The TSD meter, now hugely popular among rallyists all over
the country, was actually developed by Satish to help his wife with the
Time-Speed-Distance (TSD) rallying format. “I noticed how Savera had a tough
time manually calculating each and every parameter on the gadgets we used for
rallying,” said Satish. “It cost us a lot of time, and increased the chances
for error. After I returned from a rally, I started work on a device to make
the work easier for her,” he said.
The software designer in him took over, and Satish
Gopalkrishnan designed what the rest of the field now calls the TSD meter. The
small hand-held device is built around a basic scientific calculator. It helps
the navigator with the minutest calculations required in rallying. What Satish
developed to make rallying navigation easy for his wife has become one of TSD
rallying’s blessings. The TSD meter proved instrumental in top wins at TSD
rallies 2011 onwards.
At the 12th Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm, Satish-Savera
are driving a Grand Vitara for Team Maruti Suzuki. On Day Five of the rally,
the champion couple are way ahead of competition with total penalties at 17.05
minutes. Their closest competitor, Pratap Thakur, is at 28.33 minutes. Third in
Rally Ndure is Ashish Budhia, driving a Maruti Gypsy, with penalties at 41.42
minutes. Defending champion Somdeb Chanda is fourth in the category, with
penalties at 54.17 minutes.
In Rally Xplore, Rajesh Chalana and Yogesh Gupta lead the
tally, driving an SX4 for Team Maruti Suzuki.
In Rally Xtreme Sunny Sidhu of Chandigarh leads the pack
with penalties at 12.10.44. Sandeep Sharma of Delhi , driving a Maruti Gypsy, is close at
his heels with total penalties at 12.26.09. Third in this category is Amartej
Pal Buwal of Delhi, driving a Maruti Gypsy, with total penalties at 12.31.49.
In Rally Moto, CS Santosh of Bangalore continues to lead with total
penalties of 8.55.49. Second is Helmut Frauwallner of Austria with
penalties at 9.29.52. Third is Suresh Babu with penalties at 10.40.47, and
fourth is Trivikram Singh Rathore, with penalties at 10.46.40.
The number of competitors is the highest-ever this year,
with 55 teams in Rally Xtreme and 35 teams in Rally Moto (both categories based
solely on fastest timing), 35 teams in Rally Ndure and 25 teams in Rally Xplore
(both based on time-speed-distance format).
Press release
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