“This is my year,” said Santosh. “I feel that everything
will go right for me this year.” Winning the year’s first motorsport title, at
the Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm, has certainly helped. Santosh admits that he
was under immense internal pressure not to yield the title to Helmut
Frauwallner, the 54-year-old Austrian who won the Maruti Suzuki Raid De
Himalaya, in October 2013.
The Maruti Suzuki Desert Strom was flagged off from New Delhi on February 24.
It traversed 2,200 kilometers over the wild desert outback of Sardarshahar, Bikaner , Jaisalmer, before
ending at Jaipur on March 1.
Santosh, the multiple supercross and motocross champion, who
won the Rally Moto category at the Maruti Suzuki Raid De Himalaya in 2012, knew
he had to salvage his reputation at the Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm 2014. “I was
dethroned by Helly at the Raid last year. I had to win the Maruti Suzuki
Desert Storm to reclaim my title,” said the 30-year-old Bangalorean.
On Day Three of the Desert Storm, Santosh feared he would be
out of the competition following the damage to the engine case after he hit a
patch of rocks in Jaisalmer region. “I had about 40 kilometers to go in the
competitive stage, with the fuel running. I nursed the bike back to base, and
fortunately still had a lead at the end of the day. Definitely the gods are
smiling on me this year,” he said.
Winning the Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm has been the
beginning of a good innings for him. “This is a benchmark that I set for
myself, and it is only going to get tougher from here,” he said.
Santosh is the first Indian biker to have competed in the
World Cross Country Rally Championship in Abu
Dhabi in 2013. A freak accident knocked him out of the
competition last year. The Day Three of the world championship, a malfunction
in the fuel tank of his bike caused a fire. “It was so hot – the bike, the
desert. I didn’t realize the fuel tank had caught fire till I was on fire too,”
he said in a matter-of-fact manner.
The fire left him with burn injuries in his neck that needed
two skin grafts, one in Abu Dhabi and the other
in Bangalore .
Doesn’t the thought of competing at the World Cross Country Rally Championship
in Abu Dhabi
again give him goose-pimples? “We forget pain. That’s why we go back and do
this. The adrenaline rush becomes addictive. It drives you, and you live for
it,” said Santosh.
On December 1 last year, Santosh opened the ‘Big Rock Moto Park ’,
a training ground for off-road riding, about 75 kilometers from Bangalore . The moto park,
stretched over 50 acres near the Kolar gold mines, has bikes, training gear,
camping facility and the right infrastructure for those who want to learn
off-road riding. From a weekend programme to three-day training capsules and
more, Santosh says he wants to give back to biking what it has given him – his
lifelong passion and love.
The 12th Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm ran with the highest
number of rallyists this year in its 12-year history. A total of 250 champion
rallyists from various parts of the country and abroad competed in four
categories. There were 55 teams in Rally Xtreme and 35 teams in Rally Moto
(both categories based solely on fastest timing). In addition, there were 35
teams in Rally Ndure and 25 teams in Rally Xplore (both based on the
time-speed-distance format).
No comments:
Post a Comment