Santosh all charged up for Dakar Rally
The two will participate for the first time at the Dakar Rally to be held from January 2 to 14 next year in South America.
Jaipur: Things have “changed drastically” for India’s leading off-road racer C.S. Santosh as he gears up for his third appearance at the gruelling Dakar Rally.
On Monday, Santosh was introduced as a member of the recently formed Hero MotoSports Team Rally, along with Joaquim Rodrigues of Portugal, at the Centre of Innovationa and Technology here.
The two will participate for the first time at the Dakar Rally to be held from January 2 to 14 next year in South America. Team senior Rodrigues will make his debut at the Dakar next year. On the other hand, 32-year-old Santosh finished 36th in his first Dakar Rally in 2015 but could not complete the 2016 race due to a mechanical fault in his motorcycle.
“Things have changed drastically for me as Hero has backed my aspirations. It’s a fantastic opportunity for me,” he said. “I have been training the whole year, which I haven’t done in a very long time. The feeling with the bike is good and we are getting along well as a team,” Santosh added.
The team was launched in May this year in partnership with German off-road racing expert Speedbrain GmbH. To start off their preparations on a positive note, the team put up an impressive show at the Afriquia Merzouga Rally in May this year, where Rodrigues had a top-10 finish (9th), while Santosh finished an overall 16th.
Santosh has also been training in Spain with the aim to do his best at the Dakar. “This time around I have spent a lot of time on the rally bike but I have not done a lot of road book training, which is very important to be able to do well at the rallies like the Dakar. We have been switching between riding and then trying to navigate and assess the track. It’s really important to assess the danger and ways to navigate well and I have been able to do that,” he said.
The team are next scheduled to participate at the Olibiya Rally in Morocco from October 1 to 7. The Indo-Portuguese pair will give their preparations a final touch with a high altitude training session in Bolivia just before the Dakar challenge.