The 15th Maruti-Suzuki Raid de Himalaya was flagged off from Kandaghat, near Shimla today with a total of 152 entries in four categories today.
The cross-country rally will start its competitive sections from tomorrow, October 6 and is scheduled to conclude in Leh on October 12.
XTREME CARS AND TRUCKS
Much of the attention was focused on Suresh Rana and navigator Ashwin Naik in the Xtreme four-wheeler category. Rana is looking to add an eighth Raid de Himalaya winner's trophy to his name and is again behind the wheel of a Maruti-Suzuki Grand Vitara, with which he has won last year's event as well as this year's Desert Storm.
Rana will have less competition than usual to contend with as his long time rival Sandeep 'Sunny' Sidhu will be absent from this year's Raid de Himalaya due to the works Mahindra team (for whom he has been driving since last year) pulled out of the event.
Mahindra had nominated former Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) winner Lohit Urs and defending INRC champion Amitrajit Ghosh to partner Sidhu in an attempt to beat Rana and Maruti-Suzuki.
XTREME MOTORCYCLES AND QUADS
The Xtreme two-wheeler category looks set to possibly have four riders capable of challenging for victory.
Last year's winner C S Santosh from Bangalore has recovered from his near fatal accident in this April's Abu Dhabi Desert challenge where he suffered third degree burns due to an undetected leak in his bike's fuel tank.
Santosh was made to wait it out a little at the ceremonial start, however, as his new Honda CR 450 was temporarily stuck in customs pending documentation.
Challenging Santosh will be 2011 Raid de Himalaya winner Helmut Frauwallner riding a Yamaha WR 450. The Austrian, who is receiving support from Yamaha Austria told autoX that he believed he was just as fast as Santosh and capable of winning back the top spot from him.
Coimbatore's Suresh Babu Janarthanan and BMW India's director of after sales, Stephan Rausch - who scored a podium in this year's Desert Storm - are also possible contenders should Santosh and Frauwallner falter.
Janarthanan is riding a Suzuki RMX450Z and Rausch is riding a Husaberg FE 450.
THE ROUTE
The Xtreme competitors in the Raid de Himalya will cover 1553 kilometers in total from its starting point in Shimla to it's destination in Leh. Out of this total, 557 km is competitive.
In addition to the Xtreme competitors in the four and two wheeler categories are 21participants in the Alpine category, who will contest only the first three of six legs of the event. This category includes five entrants who will be riding Suzuki Access and Honda Dio scooters.
ADVENTURE TRIAL
The Adventure Trial category, that runs to a TSD format has 62 participants that includes 10 official entries from Maruti-Suzuki as well as former four-time winner Rajesh Chalana.
An official Chevrolet entry is also among the participants with Pradeep Singh Chauhan partnering Deepak Mutreja in a Sail, which Mutreja told autoX, is being evaluated for a possible entry in the Xtreme Cars and Trucks category.
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