India Baja 2017: Rodrigues and Rathore lead Moto and Xtreme classes

Hero Motosports Team Rally's Joaquim Rodrigues and Raj Singh Rathore driving an Isuzu D-Max V-Cross are the Moto (two-wheel) and Xtreme (four-wheel) category leaders of the India Baja cross country rally after its opening leg on Saturday, which has earned the status of a Dakar Challenge event, in its second year.

Riding the same Hero-Speedbrain 450 Rally motorcycle with which he finished tenth overall in the Dakar Rally this year, Rodrigues holds a 14 minute and 25 minute lead over TVS Racing's Aravind KP and Tanveer Abdul Wahid, respectively. As they did in the Desert Storm, the TVS Racing riders are not riding the Dakar Rally-spec bike but rather the RTR 450 FX, in the hope that the nimbler bike will negotiate the twisty and sandy stages - that total to over 400km in just two days - better than the heavier Speedbrain bike.

However, like in the Desert Storm, the far more powerful Dakar-spec bike coupled with the skills of a top class rider, have allowed Hero to have the upper hand over their rivals. The top end power and high-speed stability of the Hero-Speedbrain machine has allowed Rodrigues to open up a comfortable lead while Sherco-TVS rider Adrian Metge was forced to retire from the event.

Winner of the Desert Storm - following CS Santosh's misfortunes - R Nataraj is in fourth place, a further 15 minutes behind Tanveer. Sanjay Kumar N and Saajanpreet Singh complete the top six, which is comprised of riders with motorcycles with up to 450cc engines.

RESURGENT RATHORE
After being forced to sit out the Desert Storm due to a last minute withdrawal by Polaris, Raj Singh Rathore announced his return to cross-country rallying by leading the Xtreme category behind the wheel of an Isuzu D-Max V-Cross along with co-driver Jeevarathinam J.

He is being chased hard, however, by Gaurav Chiripal and co-driver Karan Arya in a Grand Vitara, who are just over a minute behind Rathore. Himanshu Arora and co-driver Chirag Thakur are third overall with Sanjay Razdan and co-driver Karan Aukta fourth, despite Thakur driving a car in the T2 class, while all the other top four drivers are in the T1 class.

Niju Padia and co-driver Nirav Mehta in a T2 car complete the top five with just today's stages left before a winner on two and four wheels is declared.