Despite the withdrawal of an auto major, the Raid de Himalaya remains a major draw, even in its 15th year.
When Mahindra announced its participation in the Xtreme category of the Desert Storm and the Raid de Himalaya last year, it was clear that cross country rallying in India had turned a corner.
Although Mahindra’s flagship XUV 500 didn’t quite succeed in its well-funded drive for victory, Maruti-Suzuki’s response by replacing the – after 2012’s Desert Storm – nine-time Raid winner Suresh Rana’s Gypsy with a Grand Vitara was the kind of escalation that motor sport fans had hoped for.
Even the Xtreme two-wheel section saw the top contenders arrive with the kind of equipment from Yamaha, Suzuki and Honda that one normally sees in the Dakar Rally and other international cross-country rallies.
But there are other, maybe more telling, ways to look at the Maruti-Suzuki Raid de Himalaya’s broader appeal.
WORD OF MOUTH
Take, for instance, how the two-time (after his 2013 win) Xtreme two-wheel winner Helmut Frauwallner got to know about the event and lead to him participating four times already.
“Claudia Hoeneder, a lady who had competed in 2008, is from the same country as me,” said the 55-year-old Austrian who celebrated his birthday on the day the results from the event were made final. “I got very interested in the event and now it is to the point that people in Austria and Germany know about the event and look forward to it.”
Frauwallner’s victory in 2011, followed by defeat at the hand of Bangalore’s motocross and supercross sensation C S Santosh created a genuine buzz amongst hardcore motorsport fans in the country whose interest goes beyond Formula 1.
The creation of this rivalry survived even the events before this year’s Raid that saw Mahindra pull out of the event despite having entered three drivers in their XUV 500s and allegedly paying the entry fee as well.
There was talk of Mahindra’s unhappiness over the event not giving them as much mileage as they hoped as well as the squad going a little over budget in trying to get the XUV 500 ready to take on the mighty Gypsy and Rana’s Maruti-Suzuki backed Grand Vitara.
COMPETITION WELCOME
Rana himself, however, was clear that he was missing the competition. “It would have been great to have the Mahindra drivers here,” said Rana. “Sandeep ‘Sunny’ Sidhu’ is a terrific fighter and it is always great to go up against him.”
Whatever the issue really was, the point of mileage to non-Maruti-Suzuki participants was somewhat slyly brought up by last year’s Xtreme two-wheel champion C S Santosh while talking to reporters during the ceremonial flag-off.
“I won last year on a Honda but got next to no mileage out of it,” said Santosh. “So this year I was determined to get myself a Suzuki bike and take part!”
Unfortunately for the 29-year-old, he fell foul of what eventual winner Frauwallner described as the “first special stage” of the Raid de Himalaya.
TWO-WHEEL HEADACHES
His 2013-spec Suzuki RMX 450z ended up getting caught in Delhi customs along with all his spares and machinery pending a ‘certificate of origin’ from Japan. It forced Santosh to pull out an old 2008 model of the same bike and purchase whatever spares he could in Shimla itself.
The resulting headaches started on day one itself with electrical problems robbing Santosh of time and dropping him to ninth overall, 11 minutes behind Frauwallner. A charge on the second leg saw him climb to second, nine minutes behind the leader but a burst mousse early on the third day resulted in a tyre failure that put him out of the rally for good.
It was then left to Frauwallner and BMW India’s aftermarket division head Stephan Rausch to hold on to first and second till the end on board a Yamaha 450wr and a Husaberg FE450, respectively.
Not as easy as it sounds, however, with everything from dodgy stream crossings, suspension breaking roads and even oxygen-sapping alpine passes between the start of the second day in Manali to the finishing point in Leh.
While not experiencing myself, I did get a view of the hardships the Xtreme participants face via an unlikely vantage point.
A NEW PERSPECTIVE
As part of the media pool that Maruti-Suzuki arranged to have follow –largely – the Xtreme competitors on their route, I was at the more scenic and challenging section of the stages well before the Xtreme cars and bikes came through. It was something I had missed out on while trying to cover the rally as media entrant in the Adventure Trial back in 2008. At the most, all I saw of the likes of Rana was when they started a stage well before us. Being driven cross-eyed by the calculations required of a navigator in the Time-Speed-Distance format of the Adventure Trial was traded for getting sunburnt with a DSLR in hand, waiting for cars and bikes to shoot (and at times, carefully crawl) past.
As a journalist, it was certainly a far better deal as you get to watch individual differences in participants’ driving and riding style. Like watching the Gypsy drivers throw their lightweight steeds around narrow corners while Rana took it relatively easy in the Grand Vitara waiting for more open terrain in order to press on the loud pedal more generously.
Frauwallner’s steady, mostly seated, riding style was a contrast to Rausch who seemed far more at ease standing on the footpegs than any other rider. Santosh was noticeably throwing his bike around on the second day and somewhere in between Rausch and Frauwallner when it came to standing up. Not to mention that this was all done at speed.
EVERYONE GET’S A TASTE
The contrast made one wonder about the point of the Adventure Trial where competitors were asked to maintain average speeds of 20kmh on smooth, metalled roads for kms on end.
Certainly ‘serial’ competitors like Sunder Singh questioned how exactly it would benefit Maruti-Suzuki to enter a vehicle like the SX4 in a category with such low speeds.
But then maybe the Adventure Trial is best justified by its original purpose when the Raid was first run in 1999. Even as far back as then, Maruti-Suzuki made its most common models like the Alto available for Adventure Trial participants. They were drivers and navigators who had never rallied before competitively. The TSD format made it clear that there was a big gap to the Xtreme participants. But at least people outside of the pros were getting a feel of the event too.
One can also see the point of the Adventure Trial to the organizers Himalayan Motorsport too by looking at the (publicly available) entry fee structure. Going from ‘early’ to ‘very late’ registrants, the entry fee for an Adventure Trial participant exceeds that of Xtreme by Rs. 5,000 to 48,000.
With more participants in the Adventure Trial than Xtreme, you get the idea.
And even in the Adventure Trial section, one can see clearly see who is there for a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ experience and whose seriously eyeing jumping up to Xtreme.
An example of the former was a family of four (yes, you read that right) in an SUV while that of the latter was a factory entry by General Motors India; a Chevrolet Sail prepped with bucket seats, alloys and a roll cage driven by a senior marketing executive for the company.
Not to mention Xtreme competitors themselves were eyeing cars that could make the step up. Rana’s co-driver Ashwin Naik was adamant that a properly modified version of a privately entered Renault Duster in the Adventure Trial could cut it in Xtreme.
With validation like that, I guess even the Adventure Trial can justify tagging along for the ride in Maruti-Suzuki’s showpiece motorsport event.
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