Shimla: Day two of the 14th Maruti Suzuki Raid De Himalaya saw C Santosh, the mobiker from Bangalore, has overtaken the Raid winner of last year, Dakar champion Helmut Frauwallner, by registering a lead of four minutes in the Motorcylces and Quads category.
In the Xtreme (Four Wheelers), six-time winner of the Raid Suresh Rana continues to be at the top spot on Day Two, driving a Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara. Rana, who is driving for Team Maruti, has a lead of almost a minute-and-a-half over his closest rival Aman Ahluwalia, driving a Maruti Gypsy. At the third place is Harpreet Bawa of Chandigarh, a little more than two minutes behind Rana. In Raid Adventure, K Prasad from Mysore, driving a Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara, has a marginal lead over Sanjay Takale of Pune.
The highlight of Day Two of the Raid was heli-search. This is the first time that a dedicated helicopter service has been deployed for use at a motorsport event in the country. Courtesy the service, two vehicles that did not reach their respective check posts on time were searched out within minutes.
The first rallyist who did not reach the Raid Marshal at Check Post (CP) I was Amittrajit Ghosh, winner of the 3rd J&K Bank Mughal Rally 2012. Ghosh had started the competitive stretch at Gramphoo, but did not reach CP I at Chhatru, which was just eight kilometers away. The second vehicle to be reported missing was being driven by Along Aiyer of Nagaland, who was untracable between Chhatru and Chhota Darra. Instead of employing the earlier system of closing down the Raid and sending the search and rescue teams into the stage where the vehicles were reported missing, the organizers used the helicopter to trace the vehicles.
Vijay Parmar, President of Himalayan Motorsport who led the search operation, said the heli-search yielded results within five minutes. It was found that both vehicles had suffered mechanical breakdown. "The search system used earlier would have involved stopping the Raid movement for 20 minutes. With the dedicated helicopter service, we did not have to disturb the movement of the Raid," Parmar said.
The Raid is organized by Maruti Suzuki in collaboration with Himalayan Motorsport Association (HMA), the premier Shimla-based motorsport club. Raid De Himalaya ranks among the top ten toughest motorsport events of the world. Mr Mayank Pareek, Chief Operating Officer of Maruti Suzuki, said that safety of the rallyists is their top priority. "The use of a dedicated helicopter service helps us to ensure rescue and search facilities to rallyists within the shortest time possible," said Mr Pareek.
Raid De Himalaya has the distinction of being the world’s highest motorsport battle arena, with participants rallying at a height of 6,000 meters above sea level. Motorsport enthusiasts zoom at impossible speeds at the highest stretches in the Himalayas - and that is the thrill of the event. The Raid has been an international event for the last few years, with entries coming from other countries too. Raid De Himalaya runs in two categories - Xtreme and Adventure. Xtreme is an all-out speed thing, while the Adventure category follows the TSD (time-speed-distance) format. With a growing number of adventure seekers, enthusiasm for motorsport is growing by leaps and bounds every year. The demand for being part of the Raid De Himalaya has been growing every year, and the rush has been so high this year that all spots were taken up by mid-July this year. Entries for the Raid had opened on April 1.
Since each participant is given an individual time start for the event, there is only a limited number of places open for participation in the Raid. There are a total of 145 slots available, with 50 for the Xtreme category, 60 for Adventure, and 35 for the bikers and moto-quads.
By Indian Sports News Network
