India’s ace rally rider CS Santosh who was placed 16th place in the Merzouga Rally in Morocco (Africa), which forms part of the Dakar Series, will now be spending the next three months in Europe to train for the next edition of the Dakar Rally in 2017.
Participating only in his second international cross-country rally in as many years, Santosh had to deal with a steep learning curve riding for the recently formed Hero Motosports Team Rally in strategic partnership with Speedbrain, the German cross-country rally specialist.
Earlier in January 2016, his Dakar adventure lasted barely two and half stages being forced to retire due to mechanical and electrical problems with the bike. Santosh’s outing in the Moroccan desert was the first full international cross-country rally in close to two years. His team-mate, Joaquim Rodrigues of Portugal, bagged a ninth place finish in the first rally for the new team.
Santosh believes that the Hero Motosports Team Rally brings the best of both worlds. Hero Motocorp is the largest two-wheeler manufacturer in the world, while Speedbrain won the World Cross-Country Rally Championship in 2013. “It’s absolutely delightful to work with such a committed bunch of people, who share the same goal. For example, Hero Motocorp CTO, Mr. Marcus Braunsperger, was not in Morocco, but he was in constant touch with us with words of encouragement. In the Merzouga Rally, we achieved most of the targets that we set out to accomplish. The bike is really good and fast and with more development in the coming months, it will get even better. Hero Motocorp Team Rally has everything that it takes to make for a winning team, which is our goal,” said Santosh.
Looking forward, the Bangalore-based rider said that he will be spending the next three months, starting June, in Europe training with the rally bike and polishing his navigation skills. Santosh could have finished further up the final classification had he not made navigation errors on a couple of stages in Morocco. He will work out of his base in Spain, which is the home to some of top riders in the world, but will travel to other parts of Europe to train and compete.
“Navigation is one of the areas I need to work. It will be a key focus area during my training in Europe because navigation is all about practice and trusting the roadbook. To be honest, I haven’t spent much time with the roadbook in the last two years. Apart from training, I might compete in a few races, most likely Baja Aragon. It’s important for me to train on the rally bike because the ride dynamics and weight distribution due to the auxiliary fuel tanks at the rear and the navigation tower at the front are completely different compared to a regular dirt bike,” said Santosh.
Santosh and Hero Motocorp Team Rally will be taking part in the OiLibya Rally in Morocco in October, which is part of the FIM World Cross-Country Rally Championship, before heading to South America for the 2017 Dakar Rally.
CS Santosh is supported by Hero Motocorp, Ceat Tyres, Sidvin Core Tech, Red Bull and Track & Trail
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