If looked from a distance it gave an appearance of flat road. Even the road book rated it as a
single caution. However as looks can be deceiving, it was quite easy to misjudge the two relatively minor jumps spaced less than 20 meters apart. As images show, the effect was electrifying…on one hand it made some of the cars go flying, on the other some went nose diving and ended up kissing the tarmac. Day 2 claimed most of its victims….Anil Sharma taking the maximum hit on his Gypsy. Those who were lucky continued after some roadside makeshift repairs, others retired. This was Leg 2 on 16th 
February 2007 between Bikaner and Jaisalmer on Rally Desert Storm 2007.
Desert Storm is an annual event running on the Cross Country Regulations of the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, the governing body of motor racing events). It is one of the toughest (probably next to Raid events) motor sports events in India and is inscribed on the Cross Country Calendar of the FIA and is sanctioned by the Motorsports Association of
India (MAI) and the Federation of Motorsports Clubs of India. The Rally is open for participation to all 4 & 2 wheeler vehicles conforming to the FIM and the FIA T1 & T2 regulations. The rally runs through good tarmac, broken tarmac, hills, dirt and sand dunes and thoroughly tests the skills of the drivers and ruggedness of the car and bikes. Such is the grueling legs in this rally that this year only 48 cars (out of total 63 cars) and 6 bikes (out of 16 bikes) were able to finish the rally.
Since long I wanted to participate into motorsport events (read: rallying) but was not getting an opportunity to – primarily because of heavy cost involved. Other than a high participation fee there is a huge cost involved in modifying your vehicle i.e. fine tuning it to get the best of performance, fuel consumption (which can be calculated based on the average a vehicle is giving. During rally it gives only 50 percent of that) and then finally getting your vehicle repaired. Rallying is a hobby in which you spend a good amount of time, energy and fortune preparing your car and then you end up breaking it in record time. A single rally has a capability to destroy your car for ever.
However this year I finally got lucky and took the first BIG step with Pravek Kalp (an ayurvedic products manufacturing company) backing me up with the sponsorship. I will be ever thankful to Pravek for making my dream come true. Me and Anand, my navi, were all set to go…
The rally was flagged off from the National Stadium on 14th of Feb. After the flag-off the rally proceeded to Rajasthan to take on the hot sands in multiple sections traversing gravel and dry wilderness for the next four days. This year, the rally was tougher, with more competitive sections added. Covering a distance of approx 2500 km, the rally ran through various sectors in Rajasthan such as Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Pushkar, Sambhar etc. There were both competitive and transport sections. Competitive sections included tough off road terrain that has gravel, sand and rocks. The transport section included national and state highways.
The 1st leg started on 15th of February 2007 and consisted of short competitive stages just off the main highway between Fatehpur to Bikaner. After driving few miles on the tarmac soon the roadmap led us into more treacherous terrain which was a mix of gravel, sand and rocks. Although we were driving along the scenic dunes of Rajasthan with few villages springing to life every now and then, it soon became apparent that driving on soft sand is miles away from anything that you encounter on a regular basis, quite different even than driving on regular dirt. The car slides around a lot more than usual and the initial grip levels seem extremely low – it’s only once the car digs into the sand that it finds grip. The trick is to stay within the tracks formed primarily by Camel driven bullock carts ferrying
villagers from one place to another. Whenever we slide outside the tracks, trying to regain the line was always tricky as the immediate change in grip levels throws the car around quite a bit – clearly a delicate, yet enjoyable, balance to maintain.
We traversed almost the same kind of terrain for most of the day and finally reached the end of first leg at Hotel Laxmi Niwas, Bikaner.
Leg 1 could have been better, we realized, but this being our first rally we were caught completely off guard with no idea on how to formulate our strategy. There were two important things that we learnt on day one – contrary to the general belief Rallying is not only a pedal to metal game; a rally driver also have to factor in the terrain, and the car’s ability to take the strain. It’s a sport of the mind too; Strategy too plays a major part. It also became quite evident why this category is called “NAV”. NAV category is not only about speed, its more about strategy and requires strong navigational skills and that’s when the navi takes its credit. They have to perform the most tedious of the job – calculating speed every minute and every kilometer. However that’s not the end of woes for navi’s. Whenever you lose your track (which believe me is more often than you think) even by a km or so the synchronization between odometer and road book goes for a toss. Other than frantic swearing it takes a lot of recalculation and change of strategy. In comparison my role as driver was simply to keep my hands firmly planted on the steering wheel, foot on the accelerator, one eye on the road, one eye on my odometer, and one eye on the route instructions, grinding my teeth in anguish and wondering when (Oh, When!!) my Navi will finish calculations and announce the next minute's reading. But seriously speaking, at least we got a sense of the terrain and still had three days to make up for the time lost on the first leg.
Day 2, between Bikaner and Jaisalmer, was mostly fast tarmac section which consisted of long straights that led ominously into sharp and sudden dips. This was the section were most of the cars headed straight for the moon until gravity brought them back to ground. Luckily there were no serious injuries, just bruised egos and damaged cars… The best thing was we were fast learning the tricks of the game and for the first time felt confident. The scores
as of now were not bad and we were quite determined to make up our lost time. Our total penalty till date was coming up to 30 odd mins which is not bad and can easily be compensated with better strategically driving.
There is something called racing luck which any ralliest will be more than eager to explain you – this has more to do with the success and failure of a car and its crew than any other factor. But there is also something called stupidity for which there is no match and that is exactly what we did on the 3rd day between Jaisalmer and Pushkar. Simply put we miss-calculated one of the last minute changes done by the organizers in the dead-time zone area and rightly ended up earning a huge penalty of 1 Hr. 28 mins for our misery. It was this blunder that sealed our fate and dashed any hopes of succeeding in the recovery that we had well and truly begun.
Resulting from the penalty, we started close to last on the 4th and final day of the event. It started off from Pushkar and was to end at Jaipur. The final day of the rally was something special – It always is somehow. It was a sandy terrain for most of the leg. The road book was fairly confusing and every now and then you end up moving in the wrong direction only to realize after you lose your few precious minutes. However we managed to maneuver it brilliantly and made up most of the lost time we accumulated on Day 3. Sambhar section, a breath taking beautiful salt lake, was cancelled at the last moment and we were asked to head straight for the last destination - Clark Amer Hotel, Jaipur.
In the end, our position in the NAV category was 6th. It didn’t really matter as this was our first rally and we took it as a learning ground. However we did get the “Best upcoming Talent” award.
Right now me and my Navi – Anand are busy preparing for forth coming Raid-de-himalaya rally. Wish us best of luck.
single caution. However as looks can be deceiving, it was quite easy to misjudge the two relatively minor jumps spaced less than 20 meters apart. As images show, the effect was electrifying…on one hand it made some of the cars go flying, on the other some went nose diving and ended up kissing the tarmac. Day 2 claimed most of its victims….Anil Sharma taking the maximum hit on his Gypsy. Those who were lucky continued after some roadside makeshift repairs, others retired. This was Leg 2 on 16th 
February 2007 between Bikaner and Jaisalmer on Rally Desert Storm 2007.Desert Storm is an annual event running on the Cross Country Regulations of the FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile, the governing body of motor racing events). It is one of the toughest (probably next to Raid events) motor sports events in India and is inscribed on the Cross Country Calendar of the FIA and is sanctioned by the Motorsports Association of
India (MAI) and the Federation of Motorsports Clubs of India. The Rally is open for participation to all 4 & 2 wheeler vehicles conforming to the FIM and the FIA T1 & T2 regulations. The rally runs through good tarmac, broken tarmac, hills, dirt and sand dunes and thoroughly tests the skills of the drivers and ruggedness of the car and bikes. Such is the grueling legs in this rally that this year only 48 cars (out of total 63 cars) and 6 bikes (out of 16 bikes) were able to finish the rally.Since long I wanted to participate into motorsport events (read: rallying) but was not getting an opportunity to – primarily because of heavy cost involved. Other than a high participation fee there is a huge cost involved in modifying your vehicle i.e. fine tuning it to get the best of performance, fuel consumption (which can be calculated based on the average a vehicle is giving. During rally it gives only 50 percent of that) and then finally getting your vehicle repaired. Rallying is a hobby in which you spend a good amount of time, energy and fortune preparing your car and then you end up breaking it in record time. A single rally has a capability to destroy your car for ever.
However this year I finally got lucky and took the first BIG step with Pravek Kalp (an ayurvedic products manufacturing company) backing me up with the sponsorship. I will be ever thankful to Pravek for making my dream come true. Me and Anand, my navi, were all set to go…
The rally was flagged off from the National Stadium on 14th of Feb. After the flag-off the rally proceeded to Rajasthan to take on the hot sands in multiple sections traversing gravel and dry wilderness for the next four days. This year, the rally was tougher, with more competitive sections added. Covering a distance of approx 2500 km, the rally ran through various sectors in Rajasthan such as Bikaner, Jaisalmer, Pushkar, Sambhar etc. There were both competitive and transport sections. Competitive sections included tough off road terrain that has gravel, sand and rocks. The transport section included national and state highways.
The 1st leg started on 15th of February 2007 and consisted of short competitive stages just off the main highway between Fatehpur to Bikaner. After driving few miles on the tarmac soon the roadmap led us into more treacherous terrain which was a mix of gravel, sand and rocks. Although we were driving along the scenic dunes of Rajasthan with few villages springing to life every now and then, it soon became apparent that driving on soft sand is miles away from anything that you encounter on a regular basis, quite different even than driving on regular dirt. The car slides around a lot more than usual and the initial grip levels seem extremely low – it’s only once the car digs into the sand that it finds grip. The trick is to stay within the tracks formed primarily by Camel driven bullock carts ferrying
villagers from one place to another. Whenever we slide outside the tracks, trying to regain the line was always tricky as the immediate change in grip levels throws the car around quite a bit – clearly a delicate, yet enjoyable, balance to maintain.We traversed almost the same kind of terrain for most of the day and finally reached the end of first leg at Hotel Laxmi Niwas, Bikaner.
Leg 1 could have been better, we realized, but this being our first rally we were caught completely off guard with no idea on how to formulate our strategy. There were two important things that we learnt on day one – contrary to the general belief Rallying is not only a pedal to metal game; a rally driver also have to factor in the terrain, and the car’s ability to take the strain. It’s a sport of the mind too; Strategy too plays a major part. It also became quite evident why this category is called “NAV”. NAV category is not only about speed, its more about strategy and requires strong navigational skills and that’s when the navi takes its credit. They have to perform the most tedious of the job – calculating speed every minute and every kilometer. However that’s not the end of woes for navi’s. Whenever you lose your track (which believe me is more often than you think) even by a km or so the synchronization between odometer and road book goes for a toss. Other than frantic swearing it takes a lot of recalculation and change of strategy. In comparison my role as driver was simply to keep my hands firmly planted on the steering wheel, foot on the accelerator, one eye on the road, one eye on my odometer, and one eye on the route instructions, grinding my teeth in anguish and wondering when (Oh, When!!) my Navi will finish calculations and announce the next minute's reading. But seriously speaking, at least we got a sense of the terrain and still had three days to make up for the time lost on the first leg.
Day 2, between Bikaner and Jaisalmer, was mostly fast tarmac section which consisted of long straights that led ominously into sharp and sudden dips. This was the section were most of the cars headed straight for the moon until gravity brought them back to ground. Luckily there were no serious injuries, just bruised egos and damaged cars… The best thing was we were fast learning the tricks of the game and for the first time felt confident. The scores
as of now were not bad and we were quite determined to make up our lost time. Our total penalty till date was coming up to 30 odd mins which is not bad and can easily be compensated with better strategically driving.There is something called racing luck which any ralliest will be more than eager to explain you – this has more to do with the success and failure of a car and its crew than any other factor. But there is also something called stupidity for which there is no match and that is exactly what we did on the 3rd day between Jaisalmer and Pushkar. Simply put we miss-calculated one of the last minute changes done by the organizers in the dead-time zone area and rightly ended up earning a huge penalty of 1 Hr. 28 mins for our misery. It was this blunder that sealed our fate and dashed any hopes of succeeding in the recovery that we had well and truly begun.
Resulting from the penalty, we started close to last on the 4th and final day of the event. It started off from Pushkar and was to end at Jaipur. The final day of the rally was something special – It always is somehow. It was a sandy terrain for most of the leg. The road book was fairly confusing and every now and then you end up moving in the wrong direction only to realize after you lose your few precious minutes. However we managed to maneuver it brilliantly and made up most of the lost time we accumulated on Day 3. Sambhar section, a breath taking beautiful salt lake, was cancelled at the last moment and we were asked to head straight for the last destination - Clark Amer Hotel, Jaipur.
In the end, our position in the NAV category was 6th. It didn’t really matter as this was our first rally and we took it as a learning ground. However we did get the “Best upcoming Talent” award.Right now me and my Navi – Anand are busy preparing for forth coming Raid-de-himalaya rally. Wish us best of luck.
2 comments:
Dear Animesh,
I read your blog. It was intersting to see the other facet of a professional. I wish you luck for your forthcoming rally.
Ranvir Singh
Hi Animesh,
Nice blog. Really enjoyed reading your experiences in the Desert Storm and the Leh trip.
Hope to see more inspirational stories from you!
Cheers,
Kartik
Post a Comment