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Bikaner, March 20: CS Santosh lived up to his billing as he got off to a solid start at the Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm. Riding for the Hero MotoSports Team, Santosh made a the perfect start in the iconic rally as he grabbed the opening day honours, closing the day on top of the pecking order.
India's Santosh, who can now be labelled as a Dakar Rally veteran, opened the first special section with a bang and made a blazing run to complete the 86.5 km special, clocking a good time of 1 hour and 10 minutes to finish the Leg 1 of the rally in the lead.
Leg 1 saw @cs_santosh22 ride through the dunes of Bikaner, finishing on top of the rankings. More updates coming up from the Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm. #HeroatMSDS2018 #RaceTheLimits pic.twitter.com/QTgBfIJnk9
— Hero MotoSports (@hero_motosports) March 19, 2018
The 16th edition of the rally, which was flagged off from Noida, consists of 140 participants this year. The rally which will see the participants master the Thar Desert, has seen the highest number of entries this year, along with a big contingent of women drivers and navigators. The rally, which will cover 2,000 km, will be conducted over a course of six days. It also must be noted that the 2018 edition of the Desert Storm will get two night stages.
On the opening day, Karnataka lad Santosh made good of the new Hero 450 RR bike along with his own experience to fight off competition from the international and domestic riders. The leg was split into two special stages of 41 km and 46 km respectively, with the first offering a perfect warm-up to the riders on hard pack surface and the second taking the challenge a notch higher with a mix of hard pack and sandy patches along with a fair bit of night riding thrown in the mix to make it more interesting for the riders.
Studying the route before he takes it on. This is @cs_santosh22, behind the scenes. #RaceTheLimits #HeroatMSDS2018 pic.twitter.com/gf0vWkDDNs
— Hero MotoSports (@hero_motosports) March 19, 2018
The second leg will task the riders with 496 km run stage comprising 136 kms of special stages, all in desert riding conditions, from Bikaner to Jaisalmer.
Reflecting back on the opening day of the Desert Storm, 34-year-old Bengaluru rider, Santosh said, "Today was the first day of the Desert Storm with two short stages, the second one being a night stage. It was really fast from the word go and I tried to give it my best. Overall I had a pretty good first day with everything working well for me. Looking forward to some good racing over the next few days." Santosh, will be hoping to better his last year's third-place finish at the Desert Storm, which concludes on March 23.
(With inputs from PTI)
