CHENNAI: The Dakar, they say, is as beautiful as it is dangerous. Maybe that is why CS Santosh has turned into a bit of a poet overnight. Ask him about his newly-forged partnership with Hero Motorsports and the metaphors start to flow. A wolf finding its pack. The Bengaluru boy finding his parents.
And all the Shakespearean stuff is no exaggeration either. On Wednesday, the 32-year-old’s life turned on its head when Hero Motocorp announced its intentions to field a factory team in next year’s Dakar Raid and named him one of their two riders.
Santosh, the first Indian to participate in the Dakar, drove a Suzuki in the previous two editions but was far from being a Suzuki rider. His Dakar preparations used to involve slogging it off alone in the gym or asking friends to help out with training. All that is now a half-forgotten nightmare. “I will be off to prepare in Germany and Portugal soon,” Santosh says.
For the uninitiated, the Dakar — first held in 1978 from Paris to Dakar in Senegal, but shifted to South America in 2009 — is one of the most dangerous, yet hair raising experiences in off-road motorsports. “This is the first time that an Indian factory team is entering the Dakar, an event right up there with Formula One and Le Mans. And it’s just great that they have picked me to ride for them. I couldn’t believe my ears when I first heard the news,” he says.
Of even more significance is the kind of people Santosh will have around him. His new team is a product of Hero’s tie-up with German off-road specialists Speedbrain GmbH. The team will be under the direct supervision of Hero’s chief technology officer Markus Braunsperger who used to head R&D in BMW’s two-wheeler division.
Santosh’s team principal will be Wolfgang Fischer, who headed Honda’s Dakar team for the last three years. “I am really excited to work with Wolfgang Fischer in particular,” says Santosh. “He has taken so many riders and moulded them into world class competitors. ”
After years of struggling for sponsorships, taking out bank loans and riding machines not worthy of his doubtless talents, Santosh will now have everything he needs. His targets in the previous two Dakars were to finish (he succeeded in 2015, but technical issues scuppered his hopes in 2016), but all that is changing. “I am targeting a top-20 finish. Of course, with the infrastructure and the support I have, maybe I can do even better,” he says.
The wolf finally has a pack. Now he is eyeing the kill!
— vishnu.prasad@newindianexpress.com