MARUTI SUZUKI DESERT STORM 2009: A NAVIGATOR’S DIARY27 Oct 2008. Ashish Gupta, an investment banker and my wife’s younger brother had just completed his third Raid – de- Himalaya Car Rally and we were sipping a beer. He was narrating his travails and experiences to the family which was celebrating my birthday at our place. He remarked casually, “Every time I go for a rally, I face a problem finding a suitable co-driver/navigator and I end up paying extra fees because of last minute changes.” I gave into his remark by suggesting, “Next time, when you plan for the rally, take me as your co-driver”. We all laughed and the matter was over. Actually, it was far from over.
31Oct 08. At 1030 hrs, I received a telephone call. “I hope you are on. It is the last date for early entries for the Desert Storm Car rally and I am sending your name as my co driver.” I told him, “Ashish, are you sure, you want it this way. I went last for the Himalayan Car Rally in 1990 when I was a Captain and we did not even finish it because in the last selective stage(SS) our gear box had packed up and we exceeded the maximum permissible lateness(MPL) time limit. I hope you are thinking straight by opting for a 40 plus Colonel as your codriver?” Ashish Gupta is a firm man. Decisive and deliberate. He said, “Yes, in case you are OK, let’s do it together.” So, the die was cast. My name was filled up, particulars taken and signatures endorsed.
06 Nov08 “I need your blood group certified by a doctor.” A cryptic message on my mobile. “Please collect it on way 2 office”, the equally cryptic reply. I dig out my medical file. Can you beat it? I find my A+ve, blood group certificate dated 20 Sep 1990. The same one which I used for my Himalayan Car rally documentation. Good or bad, can’t say. But an omen, nonetheless.
29 Nov 08. I received a call from Ashish that he was taking a few of his friends to get a feel of the Thar desert since his friends were also planning to take part in the Adventure category of the Desert Storm 2009 in their Ford Endeavour and some old banker friends too wanted to drive in the deserts over the dunes. I also joined in. We started from Delhi early morning and reached the outskirts of dunal country near Ratangarh by afternoon. Drove around on one or two sandy tracks, Vishal Dua’s Ford Endeavour, got stuck on a sandy patch and despite all our efforts, we could not dislodge it. A tractor came to our rescue. Retired to the hotel in the evening. Ravi and Vishal went around Bikaner buying paapads and pickles. We just rested. In the evening we had a round of drinks and gossip. Men gossip more than women. Next day early morning we drove on another track with the banker friends. After a quick cuppa tea, they scooted off to attend a wedding at Delhi and we moved on. On the way Ravi Kaushal suggested a trip to Salasar Balaji temple. We visited the temple, had a nice darshan of the lord and then headed back for Delhi. Another omen !!!! On the way had tea near Kotputli, Ravi Kaushal and I ate an omlette, lots of oil, kerosene smell and soot. The tea was fabulous. All of us had two cups each.
25 Jan 09. I speak to Lt Col KS Chauhan, a serving army officer and a veteran and winner of many rallies. Ashish holds him in very high esteem and requests for some time. We fix an appointment for 01 Feb 09.
01 Feb 09. We reach Col Chauhan’s residence in South Ex Part I at 1000 hrs. He is surprised at Ashish’s passion for the sport and his accomplishments. He offers to take us to a track near Yamuna bed for some driving practice. I am in the Swift, Ashish and Lt Col Chauhan in the gypsy. We spend an hour with him on the track. Ashish is mesmerized by his control of the gypsy. I was baking myself in the sun. The gypsy has seats for only two. We move back after thanking the officer. In the afternoon I go to the workshop of the famous Dharampal-Yashpal duo. All rally vehicles are parked in this non descript workshop next to the slums on Nizamuddin Railway line. A scene straight from slum dog millionaire. There is garbage all around. Can’t imagine an investment banker like Ashish who travels business class and stays at the Hilton to be sitting here on a broken chair, sipping sugary sweet tea from plastic cups which hold just two draughts of tea. I am introduced to Dharampal. We want to get the driver’s seat raised and our water tank fixed. The idea of putting a 20 litre Bisleri water can properly clamped to cool radiator is Ashish’s brain child. But the entire rally circuit copies the same. So much for patents.
12 Feb 09. I apply for six days leave to participate in the Desert Storm 2009 Car Rally. My Additional Director General , Maj Gen PP Singh sanctions the leave but on coming to know of the purpose asks me why I was not accompanying the Corps of EME team of the army. I had no answer except a smile.
14 Feb09. I got a call from Ashish saying that we were being allotted a start number 26. He was pissed off. The start number is given based on past performance and seedings. Imagine trailing behind all the cars and trying to overtake them in the stages. Having been a past podium finisher and overall fifth in Desert Storm he was being flagged off after the rookies and first timers. Not done. Ashish had done well in the previous desert storms. And after a conversation with Mr Raj Kapoor, VP of Northern Motorsport, Organisers of the Desert Storm, the start number was changed from 26 to 15. So we have a start number of 15. Somewhere in the middle of all competitors. Tolerable. Ashish gave me the service plan and supplementary regulations to go through them. The vehicle is more or less done up. The scrutiny is scheduled on Monday, Feb the 16th at DLF Place, Saket, New Delhi. It is an elaborate affair. The vehicle is checked for all safety measures and all technical specifications. It is also marked and once it is certified, it can enter the competition.
I was asked to bring Colin Spray the next morning when I come for scrutiny as it is useful for stickers. I reached Ashish’s house at 0830hrs. Ashish was ready with all items and was having scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast. I also had a butter toast. We took the vehicle for scrutiny. Our scrutiny though not scheduled today, we tried to take a chance as a lot of outstation participants do not come at the scheduled time. We reached DLF Place at 1000hrs, the army team and few other participants were already there. It looked like we were going for a rally. Cars in all colours and shapes. We met Ranjan Mukherjee, an official. He asked us to hide/remove all the stickers of Raid de Himalaya, which were already pasted on the vehicle. Ashish narrated to me the healthy rivalry between Northern Motor Sport which organizes the Desert Storm Car Rally and Himalayan Motor Sport which organizes the Raid-de Himalaya.
A Texan hat on his head, a paunch and a swagger of a confident man defined Yashpal Sharma, our service team incharge. I had heard of him but not met him. On his hat were small pins of all rallys. He took pride in his work and had been an old rallyist himself. He had advised Ashish earlier, “Rallying with your brother in law as a navigator is not a good idea. When you get angry, remember relationships are more important than the rally, gaali soch samajh ke dena.” I don’t think Ashish learnt anything from Yashpal’s pearls of wisdom. I had to tell him that for this event he was the boss man and we were out to do a job. Let us do it to the best of our capabilities. If I goofed up, he was at liberty to shout and curse. I think that settled matters a bit.
So, Ashish took all the documents and tried to manage a slot for us, meanwhile I helped Vishal and Ravi, our friends participating in adventure category, with sticking their stickers. Neither I nor they knew how to use the Colin. I thought it was to clean the surface where we had to stick the stickers. It was a goof up. Their stickers had lots of air-bubbles. While we did this, Ashish had brought the stickers for our car. The secret of Colin was revealed. We had to spray it all over the sticking surface where the adhesive was and then put on the car. Due to the wetness it could be slid to the correct place without any problems. Try it out on any large sticker, you will realize how convenient it is.
SCRUTINYOur scrutiny went off smoothly. We had all the safety items, tools, modifications in the vehicle as per stipulations. Only, a minor hiccup of a fire extinguisher which had expired. We sought help of the army guys, but they denied at the last minute. Sandeep Sharma, another rallyist tried to help us but could not succeed. Then, Buwal brothers come to our rescue. They had a spare. We used it to get our scrutiny cleared and refilled our extinguisher afresh. We visited the workshop for last minute adjustments and fitment of another GPS charger and discussed the service plan also.
15 Feb 09. In the afternoon, I suggested a muhurta for the vehicle to be marched off from its permanent parking. Ashish accepted the suggestion. Our rally had begun.
16 Feb09. Ashish had worked up something with MakeMyTrip.com CEO, Mr Deep Kalra. They also have a travel portal, OKTATABYEBYE.com (OTTB) We were supposed to visit their office in Gurgaon and be flagged off from there too. I had a working day. I leave the office early after seeking permission from my superiors. We reach Gurgaon and meet the OTTB team. Having finished from the marketing team of OTTB, Parthasarthi Mandal and Damyanti Barua we head straight for the temple. The panditji does a small ceremony and charges a nice tidy sum. Religion in India is a holy cow. Can’t even think of bargaining with the Panditji !!! Saala, Bhagwanji ko hamare against bhadka ke locha na kar deve….. every one is afraid of panditji. So we smile, remember the lord, invoke Ganesha to finish our task without obstacles and go home to rest. Ashish has other ideas, he goes to Karol Bagh and gets Apollo tyres. The Northern Motorsport team had put in a word for Ashish and they offered us free tyres. Another omen ???
17 Feb 09. I start from home at eight. Have to reach for driver’s briefing at The Mariott, Saket by 0945 hrs. I get stuck in traffic. Reach Ashish’s place at 0910hrs somehow. Load the stuff, seek blessings of my inlaws and we are off. Ashish is angry. Can’t express. I could read his body language. I assume that like the scrutiny day when I was in time but Ashish took his time to move, today would be similar but it was not like that. Today was penalty time. He drove like mad and we reached the Mariott by 0950hrs. The briefing had not yet commenced. We signed the attendance sheet. Buwal brothers were sharing the service with us and were helpful again. We loaded the GPS tracks and I went to get the roadbooks issued. I read the first Competition Information Bulletin(CIB) and signed. It had a few amendments. Rachna, my wife and Ashish’s sister reached the Flag Off venue by 1030 hrs alongwith my sons Ayushman and Arjun. Ashish’s wife, Pratima also reached with their son Armaan. The kids are between six to ten years of age and freaked out on the different types of cars, quad bikes and mobikes participating in the rally. An atmosphere of gaiety and bonhomie, but very warm. There were two girls distributing Red Bull drink. We had a couple. And were flagged off at 1300hrs. So far so good. We changed our tyres. As one of them was wobbling. And moved to Highway King, Shahpura short of Jaipur on NH-8. In between we had lunch at a dhaba. We reached the motel at 1700 hrs. We had to regroup and start from here. We refuelled checked the vehicle and parked it in Parc Ferme (PF). It is a secluded parking where a time is stipulated. In case vehicle is not parked within allotted time, one is liable to incur penalties. Also, once in Parc Ferme , the vehicle cannot be touched for any repairs. We managed a room at Highway King motel and managed to rest a bit. The stages had to commence at night. Our start time from Highway King was 0000 hrs. Midnight. And we had to cover the transport section till Amarsar, a distance of 29 km in 1 hour. The stage was two km from Amarsar village. In the middle of nowhere. We started in a river bed. Wore our helmets and did an intercom check. Shit! The damn thing won’t work. Panic. Two minutes to start. Ashish had given me a square duracell battery. He asked for it. The bag given by OK TATABYEBYE was a bhool bhullaiya. So many goddamn pockets, I finally located the battery. Cursing going on. We replaced it. Ashish couldn’t find the button to fix, my eyes were on the clock, 20 seconds to go for the start. Phew, it crackled. “Can you hear me?”, felt like Graham Bell saying “What hath god wrought?” We confirmed and eased the vehicle into the time control. We got a start time of 0102 hrs. 22 kms of stage in a dried river bed and cross country. Ashish revved up the engine and as the official said five, four three, two, one go…we were off. Head hitting the roof, reading lamp shaking, GPS odo changing figures at the speed of light…. At 100Kmph the odo moves reeeaaaal fast. Where does one look? GPS track or odo or the road book? Pappu can’t navigate his saala, it dawns upon me. “Give me calls you moron”, shouted Ashish. I retort very intelligently, “approaching left….chicane, right/left” …. “@#$%%* I can also see the track. Read the bloody road book.” Oh yes, read the book in that dim light, flying at high speed, hold the light, also look at the track and see whether we are off it or not and read the small Odometer digits. I guess my eyesight needs a check. Or I need to get an MRI of my cerebrum.
We spotted a tail light, Car ahead, I honked the horn seeking side. No 14 gave us side after reasonable time. We overtook him. Car clipping fast and furious. We reach a water obstacle, cross it nicely but the next turn I give a wrong call and we lose track. The photographers were busy clicking photos and did not even indicate that the turn was the other way round. Anyhow, we managed just in the nick of time and resumed. Nine kms done quickly. Reached a caution. Stop and Go. Had to come to a dead halt at the Stop and Go and then took off again across tarmac. We are again flying. Trying to make time. I tell Ashish to turn right on a blind curve, but he has lost confidence in me after the last call. He turns left and ten metres ahead we lost track. Some more curses follow. This time Ashish curses himself. Pappu bach gaya. I am not that bad, I reassure myself. We again reverse and fly off. We have spotted the tail of another car. Either all others are bad drivers or they are more lost than us. We try and overtake him too. But No 13 does us no favour. I called, “Flying Finish approaching after a hard right turn”. Raju Varma in No 13 went straight rather than right and we turned correctly. So, we checked in before two cars at the finish point. I patted myself for the right call. Time logged 01:31:30 hrs. We did good. Our service team was ready at Mamtori Kalan village. Yashpal ji hugged Ashish for the good drive and we had a Gatorade each. And then off to the next Parc Ferme at Teja Garden, 40 km from Shri Dungargarh near the sands of Bikaner, 300kms from Mamtori. We drove incident free and reached Hotel Mumal Place, Sri Dungargarh at 0500 hrs. We managed to find a room here, entered the quilts and put the alarm for 0600 hrs. Our parc ferme(PF) opening time was 0700 hrs. And we had to check in at 0702hrs. We got up at six after sleeping for one hour. Such luxury !!! Refuelled at the petrol pump next to hotel and reached Teja Garden at 0700 hours. Checked in at correct time. Abhishek Mishra checks in with us. Why??? The poor man reached Teja Grden in time but went off to sleep in the car itself outside the Time Control. He is woken up with a rap by his team owner, Raju Verma of Perfect Rallying. I parked the car in the PF and went for breakfast. After breakfast checked the provisional results. Our time of 29mins30secs is shown against another Ashish i.e Maj Ashish Suhag of the army adventure wing. He was start No 16. May be a slip up in compilation. We bring out this point to Mr Moosa, an official. The results are corrected and put up again. We clocked the fifth fastest time in the night stage. Great Going. Saala, faltu mein aag barsa raha tha…. In fact a very good start. Probably others were more lost than us. Three of the cars had not yet fetched up. Attrition has begun. We have travelled 550 kms so far.
18 Feb 09 0830hrs. We march out the car and go to Sesomu about 20Km from Teja Garden. Along the boundary wall of the school is the start of SS2, the second selective stage. We flag off. Ashish is familiar with the track. Two years ago he had overturned his vehicle in the first 1000m of this stage and then went off to finish on the podium. We drove fast. No major goof ups. Three km into the stage, we found Sanket Shanbagh from Team Thunderbolt, a good rallyist in T2 category standing by the side and waving at us to move ahead. His vehicle was lying toppled next to a dune. A bad, sharp left turn gone awry.
In between on a very narrow stretch with steep embankments on either side, we found a jeep carousing towards us. We were at 110Kmph and we switched on headlights, blew the horn did everything, reduced the speed somehow and managed to breathe a sigh of relief. A narrow shave. We could have gone off the embankment and turned turtle. Would have been end of rally for us like Sanket. We cursed the officials for not ensuring sealing of stage. All SS are supposed to be sealed and closed to normal traffic till the cars have passed through. A few km down the line, we find a herd of cows chewing the cud, for us they were chewing our position. Gau maata kripa karo. I pray inside. They do not answer my prayers. We blew horns and somehow managed to cross them. Lost time. We manage the finish in 30mins 10 secs. The stage finished at Dussarna village. The fastest on this stage was Sunny Sidhu, the defending champion . He did it in 25 mins. Whew!!
RODEO RIDE: GYPSY IN THE AIR (pic courtesy Shekhar Verma)We had a small transport section till Sudsar village and then the third SS. It was along the railway track. We did extremely well despite the dangerous stay wires of electric poles on the tracks. Robby Buwal was not so lucky. He bumped his vehicle into a ditch, trying to save from the staywires. We had another unpleasant experience. On the stage, the gate of a farm was closed. We had to come to a dead halt, open the gate and then proceed. Our predecessor ?? No comments. I was tempted to close the gate for our follower too. But Ashish deterred me from doing so. So, No 16 and the rest behind us, you know whom to thank for saving that extra minute. The stage finished at Gadwala.
The stages were fine. Incident free but nothing earth shaking for us. Later on we realized that SS2 and SS3 were our worst results, in terms of stage times as compared to our peers. We thought aloud that we had to capitalize on navigation and driving at night where others were probably weaker. QED.
Hotel Laxmi Vilas, Bikaner. We were putting up for the night here. We took a nice shower. Hot water never felt so good on the skin. The building was an old haveli cum palace converted to a hotel. We met Ravi and Vishal also. They had lunch with us. Ashish got busy with service and I with the road books. We had a night stage at seven. Gadwala-Naurangdesar-Napasar. 25 Kms. I was revising the GPS track and the road book again and again. Slept for one hour in the afternoon. PF at 1600hrs. I went and parked the vehicle in PF after the service was over. Ashish took rest. For the Leg2, the start order had changed. After the last performance we had jumped eight places. From No 15, our start order for the new night leg is No7. Whoa! Well begun is half done.
The Red Bull girls are here too. Seems they are accompanying us on the entire route. We pick up two red bull cans. March off from Bikaner correctly and reach Gadwala in thirty five minutes. Our time out for SS4 was 2102 hours. We drink the Red Bulls, our energy drinks, before checking in at the Time Control. We took off after that. As fast as we possibly could. Just before Naurangdesar there was a major chicane and a caution. It was a left/right. A tree on the left turn and a ditch in front. A very bumpy preceding six kms. We find Capt Amarinder Brar of the army team in the ditch. Since, Brar and his navigator, Capt Sangwan were fine, and waving us on, we did not stop. Their gypsy, as we later came to know, flew into the ditch at 120Kmph. Despite the caution by his navigator, Brar was too fast to negotiate the turn and it was Sayonara, Desert Storm-2009. Two attritions from the top ten. Sanket in the morning and Brar in the night. And it is just the first day. We finish well in 22mins 15 secs. The army teams do well uptill now. Home turf. Had recced before ???? Just a guess. Can’t say. Probably, time would tell. Ashish decides we must finish the rally first then only could we have a chance to finish on the podium. Profound.
Reached hotel at ten thirty at night. Our muffler had taken a battering. Weld came off and the silencer and muffler were out of shape. I stay put for the service. Ashish was sent to relax and take sleep. I got the service finished at 0100 hrs. Found out location of PF, parked the car and then retired to bed. It was ten past one in the morning. Have to get up early.
19 Feb 09. Ashish got up earlier than me and went to check the start order. We had slipped to eighth. Anil Wadia was before us. Anil is a roly poly Anil Kapoor look alike. A big businessman. He owns Harjee Rallying , is in the liquor business and is sponsored by Thunderbolt. So his cars and teams wear the colours of Red & Blue and call themselves Team Thunderbolt. As we lined up for the start, we noticed a lot of engine oil below Anil Wadia’s Gypsy vehicle. There was worry on Wadia’s face. Both he and Naik, his navigator pushed the vehicle and took a start. Ahead of the start, their service team was waiting, they attended to the car. In case a vehicle gets damaged in PF, the team cannot repair it in the parc ferme. It has to take a start whether under own propulsion or incur penalties. No external help is permitted.
The first section was Naal- Gajner section of 21kms. It was a flat out start but very bumpy, followed by a few turns going into village Choti Naal and then parallel to a railway track on a very narrow track, finally finishing at a straight stretch near Gajner. A lot of scope for going wrong, taking wrong turns and goofing up. We started off well. In between, the GPS track showed three alternates to the route. Nandal, Suresh Rana’s navigator had noticed this anomaly of three tracks converging at same turn and warned people at the breakfast table. I should have been more cautious and aware. We took the turn correctly but could have saved a few seconds by taking a short cut. But no harm done. We were on track. Only one place we miscued by taking an upper track instead of lower track near the railway line. The upper track , though looked good, ended in a dead end. Ashish was aware of it as soon as we drove on it as it was the same track as last year. So, we took corrective action after exchange of few tagda-phugda MC,BCs and slid the car onto the lower track, again some loss of precious time. Nevertheless, we did fine by our expectations and when we finished in 22mins 15secs, we could see the dust cloud of the car ahead, implying we had gained some time. We were rolling. We waited to see Suhag’s car but he did not check in within three minutes of us, so we assumed he had lost his way. Later on we came to know that he had toppled his Gypsy and Mr Raj Kapoor and some villagers helped him in straightening the vehicle and restarting. His rally was also as good as finished. The previous night Suhag, a first timer in Xtreme had clocked the third fastest time. Was it the adrenaline rush of having arrived and being the best which led to the mishap, extra speed at a sharp turn?? We won’t know. Suhag was running second in T2 category at this stage.
Maj Shakti Bajaj of the army team was livid at his navigator, a young Capt Malik. They had also lost time due to some erroneous navigation and having done the first three stages in lesser time than us, they had taken 1 min 40 secs more than us in this stage. Shakti knew , we were closing in on him.
ANAMIT SEN PHOTOGRAPHYThe next leg was a transport leg of 200km to Pokhran. Ground Zero. We made good time. I was running a bad throat and slight temperature. I did not want it to spoil our comfort zone, so quickly I self medicated myself by taking a course of antibiotics, Ampicillin 500 mg thrice a day for three days. Took the first dose in the dhaba at Pokhran. We and Shakti’s team, being EME officers sat on the same table to order food. In between Harkaran also joined us. We shifted to a larger table and ordered six thalis. Nice hot food with lots of chillies and desi ghee. Before the food could arrive, Harkaran and his navi jumped ship and went to another table. So much for socializing…. We were ahead of time. Our muffler had come loose. I went below the chassis and examined. It was troublesome. So, Ashish gave me some wire and suggested we tie it up so that it does not touch the ground. We did a quick repair and were satisfied. Just short of the start of the next SS, we stopped for chai at a dhaba. The entire Thunderbolt team was assembled. We also partook tea and took some snaps. A nice curvaceous blonde alongwith her boy friend was also there. Bawa would time and again go inside and cast furtive glances at her. We all laughed when Bawa explained her figure with his gestures. Time to go. We all moved ahead for the line up. It was a 62 Km stage. Important. People could shave off two to three minutes time. As we were about to start, a motorcycle approached from ahead. We blew the horn but the guy couldn’t care less. We requested the official to remove him. But his pleas too were futile. We were given an additional two minutes for the start. Ashish was not happy with the additional two minutes. It implied Wadia would be four minutes ahead of us and we would perhaps never see him or his dust in the stage. We took off at the countdown. Were going fine when we reached a dead end by taking a wrong track, parallel to the actual track. Between the time the road book was made and now, a ditch for a pipeline had been dug up. We had to go across the ditch and join up with a track, whereas we were on the other side of the ditch. Lots of curses and abuses followed. We made good time. In between there were two Speed Zones. Rallyists had to decelerate to 30kmph speed in this zone and where an FZ board with an official was placed, we had to again accelerate. There was a massive slip us by the organizers. There was no FZ board at the place it should have been as per the road book. We also went in a circle, looking for it, but then followed the raod book and accelerated after we had passed the Stop & Go, official. We lost track at one more place where we circled a fenced farm from the wrong side. Lost again a few seconds. More abuses followed. By now I was immune to them. We were about to reach the flying finish. It was after a chicane and with a lot of confusing tracks. Almost everyone got confused and lost some time coming to the right track. We were no different. Ashish could have clipped another minute in this stage. He was livid. Just swallowed his anger after the stage. I apologized to him for the f %$# ups. After the finish of the rally when all stage times were displayed, Ashish apologized to me. We had the third fastest time in this stage. Better than all those who started before us. We were cruising nicely.
The next SS from Sanawara to Chandan was cancelled and converted to a transport stage but the route was to be followed as per road book. Initially it was a bit confusing track. We deciphered it correctly and had a huge convoy of followers. I was tempted in between to take the vehicle off the track and watch everyone getting lost, Ashish declined to go ahead with my wild idea. We reached Chaandan in time. The next stage was a night stage from Chaandan to Kanod, short of Jaisalmer.
CHANDAAN TO KANOD STAGE STARTNear Chaandan Mr Jayesh Desai , the president of Northern Motor Sport was gheraoed by all participants on the issue of DZ/FZ and non existent S&G. He had no answers except for apologizing for his official’s mistake. The advantage/disadvantage was common to all participants so they were not going to give any dead time. The start for the first vehicle from Chaandan was scheduled at 1854 hours. We were at the extreme West of the country. I just did a quick mental math and told Ashish that their would be day light till 1910 hrs. As a result, cars starting earlier would get 10 to 15 minutes of daytime, a huge advantage. Ashish accepted my logic and I walked up to the Control Official and requested them that cars starting later had a disadvantage and a level playing field should be there. They consulted with JD and ruled 30 mins dead time for everyone. It meant that the first car would flag off at 1924 hrs. By then it was pitch dark, moon was in fourth quarter so moon rise was after 0100 hrs. Sunny Sidhu was ahead of Rana. We did well. I had spent time on the GPS track and road book. I also met Naik in the break and asked him for some navigational tips. Naik is an MRF certified, professional navigator. I also had a look at his car. He had a bigger GPS, a terra trip odometer and a handwritten note pasted. He told me that he wrote all important cautions on that piece of paper so that he was doubly aware. I incorporated his tips and we did well on this stage. We were on Anil Wadia’s tail for the last three kms. But did not overtake him. We checked in with him at the control. We had made 1 min 52 sec on him. We did the SS of 30 km in 25mins 25 secs. Great show for us. We were on a high. We reached Jaisalmer by 1000hrs. Today, it was my turn to relax. I took a bath, had dinner and started reading the road book and GPS. I marked way points on the GPS. Ashish got busy with the service. Robby Buwal had again banged his car. Clutch plate burnt. Talented but rash. Meanwhile news trickled in that Adil Nargolwala, an official with the rally, had also toppled his Pajero. So, some more casualties. Robby got evacuated at 0200 hrs and reached hotel at 0230 hrs. We had an SS of 84km the next morning and a long transport after that going into Gujarat.
20 Feb 09. We woke up at 0515hrs. Ashish had a terrible night. Robbie te Bobbie di gaddi (Buwal Bros) came in late and Ashish had to coordinate the repair effort and read the Supplementary Regulations to tell them the rule position and load their GPS tracks for the next day. So he took a shut eye at around 0230 hrs. It was a very nice property and the view of Jaisalmer Fort from the ramparts of the hotel lawn was breathtaking to say the least. But we hardly had any time to enjoy that. Ashish, lighted two agarbattis and we went through the morning ritual of worshipping our car. I knew a couple of shlokas which I recanted. We had to go through a river bed. It was dry and with boulders. We decided to conserve the vehicle at the cost of some time. Wrong or right decision, we couldn’t say at that stage. I walked up to the older Buwal brother and advised him about the caution. They wanted to finish the rally and after two nerve racking incidentswere not interested in any more chances. So far so good. We get out of Jaisalmer and travel the 20 Km to the start of the stage without a word. At the start, the official again cautions us on the river bed crossing. There are two Stop & Go and two passage controls too. Also, we have to perambulate around a farm rather than cut across it. So, need to remember that location. The stage was gravel. The tyres do not hold on to gravel and the car slides crazily. There is no surface contact. Dangerous !! but then who said rallying is for the weak hearted. A couple of missed seconds at places, by and large we did fine. At least we thought so! Finished the stage in 84 minutes some seconds. Wadia did it in 81mins 45 secs. They were waiting for us at the finish to get our time. When we told our time, they breathed a sigh of relief. Wadia knew something which we did not know. Wadia was just 12 seconds ahead of us after the previous night’s stage, at the start this morning. And he was driving for his life to maintain his position ahead of us, whereas we unknowingly were conserving our car. May be just in case we were aware of the fact, we might have also pushed ourselves. His navigator did not let him remove his foot from the accelerator. Wadia was under the belief that he had the fastest time in this stage, but his happiness was short lived as Capt Brar who was not in the reckoning but trying to finish the rally from behind, clocked faster than him and had the fastest stage timing. We came out at Bisukalan village. Yashpalji, as is his wont encouraged Ashish again. Irrespective of our timings. He was happy that our vehicle had survived. The service team, ever so efficient, got below, checked out the undercarriage and with our Gatorade we were off to Barmer. It dawned upon us that in stages where Ashish had a RedBull, energy drink, we did better. So, it became a lucky charm for us and now onwards, I ensured that before every start, I handed over a Red Bull to my driver.
RED BULLS KEPT US GOINGWe shifted our tents and sleeping bags into the Gypsy as tonight it was camping out, no hotel. It was a very long transport section of 400 Kms to Adesar in Gujarat. Average speeds expected were 64Kmph. You can do a quick math and derive that in order to do an avg speed of 64 in Indian traffic and road conditions, one had to drive constantly at 100kmph plus speeds. The avg speed also went up due to our halts for service, petrol and lunch. Mr Jayesh Desai and Mr Kapoor, are you reading this???? Safety on the roads be damned, we were all buzzing as if our a@# was on fire.
We refuelled in between and took off for Barmer. At Barmer, we all had lunch. Rajasthan road side food is excellent. You get a nice thaali with home cooked fresh food kind of stuff. Nice kadhi-pakodi, lentils, a seasonal vegetable and fresh tawa rotis. And for desi ghee freaks, they almost drown the food in ghee toppings. I love my ghee in food, so I freaked out. Ashish and others refused the ghee helpings. Having filled our tummies, we moved on to Sanchor and then ahead.
We made a cardinal mistake here. We filled our tummies, forgot to fill our Juno (which is what we christened our Gypsy!). She was one third empty by the time we crossed Sanchor. And although the regulations had warned us about having 350Km worth of fuel, we believed in the India shining speil. It is difficult to imagine National Highways without petrol pumps every 20-30Kms. But here we were on a state highway in Narendra Modi’s Vibrant Gujrat and no petrol pump for 200 Kms. We kept our fingers crossed. We spoke to our service and they were following us with 30 litres of petrol. We managed to reach Santhalpur where we rejoined the NH. Someone on the way advised us that we could get a refill at Santhalpur, so we were hoping to reach Santhalpur. But to our dismay, Santhalpur had an Essar pump forking out Diesel only. When shit happens, one is always underprepared. Now we were on a prayer and a song. 20 kms short of Adesar our Juno came to a stuttering halt. We were out of fuel. We were so far fine on time. So we thought our service team would catch up. But as the minutes kept ticking off, we were creeping into danger zone. Earning penalties in transport section !!! Blasphemy. Panic was setting in. By the time we were planning Miglani and Shakti Bajaj had crossed us. We were debating on whether I should take an empty 5 litre bottle and get a refill from Adesar. Time wise it would have taken us min 45 mins. 40km of traveling and 5 mins of refill. That was a best case scenario. It was our luck that a passing car stopped on seeing us stranded and we bought some petrol from them on payment. We thanked them profusely and moved on. Now, we were flying again. We filled up Juno at Adesar and moved towards the Rann Riders Camp. In between we saw two wonderful salt lake kinds of flat stretches for miles and we thought, we should get something like this. We should have asked for something else. God was on our side today. We had no idea that the next couple of stages were on similar terrain. But at that moment only thing on our minds was to reach the Time Control by 1740 hrs. We had a start out from Jaisalmer in the SS at 0840 and had nine hours to do the SS+halts+transport. Total of approx 528 Kms. Time was 1700 hrs when we turned from the NH. It was still 12 kms to the camp. We were back to SS kind of stage. What is a rally without the thrills? So what, if it was a long transport we wanted value for money and had generated our own crisis to get our dose of adrenaline. We were almost flying. I was giving Km wise updates to Ashish on time and distance. We reached the village Hingesar by 1718hrs. Still three kms to go and the navigation through the village with a number of tracks emanating was again a maze. We manage not to lose our way and check in at 1725 hrs. Fifteen minutes before the stipulated time. Everyone checks in similarly. The time was too tight. No scope for relaxation. Good that there was no roadside dhaba for a cuppa tea. Otherwise we might have stopped and could have earned penalties. So far so good. We had two more days of rallying to go. We have survived, our Juno has survived. Our morale is still high. We are ticking. Tomorrow is another day. But we ought to be ready for the morrow.
The Rann Rider’s Camp was in the middle of nowhere. It was three Km away from village Hingesar and equal distance from the Rann of Katch, from where the SS on last day would begin. We got busy with pitching our tents and servicing the cars. The organizers wanted us to have a feel for the outdoors. They had issued two men bivouacs to us. We were supposed to get our own sleeping bags and ground sheets and make our own accommodation functional. An area was earmarked for the same. The DTLs(Deep trench Latrines) in army parlance were located at one end. A water point too had been established. A caterer had put up a shamiana and generator for the food part. Looked like a wedding arrangement, the groom’ side were the organizers and bride’s side were the rallyists. We divided our responsibilities again. I went ahead with pitching the bivouacs and making logistic arrangements before it became dark. Ashish got busy with the service. Once we were established for the night we switched. Ashish went to rest and I got busy getting all bushes and bearings replaced.
At night we had a short sleep as in the next bivouac somebody had a nightmare and he shouted and screamed as if a snake was slithering across his belly. There was lot of halla-gulla, after that some enthu guy kept howling Jaagte Raho. Seems he was a chowkidar turned rallyist. So, he ensured that we did not sleep peacefully. Only around 3.30 am the hulaabaloo subsided. I was up by five. Took to the jungles for relieving myself. What a relief !!! Brushed my teeth. Washed the face and was ready for the day. We had to spend another night here. The SS was from a village Seekra. But to reach Seekra we had to drive 130 Kms. Time given was 2hours and 45 mins. We all made it in time. The TSD format vehicles were also passing on the same route. It was a flat pan. Runn of Kachh. Hot and dry. The stage was 29.7 km long and finishing towards Bhuj. We reduced our tyre pressure and were debating whether to go in 4x4 High or Low. Since, the last ten km of the road book depicted, thorny and sandy patches, we decided for the latter. So it was 4x4 low for us. A tactical error. We should have gone in High. It was a flat bed. Except for being bumpy and thorny, there was hardly any sand. Our ECM would cut off at 120kmph. And others were faster. But we did well. We clocked 21mins 54 secs on this section. Others were also in 21 minutes range, we were just maintaining our lead from the competitor on our heels and not making much time on the vehicle ahead of us. Except for the top two i.e Suresh Rana and Sunny Sidhu, there is not much to differentiate between the immediately behind five to six competitors. They are equally good or bad. It is more of the driver’s skill than the engine or the car which is of prime importance. Minor credence to the navigator and then the engine. Like Dr Prakash Kothari says, “It does not matter how long it is, what you do with it is more important.”
ANAMIT SEN PHOTOGRAPHYThen a long transport of 142 km to Pingleshwar on the Arabian sea coast. A never before beach run of 26 km on the beach from Pingleshwar to the Lighthouse at Chachi village, 40 kms west of Mandvi. We had no time for lunch. We thought we would have lunch after the SS. We cruised merrily via Air Force Stn Naliya to Pingleshwar. On the way, we found Sunny Sidhu halted on the road. His front crash guard and lights mounted on it had come crashing down. We stopped and took out some spanners and helped them to open the crash guard. He loaded the guard in the rear and we were again off to the Start Point of SS. We crossed through a huge tower and the wind mills of Suzlon. It was as if don Quixotes in their Gypsys were out to battle with the wind mills. Nice view. We got about 15 mins to start. We reduced the air pressure to 20psi in all our tyres. Everybody asked us how much were we keeping the air pressure at. We told everyone our tyre pressure. Some of them were cynical at the ridiculously low pressure. Ashish had last year interacted with Niaz Ali and he had given this tip. On the beaches of Australia, Niaz went with very low air pressure, increasing the surface area of the tyres and providing greater traction.
There was lot of loose sand at the start with a climb. The officials were not sure whether all the vehicles would go through without getting bogged down immediately. While I reduced the air pressure from the tyres, Ashish went ahead to look at the start of our preceding cars. When the first three cars went through without a hitch, we knew we too would be fine. We took off at the countdown. It was a beautiful stretch. A virgin beach. Not a single soul, except for media personnel, waves touching the rims of the car, speedometer showing 120kmph. Not bad. I was tempted to take out the camera and take a few snaps. But better sense prevailed.
PINGLESHWAR BEACH RUN (pic courtesy Mr Raj Kapoor)10kms into the stage we had corals stretching the entire span of the coast. No passage, road book said, “Find your own way”. And what a way it was. We had reduced the speed a bit, but we were flying in the air. The vehicle and tyres banging all around. Again took off. 20 Kms into the stage, we find Sameer Pande and his navigator trying to extricate their vehicle from the sand. There was an urgency in Ashish’s driving. He had smelt blood. Sameer Pande was till now, leading our category T1 upto 1350 cc engines. Our fate was doing tricks. Later on we came to know that Sameers gypsy's bonnet flew up in the middle of the stage and obscured their screen. They had to apply brakes and the braking led to the sand bogging. End of rally for Sameer Pande. Only one stage left. Can’t make up lost time.
The end of the stage on the beach was tricky. The lighthouse was located on an embankment. The choice was between a difficult but short route and easier but slightly longer route to navigate the embankment. The cars had to go straight along the beach, take a U turn, build momentum and then climb the embankment. We do not know how others negotiated but our vehicle was on full throttle, 4x4 low, first gear and on that traction it was just crawling. U can imagine how deadly the last stretch of sand was. And lo behold ! The Ides of March strike in February !!! We have another stroke of luck. Anil Wadia and his navigator were trying to extricate their Gypsy from the sand. They too were struck. We managed to cross the embankment. The Flying Finish was visible from the embankment. So near, yet so far. They say, fortune favours the brave, methinks fortune favours the prepared mind. We had planned well so far and it was just the stroke of luck we needed which catapulted us two spots ahead. It was fortuitous.
But our adventures were far from over. We finished the stage fourth fastest. And were looking for our service team. They were on their own trip. They had confirmed to us that they were at the lighthouse. The dumbass I am, I assumed, they were as per instructions. To our utter surprise, the buggers were sitting at Mandvi Lighthouse , a good forty km away. Ki Korbe??? Boka#@#$...... Lesser said the better. Ashish was livid. I had written Chachi Lighthouse in the instructions to the service team but that iota of doubt crept in, Ashish got his opportunity. This time it was my organizational skills at stake. Marta kya na karta, chupchaap sah liya… The drive back to the camp at Adesar was tight. 275 kms of drive plus service stoppages plus refuelling halts, time available 5 hrs. Again drive at 100 plus. Mercy Monsieur Kapoor was all we could say. I got busy making some phone calls and doing some calculations. I gave executive orders to service team to move from Mandvi towards Chachi. We also started moving on the same road towards them. After half an hour or so, we met the service team. Yaseen, the manager of second vehicle was quick on the uptake. He got the refuelling done and checked the vehicle. All the rims were bent. The rims were quickly straightened, undercarriage checked, tyres inflated to 26 psi and after a Gatorade each, we were on the cannonball run. We had wasted good about 20 minutes going off the road from our destination route and this had to be factored in. We started zipping past. I was calculating and giving half hourly updates on time and distance. Again no petrol pump on the highway after Bhuj. So, 150 kms run without a pump in sight. Eighty kms short of Adesar we got stuck on a railway crossing. One train crossed. We honked the horn for the gatekeeper to lift the barrier. No reaction. He signals to us to wait for another five minutes as another goods train had to pass through. We are behind by ten kms. While we wait, I realize a minor calculation mistake. I had missed out the 26 kms of SS in the total distance calculation. So, we had now 26 additional kms to cover in the same time. And 20 kms short of Adesar we were again critical on Petrol. Adesar was jinxed for us. Whenever we were close to it, we ran into problems. Ashish was driving like an SS. Almost everyone was. We had foregone lunch and were on the look out for petrol. I made a few calls to our service team. Got Yashpalji placed at Adesar turning, but just before that we saw a petrol pump, Mahatma Gandhi in hand(Rs 500 note) I screamed at the attendant to fill up. He was trying to calculate how many litres to pour.As soon as the needletouched 9.3 litres. I removed his dispenser shut the tank cap and screamed go. We moved at break neck speed. Again, it was a flying finish. We checked in with 15 mins to spare. Thank God for small mercies. We were in high spirits. By tonight’s provisional results we should jump to fifth overall and first in our category. Tomorrow was the last leg and only one SS. We just had to ensure we maintained our spot. But there was more to come. Picture abhi baaki hai, mere dost.
The evening started on a high note. We were getting geared up for the last leg. We had to check the provisional results, get our vehicle serviced, especially check the clutch plate after the beach run, top up fuel. Read the road book. Download tracks into the GPS. And prepare to wind up the tent in the morning. There was nothing major to do but I had butterflies in the stomach. I did not want to let Ashish down after his stupendous run. We both sat with the GPS and laptop. The SS was devoid of any major land marks. A flat pan of 60kms or so with ruts. Having done the two major tasks of track loading and service, I went in for a wash and dryclean. But having reached the water point, I became greedy. I thought why not a bath. So, I managed a bucket and mug and found a clearing in the acacia jungle as a nice bathroom. It was dark, I just had a towel, so I changed into my birthday suit poured a few mugs of water and relived my academy days. I was absolutely fresh after that. I picked up my dirty overalls and moved to my tent. All hunky dory. I changed to fresh clothes and went for dinner with my road books. Yogesh Lakhani, Bawa’s navigator was one of the most helpful guys and the most truthful. He never fudged his timings. And told us the relative results. He was faster than Moosa and Joshi, the officials who compiled results…. JD & RK please note. We retired to bed by eleven. Ravi and Vishal were also fine. Vishal was a tad disappointed for he was doing well on the first two days and a few slips brought them down. Anyway. We parted company. Ashish went to bed, I had to note the provisional results, so I kept hanging around the official van. By midnight the results of Xplore were put up, but no scene of Xtreme. What was going on? I requested the compilers for our position but they did not let me in. I was apprehensive. Their were stories on the circuit of how things were manipulated at times. We did not give credence to those as we believed in clean competition. But now the ghosts of those stories reared their heads. I did not wake up Ashish but I was worried. I waited for another hour. At 0100hrs I lost patience. I went to Moosa and requested him to let me have a look at the results which he had in hand. But he went into red tape and said till the COC and Steward and blah blah blah signs the result I will not show it to you. I was fuming, but just kept quiet. I did not wait for the results to be put up. I went to sleep. I thought, we were getting swayed by the result part. When we started , our aim was to finish the rally on a good note and perform to our best. We just needed to do that. We had an early day ahead. In the torch light I had a look at the road book and GPS track again. There were two or three tracks with a potential for confusion at the beginning of stage. I noted it mentally and slept off. I woke up at four o clock after a three hours of sleep and went to check the provisional results. Someone had removed the sheet from the notice board and all the vehicles of officials had packed and were moving out as a convoy. I was extremely disappointed. I then located Moosa and reminded him of our last conversation about the results. He felt guilty. He apologized and said that the vehicle had gone and it was in a no signal zone. So he gave me Joshi’s number and asked me to speak to him. I tried his number a couple of times and let it be. I started packing all the small bags, except for the tent and a water bottle since Ashish was still asleep. While I was checking out all items, I realized my purse was missing. Most importantly, it had my identity card. The loss of an ID card for an army officer is a punishable offence extending to loss of seniority and censure. I skipped a heart beat. But I kept my cool. I took two torches and retraced the entire evening mentally. I realized that the last I used the purse was when I paid for the petrol. After that I had kept it in my pocket of my overalls. So, I retraced the entire route and went towards my adhoc bathing point. My purse was lying below one of the acacia trees. I picked it up. Sent a silent prayer and thanks to the Lord. And I knew at that moment, today was my day. I woke up Ashish. Gave him the water bottle and started packing the belongings. Ashish transferred the stuff to the car while I dismantled the tent. I kept quiet about the complete incident. Another last minute shocker was Sameer Pande, while having an early breakfast he told Ashish, you are being flagged off eighth. We were stunned. Was it a deliberate attempt by Moosa not to show us the result? Were the stories of manipulation and rigging true? We had all sorts of conspiracy theories in our heads. We just left the breakfast. I told Ashish,” It’s a provisional result. We can always lodge a protest. Let us finish the leg first. We moved on towards the car for our daily ritual of worshipping before sitting. And the Lord arrives in the form of Yogesh Lakhani. He tells me you guys did well yesterday, you are starting fifth. You are overall five minutes behind us and three minutes ahead of Shakti Bajaj. Was their a voice sweeter than his on this earth? Oh boy! We reconfirmed thrice from him. He said I came at 0130 hrs to see the provisional result and checked it. We were elated. We wished each other good luck and started our vehicles. Our start order was fifth. We had to do our best. Again the debate of 4x4 low vs high. We started with 4x4 low.
At the start there was a fresh bulletin. The place of start had been shifted by approx 500m and upto 3.8 km from start point was a speed zone. So, quick maths. We had to cover 3.82 km in 7 min 39 secs. But just before we were about to be flagged off, I realized that the start had also been reduced by 500 m, it implied that the distance was 3.3 km and not 3.8km. So, time available was 6mins and 40 odd seconds. A straight saving of 1 minute. We had to accelerate after 6mins 40 secs. I told the modified time to Ashish. He patted my back. He was sure that a lot of people would miss this and calculate the speed Zone time as per 7 mins 39 secs. When we finished the rally, we realized, that it indeed was true. A lot of teams committed the fauxpas and spent extra time driving slowly.
We did not lose the way and reached the designated FZ in the stipulated time. It was a good start. Ashish took off after that. 4 km into the stage we quickly decided to go into 4x4 high ratio as the terrain was flat. We said even if we have to stop and change to low, we would take that penalty but why miss on the optimization. So, we kept buzzing on track without any hiccups. Ashish had full throttle on. And then we saw, the dust of Bawa’s car. That is the sweetest sight to a rally team. The opponent in sight. Like a sniper you have the adversary in cross hairs, ready to press the trigger. I told Ashish to go for the shorter route, I would get him back on GPS track. We were on 20 m zoom. Ashish decided to trust my call and we went hammer and tongs after Bawa. The engine was on a song, we were cruising. We switched on headlights and decided to avoid Bawa’s dust trail as it was reducing our visibility and in that dry bed, we overtook him from right and buzzed past.
ANAMIT SEN PHOTOGRAPHYWe were on target. We had the fourth fastest time on the stage. We had clocked a speed of 140.2Kmph on the stage. Suresh Rana made 144kmph and Sunny Sidhu had 143.1kmph. Not Bad, buddy for a day’s job. 64 km covered in 39 mins few seconds. Oh boy! That was a fitting finale to the competitive stages. We still had a long way to go. Again Ashish’s experience and wisdom was forthcoming. We had maintained our overnight positions and reduced the gap between us and our preceding car. We were on the podium. First in T1 extreme category and fifth overall. So, two trophies. Ashish directed that one of the service vehicles should trail us till Udaipur. A very long transport stage. We did not waste time at the finish point. We just got our timings logged and moved out. Yashpal’s team met us on the way. Checked the vehicle, patted Ashish on the back. Spat out instructions to Yaseen, incharge of second service team to follow us till Udaipur and gave our Gatorades. Off we went. This time I was ready with all my calculations. I had every half an hour an update on our time and speed requirements. We were very comfortable. Ashish wanted to reach Raddison, Udaipur at the earliest. Secondary reason was his wife Pratima and son Armaan were flying in from Delhi for the rally ball and prize distribution. He thus, had an added incentive to reach Udaipur earliest. We made it to Udaipur by 1230 hours. In between we were informed by our service team that they had to halt as Maj Suhaag had met with an accident and a child had been injured in the transport stage. It seems, Ashish knew how things would pan out. While we were driving, Anil Wadia had crossed us for a while and Ashish said, “I hope there are no accidents. They have given us very ambitious timings for the last transport. Actually organizers do not want participants to tinker with vehicles, so they keep it tight but the tight timings compel drivers to drive very fast. And in transport stages it is dangerous. Also, if one of the guys meets with an accident, the stage would be cancelled.” Words of a wise man. Both things happened as he had prophesied. Raj Kapoor and JD are you reading this?? Ashish Gupta should be in the official team. He thinks like them.
We were the first one to check in at the hotel. The TC was not yet established. Did we drive too fast? We couldn’t care. We were tired and famished. But exhilarated, too. For Ashish, it was first time T1 category and he had come on tops. For me, beginner’s luck perhaps.
P.S We went on a name selection session for our Gypsy. The best greek name for the goddess of speed and victory which we were contemplating was Nike, but we did not want to Just Do It. So, we settled for Juno, the queen of Gods. So the story ends with the baptism of Juno by fire, heat and dust in the deserts of Thar. There's lots more. So,Keep looking out …. Watch the Disney-Pixar movie “The Cars” in the mean time. You will realise Cars need to be taken care of. They are not just machines. Adios Amigo….
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