CS Santosh grabs third consecutive Moto Class crown at Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm

After a dramatic sequence of events, India’s top rally-raid rider CS Santosh claimed his third consecutive title in the Moto Class at the Desert Storm 2016 recently. Representing Suzuki Motorcycle India Private Limited (SMIPL), CS Santosh defended his crown on a Suzuki RMX450Z Rally comfortably in the end, with a lead of over nine minutes against his closest competitor.

It was not a bed of roses for the Dakar Rally participant though. After opening up a massive lead of 53 minutes by the end of the ninth stage of the race, Santosh let slip an opportunity to seal the deal as a slight sense of complacency cost him.

On the 10th stage, which was the first of the two night stages, the Suzuki-supported rider failed to spot the passage control. He got his time card stamped for reasons of bad visibility due to the dust kicked up by the cars ahead of him and was slapped with a penalty of 60 minutes for the infringement. 

However, the ace racer conjured up high levels of motivation to hold his nerve even after the fine. Amidst high drama in stages 10 and 11, which ran in the night over a combined distance of more than 100 km, he finished at the top of the pile with an overall lead of more than nine minutes for a total time of 11 hr 19 min 28sec.

“I made it difficult for myself. The time penalty for missing out on the passage control came at the most inopportune moment. However, that’s rallying, anything can happen. I am very pleased with this win and even more with the way the Suzuki RMX450Z Rally performed in these conditions,” said Santosh. 

As for the Suzuki RMX450Z Rally, it carried special parts from the Dakar version of the motorcycle. The changes included a carbon-fibre sub-frame, Ohlin suspension system and a bigger cooling system. For this rally, Jordi Grau, who runs the Suzuki Spain Team in the Dakar Rally, had also come down to lend his technical expertise.