April concluded on a high note for the privateer Jatin Jain, who became the first ever Indian to compete in and complete the Sonora Rally, held in the pristine Sonoran desert of Mexico.
An experienced rally racer with an enviable trophy case, Jain, who hails from the town of Nagpur in India, was surrounded in a fanboy moment at the closing ceremony, holding his finisher medal in hand, sheepishly answering the questions bombarded on him by the admirers.
Jain competed in the Nationals (Moto) Road to Dakar category, thus paving the way for budding rally racers in India to reach the notorious Dakar Rally, in a sport that believes in remaining off-piste. He chose a stock suspension Husqvarna 501, finishing 6th in the National Enduro class, making it an impressive show for the country.
The 6 day rally consisted of a Prologue and 5 special stages, seeing competitors covering more than 2400 kms with at least 1200 kms of selective selections, that took them from Hermosillo to the border city of San Luis Rio Colorado, along the beautiful coast of the Cortez sea
“It was a challenging, yet exhilarating experience. It has surely boosted my confidence to have completed the rally in one piece”, says Jain, who is now preparing for his next international rally.
No rest for the champion, who is not new to the world of rally raids. Jain, who has trained with the likes of CS Santosh and Aravind KP, has conquered many rallies on the Indian scene, notable ones being Desert Storm, India’s own version of a cross country rally, held in the sands of the Thar, Dakshin Dare, Rally of Himalayas and Raid De Himalaya, to name a few. It’s not only the cross country that the champion has conquered; he has made his name in the Indian National Rally Championships and Supercross Championship as well.
Behind the Scenes:
The preparation started for the rally long before, Jain tells. From arranging a rental bike in Mexico to training in the sands of Dubai, arranging funds to building the requisite fitness levels, it takes determination and focus of ten to reach the level demanded by Sonora, which marks the 3rd Round of FIM World Rally Raid Championship’ 23 (W2RC).
“I kept in regular touch with my mentors, Santosh and Aravind, to help me with doubts and improve my technique. Navigation was one area where I needed to gather up some skill real quick, and Jordi (Jordi Grau is the trainer at Big Rock, Spain and coordinator for Hero Motorsports Rally team) came to the rescue. I also owe big time to my fitness trainer – though I hated every moment of the drills he put me through, in hindsight, this is what kept me standing at the end of 12 hours of saddle time at Sonora”.
Debrief:
We caught Jain post the ceremony to catch some interesting bits of the athlete’s perspective.
Jain says: “The stages were long and temperatures soared upwards of 40 degrees during the day. We started our day around 6 in the morning and reached the Bivouac by 5, which was our lunch time. The Nationals competitors start after the cars, which means we were left with pistes broken by the cars, and cactus and fesh-fesh made the game more unpredictable.
Every stage came with its own surprises – from lips cracked due to salty sea breeze and hands full of calluses making it impossible to hold the throttle, to bent handlebars and ruts made by the cars who had passed earlier, it was a test of both endurance and skill. Stage 4 was perhaps my longest time; there were some errors in the roadbook and the Penasco circuit had a few sections overlapping with the previous stage, which had completely washed away the piste.
Few stages comprised more than 90 pc of sable sand, making it tough to gain speed. Overall, I focused on just completing the stage.”
The future:
Jain is now contemplating his next stage of training and will soon be seen again in the International Rallyscape. In a casual sidebar, he talks about his plans with an expression of deep thought. “I want to target Dakar’ 24 now towards the end of the year.”
The challenges in the Indian space are numerous to conquer though, Jain explains. Dakar, which traditionally marks the 1st round of W2RC, is also the longest rally, with more than 14 stages, at least 2 of them being Marathon Stages. It needs a different bike set-up and skills to manage such a bike, both of which are not easy to come by.
Funds are also an area of concern – “I could survive as a Privateer till now but Dakar is a different ball game altogether. Gathering some sponsorships
would be one major task ahead of me”.
interviewed and written by Ishita Gupta
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