Indian Motorcycle Manufacturers excelling the art competing at Dakar Rally

HIGHLIGHTS

• Unfavourable weather forced organisers to cut Stage 5 at the 292 km mark
• Pedrero of Sherco TVS moved up remarkably finishing in 4th place
• Stage 6 has been completely called off due to harsh weather conditions

The Dakar Rally 2017 has reached Bolivia and the harsh weather conditions ensured that Stage 5 was far too dangerous for participants. With the rally cut short in Stage 5, the Indian teams - Hero MotoSports and Sherco TVS managed to bring stark improvements in their respective standings with TVS' Joan Pedrero taking the lead.

Stage 5 of world's most grueling race had to be cut short, after heavy rains washed out parts of the track in the latter half of the 447-km special stage between Tupiza and Oruro. This forced organisers to cancel the remaining half at the 292 km mark.

Stage 5 saw riders make remarkable recovery in standings

After a difficult two stages, it was a day of redemption for Sherco TVS riders as Joan Pedrero finished the special stage in 2 hours 31 minutes and 31 seconds, securing 4th place. The Spanish rider finished 63rd yesterday and moved up by a massive number. His overall general classification stands at 25th place. His teammate Adrien Metge too made remarkable progress finishing the special stage at 21st place in 2 hours 55 minutes and 35 seconds. His overall general classification stands at 46th place.

Meanwhile, Hero MotoSports too managed to beat frigid temperatures, pouring rain, hail storm and tricky track conditions to further improve their standings in the overall general classification, while several top riders got a heavy penalty. Hero's lead rider Joaquim Rodrigues has shown exception skill over the past days and continued to do so in Stage 5 as well. The rider started this stage at 17th place after his rankings further improved overnight on account of a time refund of 27 minutes. The refund was done since he stopped on two separate occasions in Stage 4 to call in the medical helicopter to evacuate two crashed riders.

Joaquim Rodrigues received a time refund for helping two crashed riders on Day 4

Stage 5 saw Rodrigues improve his momentum and complete the day in 2 hours 48 minutes and 36 seconds. This put him in 11th place in the day's classification, while his overall provisional general classification stands at 11th, an improvement by one place.

CS Santosh, who made substantial gains in the fourth stage, continued to build on the same. In his third Dakar outing, the Indian rider finished the special stage in 3 hours 42 minutes and 37 seconds that pushed him up to 60th place in the day's standings and placed him 70th in the overall provisional general standings.

CS Santosh is going strong building steady pace

"The first part was really slick because of all the rain on the track. Apart from that, it was really cold. There was a section that involved some tricky navigation, but I managed to find the waypoint. Then on the main piste in the latter part, there were some navigational challenges, but I managed to get in the right direction to collect a really tricky waypoint. But the biggest challenge today was the cold and the length of the day," said Santosh after arriving at a rain-drenched bivouac.

While Stage 5 was a day of redemption for teams, Stage 6 has been called off completely between Oruro and La Paz due to the extreme climatic conditions. The sixth stage of the 2017 Dakar was to take participants from Oruro to La Paz, before a day's break. However, the 786 km run to La Paz with a special stage extending to 527 km, seems impossible and clearly dangerous due to the harsh weather conditions. Stage 6 was also the longest timed section in this edition of the Dakar.

Dakar 2017: Sherco TVS Racing Results

Sherco TVS Racing's Joan Pedrero Finishes 13th, Metge Bags 22nd Overall

• Joan Pedrero finished 13th overall at the end of Stage 12
• Adrien Metge made a strong recovery finishing 22nd overall
• Aravind KP had to forfeit early in the rally after sustaining injuries

Tackling some of the harshest terrains of South America, the Sherco TVS Racing team completed its third edition of Dakar Rally 2017 with riders Joan Pedrero and Adrien Metge making it to the final finish ramp in Argentina. At the end of Stage 12, Pedrero completed the rally in 13th place while Metge finished in 22nd place in the overall general classification.

As the rally came to a close, the French-Indian team was in a recovery mode starting Stage 11 from San Juan to Rio Cuarto, a distance of 759 km of which 288 km was the special timed section. The trail comprised sand dunes initially followed by fast sections saw Pedrero complete the penultimate stage in 3 hours 30 minutes and 54 seconds in 11th place. Meanwhile, Adrien Metge who made a strong recovery after slow initial stages completed Stage 11 in 3 hours 32 minutes and 33 seconds finishing 12th.

Joan Pedrero was consistent throughout the rally finishing 13th

In the overall standings, Pedrero finished Stage 11 in 13th position, while Metge ranked 23rd overall. On the morning of Stage 12, Sherco TVS Racing was left with the final 64 km of timed section and both riders completed managed to complete the last leg effortlessly to Buenos Aires in Argentina.

After 13 days of traversing some of the most varied conditions, Joan Pedrero managed to complete the final stage in 33 minutes and 57 seconds in 15th place. Metge, on the other hand, finished the last stage in 18th place with a time of 35 minutes and 17 seconds. While Pedrero finished an overall 13th, Metge classified 22nd in overall standings.

Adrien Metge made a strong recovery to finish 22nd after being 105th in Stage 2

After 12 stages and 13 days, Joan Pedrero Garcia finished the 2017 edition of Dakar Rally in 34 hours 39 minutes and 8 seconds, while Adrien Metge finished the timed section in 36 hours 25 minutes and 31 seconds.

Sherco TVS Racing's Aravind KP who made his Dakar debut this year couldn't complete the rally owing to injuries and had to forfeit in Stage 3. Nevertheless, the Indian rider will be looking to make a grand return next year being stronger, faster and sharper.

Hero MotoSports Team Rally Brings Back Exemplary Dakar Debut Results!

Hero MotoSports Team Rally Brings Back Exemplary Dakar Debut Results!

 

With both their racers and their machines in one piece at the finish line of Dakar Rally, Hero MotorCorp has accomplished what they set out for…

There is nothing better than an Indian motorcycle manufacturer competing in Dakar?

Oh! No. There is.

An Indian motorcycle manufacturer finishing Dakar with both its riders and their bikes in one piece with historic results!

In this particular case, it's Hero MotoCorp from India.

The Delhi-based motorcycle manufacturer rode the Dakar wave with its new found venture: Hero MotorSports Team Rally, which is a group of passionate people whose day job is developing and racing top-class racing machines. Besides, the skills and efforts of Joaquim Rodrigues and CS Santosh paid off throughout the 9000km of Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina with a commendable 10th and 47th finish, respectively.

Imagine setting up a movie studio and then pulling off one of the biggest box-office hits of the year under a year's time. ‘Quite an aspirational goal’, would be the thought of many. However, Hero MotoSports Team Rally did just that. The company joined hands with German off-road motorcycle specialist Speedbrain GmbH in April 2016, which was 10 months ago, and the results are before us. The team was also the newest team in Dakar paddocks.

Debut rider of the team, J-Rod, performed exceptionally well all the while showcasing his fortitude for an endurance rally like Dakar. In the 12th stage (64km), the Portuguese rider roped in the 15th (10th overall) position with 33 minutes, 57 seconds.

Santosh, who is competing in his third Dakar, finished 45th in the last stage and was the only Indian rider to finish the Dakar in 2017.

It was also the market launch of Hero in the Argentinian market. Nothing could have been a better & bigger start than this great performance at Dakar. Hope they take the Argentinian market by storm as they have been doing to the India market from years.

The team now looks forward to more Dakar rallies in the approaching years, but with a clearer picture in mind as a team. Certainly, the aim for next year will be higher and so will the preparations.

All about the great Dakar Rally

It was in 1977 a French man got lost in the Tenere Desert during the Abidjan-Nice Race and realized that the desert would be a good location for a regular rally where amateurs could test their ability.

His name was Thierry Sabine.

And hence came into existence the first for the very great and very challenging races on this planet, the Dakar Rally.

Dakar Rally, formerly known as the "Paris–Dakar Rally", is an annual rally raid where most events since the inception in 1978 were from Paris, France, to Dakar, Senegal.

But due to security threats in Mauritania, which led to the cancellation of the 2008 rally, races since 2009 have been held in South America.

And hence came into inception the Dakar we know of today.

The race is an off-road endurance event. The terrain that the competitors traverse is much tougher than that used in conventional rallying, and the vehicles used are true off-road vehicles rather than modified on-road vehicles. Most of the competitive special sections are off-road, crossing dunes, mud, camel grass, rocks, and erg among others. The distances of each stage covered vary from short distances up to 800–900 kilometers (500–560 mi) per day.

The race originated in December 1978, an year after Thierry Sabine got lost in the Ténéré desert whilst competing in the Abidjan-Nice rally and decided that the desert would be a good location for a regular rally.

The race sees tough competition among 4 major categories of Motorcycles, Cars, Trucks, Quads.

182 vehicles took the start of the inaugural rally in Paris, with 74 surviving the 10,000-kilometre (6,200 mi) trip to the Senegalese capital of Dakar. Cyril Neveu holds the distinction of being the event's first winner, riding a Yamaha motorcycle. The event rapidly grew in popularity, with 216 vehicles taking the start in 1980 and 291 in 1981. Neveu won the event for a second time in 1980, Hubert Auriol taking honours in 1981 for BMW. By this stage, the rally had already begun to attract the participation of famous names from elsewhere in motorsport, such as Henri Pescarolo and Jacky Ickx.

Now boasting 382 competitors, more than double the amount that took the start in 1979, Neveu won the event for a third time in 1982, this time riding a Honda motorcycle, while victory in the car class went to the Marreau brothers, driving a privately entered Renault 20, whose buccaneering exploits seemed to perfectly capture the spirit of the early years of the rally. Auriol captured his second bikes class victory in 1983, the first year that Japanese manufacturer Mitsubishi competed in the rally, beginning an association that would last all the way until 2009.

At the behest of 1983 car class winner Jacky Ickx, Porsche entered the Dakar in 1984, with the total number of entries now at 427. The German marque won the event at their first attempt courtesy of René Metge, who had previously won in the car category in 1981, whilst Ickx finished sixth. Gaston Rahier meanwhile continued BMW's success in the motorcycle category with back-to-back wins in 1984 and 1985, the year of Mitsubishi's first victory of 12 in the car category, Patrick Zaniroli taking the spoils. The 1986 event, won by Metge and Neveu, was marred by the death of event founder Sabine in a helicopter crash, his father Gilbert taking over organisation of the rally.

Motorbikes

As of 2011, the engine capacity limit for all motorbikes competing in the Dakar Rally is 450cc. Engines may be either single or twin cylinder.

KTM has dominated the motorcycle class in recent years, although Honda, Yamaha, Sherco and Gas Gas also compete currently.

Cars

The car class is made up of vehicles weighing less than 3,500 kg (7,716 lb), which are subdivided into several categories.

Mini have been the most successful marque in the car category in recent years, thanks to the efforts of the non-factory X-Raid team, with limited involvement currently coming from Toyota, Ford and Haval.

Mitsubishi is historically the most successful manufacturer in the car class, with Volkswagen, Citroen, Peugeot and Porsche having all tasted success in the past with factory teams.

Criticism

When the race was held in Africa, it was subject to criticism from several sources, generally focusing on the race's impact on the inhabitants of the African countries through which it passed.

Some African residents along the race's course in previous years have said they saw limited benefits from the race; that race participants spent little money on the goods and services local residents can offer. The racers produced substantial amounts of dust along the course, and were blamed for hitting and killing livestock, in addition to occasionally injuring or killing people.

The Vatican City newspaper L'Osservatore Romano called the race a "vulgar display of power and wealth in places where men continue to die from hunger and thirst." During a 2002 protest at the race's start in Arras, France, a Green Party of France statement described the race as "colonialism that needs to be eradicated".

The environmental impact of the race has been another area of criticism. This criticism of the race is notably the topic of the song "500 connards sur la ligne de départ" ("500 Arseholes at the Starting Line"), on the 1991 album Marchand de cailloux by French singer Renaud.

Dakar 2017 saw 2 Indian Motorcycle manufacturers competing for the glory. They were TVS-Sherco and Hero MotorCopr.

It was a debut for Hero Motor Corp.

Hope they take the name of the nation to greater heights.

All the best!!