Towards the middle of October every year for a week, the roads of Himachal Pradesh, Kashmir and Ladakh are abuzz with the revving of engines of dirt bikes, quads and various other extreme endurance vehicles as they participate in the Raid de Himalaya.The Raid de Himalaya, organized by the Himalayan Motorsport Association and Maruti Suzuki since 1999, is the world’s highest rally raid and among the most challenging
Riders and drivers not only from all over India but across the world participate in this ultimate driving challenge. The race begins from Shimla, covering almost 2000 kilometers over a six-day period passing through major parts of the northern Indian states of Himachal Pradesh and Kashmir, the race route being modified almost every year to keep the challenge a step ahead.
The Raid de Himalaya 2015 flagged off from Peterhoff Hotel in Shimla and passed along the route - Manali, Dalhousie, Srinagar, Rangdum and Padum. From individual participants to big names like Maruti Suzuki, TVS, Polaris, the 17th Raid de Himalaya saw participation of around ahundred and sixty seven teams and two hundred and fifty participants across two categories: Xtreme and Adventure Trial.
The race is spread over six legs, each leg divided into Transport and Competitive stages. In the transport stage, normal road transport is not disrupted and the race vehicles have to run along with other vehicles on the highway, simultaneously competing with each other. Whereas, the route of the competitive stage passes over dirt mountain roads and high altitude passes, with only the participants competing and normal traffic not allowed on the stage route till the. Some of the routes of the competitive stages are isolated, treacherous mountain roads, for instance, the 17th Raid de Himalaya took a new route between Srinagar and Rangdum, taking to a bypass, newly developed after the Kargil War in 1999, from Drass to Sankhu village
Most participants spend months and even years preparing for the Raid, some of them even preparing their vehicles all by themselves; a case in point being that of the champion rider Ashish Moudghil, who in the words of Vijay Parmar, President - Himalayan Motorsport is “the most winningest biker on the raid” and a Mechanical Engineer himself, likes to both prepare and service his bike almost by himself. Each team consists of the rider or drivers and their service crew. At the end of every stage on race days, the crew services the vehicle, performing services like refueling, tyre change, repairs or mechanical adjustments.
Sarah Kashyap, rode almost 200 kms with a broken collar bone to Srinagar to finish the 17th Raid.
Then there are people from foreign lands who come in the search of the ultimate adventure like Nosh Mistry, an Australian rider of Indian origin, who shipped his bike from Australia to Singapore and rode it from there all the way to India to participate in the Raid.
The 17th Raid de Himalaya concluded at the Centaur Hotel in Srinagar where an elaborate prize distribution ceremony was held after a scrutiny of vehicles and a ceremonial flag-in ceremony; the Chief Guest for the event being Mr Farooq Shah, Secretary, Tourism, Govt of J & K and Mr R.S. Kalsi, Executive Director of Maruti Suzuki India also being present.
Not just being the ultimate test of man and machine, with altitudes going upto 6000 metres, temperatures dipping to twenty degrees below zero and average distances covered daily being to the tune of 300 kilometres, the Raid is also instrumental in bringing out the strength of character of riders.
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19 сен 2016
