The only Indian ever finished the famous Dakar Rally last year; CS Santosh could not repeat the history and got out of the 2016 Dakar at the fourth stage of the ongoing rally. Riding on the Suzuki 450 Rally, Santosh encountered many issues with his bike since the beginning of the rally. However, it was the faulty Navigation tower and the failed electrical of the motorcycle which were proved as the reason of Santosh’s drop out from the Dakar. Since the stage fourth of the ongoing 2016 Dakar Rally was the Marathon stage and there was no mechanical assistance was allowed to the rider, the malfunction of Navigation tower and the failure of the electrical proved fatal. Although, Santosh somehow managed to finish the stage but he reached to the finish point almost three hours behind the rally leader.
It is noteworthy that CS Santosh had successfully completed the Dakar Rally last year riding on the KTM 450 motorcycle with team Red Bull. It is for this year Santosh had switched for Suzuki camp and the combo seemed not working, whereas the erstwhile partner is doing pretty good in the 2016 Dakar.
By: Farhan Kashif