Rider on the storm: CS Santosh on the Dakar Rally
It’s not every day that you meet someone who has completed Dakar Rally. Never heard of that? For starters, 70 people have died since 1979.
While you were mourning over MS Dhoni’s retirement from Tests last year, there was one man who was trying to defy rains, heatstroke and extreme cold. Sometimes, getting lost in a jungle, fixing his own bike and be fast enough to not lose the track and time, and to top it all, trying to be alive. Nerves that are made of steel and balls that are the size of a hamburger, meet India’s one and only Dakar Rally racer, CS Santosh.
Let’s start from the beginning. How did it all start for you? When was the first time you picked up a bike and rode it all around?
I think the first time I picked up anything for a ride was bicycle. As a little kid, I used to get on my bicycle and explore the surroundings around me. And you know, that’s how it actually started for me. You know, there is this place in Bangalore called Palace Ground, where they have motocross event every year, I happened to watch one of the races there and that actually triggered my imagination going and I wanted a bike for myself. I think that was the beginning for me.
When did you actually thought of picking off-road racing as your career?
You see, I had a motorcycle to go to college and there was a time when drag racing was its peak and everybody was doing drag racing on bikes and cars, but I was actually never interested in doing that. My initial thought was to do some track racing. In Chennai they have this track for racing and as an amateur, if you want to ride, you have to pay 500 rupees and they give you a bike and you can racing during the weekend. I actually won my first race, but then the track was shut down due to some litigation and I had nowhere to go. That’s when I switched to off-road racing. I used to go out and look for empty lake-side area and make it my own track.
How supportive was the environment from friends and family about your career choice?
When you first start doing it, everybody thinks it’s very cool as you ride a motorcycle and do some cool stuffs with it, but when they heard that I was serious about it, they thought it’s a joke. I still went on with it and a lot of people raised eyebrows over my decision, including my parents. They thought that people are making their careers and looking after themselves and here is a guy who is dumb who wants to ride motorcycles for international career. But now, over the years, I have managed to earn their respect and they have understood that some people are born to do certain things. I wouldn’t have been able to do what I am doing today without the support of my family.
You’ve won every possible Super cross race that is there to be won in India. Or is there something left?
I think I have pretty much done everything that I wanted to do in India. The only thing I suppose is left is that I get on a superbike and do some track racing too. I am now looking beyond India for international platforms like World Championships
Only Indian motorsport listed on the FIM calendar, how did it feel to win the Raid-De-Himalaya in your first attempt?
You know, the thing is when I was winning Motocross and Supercross races, they thought that I would not be able to go and win a rally. Even I didn’t think that I can complete a rally. It is said that a rider must really do the Raid-De-Himalaya once and only then he can say that he has done everything that is there to be done on a motorcycle. It was more like a challenge for me. I wanted to experience the hype around the rally. I won it and it was actually quite unbelievable!
What really happened at the World Cross Country Rally Championships in 2013?
After I won the Raid-De-Himalaya, people insisted that I should now look for international stages and win abroad, like this World Championship. I thought let’s do it and I put together a small team which was privately funded and went to Abu Dhabi. On day 3, I experienced some foul in my motorcycle. I didn’t get much time to test the bike or anything like that. There was some problem in the motorcycle which led to a fire in the fuel tank. The desert too was really hot and the heat was just radiating. Everybody thought that it was end game for me. But I was disappointed that I couldn’t finish at my very first international event.
How did you motivate yourself to continue racing despite a near-fatal accident?
How often do you hear a bike catching fire? It was a once-in-a-lifetime thing and I have gotten over it now. And I don’t think I am gonna catch fire anytime soon. It’s about going back and do what you’re meant to do than being afraid of failing. Not completing the race was the failure for me, more than the bike catching the fire.
2014 started on brilliant note again, winning the longest off-roader. Do you have a habit of conquering everything at the first go?
It just looks like it is. I think I have this thing in me that I am very good one year and the next year I struggle. I think I need to fix that in me.
How does a racer get a chance to race in the Dakar Rally?
Dakar is actually an invitation only race. Back in days when it started, in 70s, most of the guys who raced were amateurs and were eccentric adventurers. You would call them mad men. And I never thought that I would be rallying at the Dakar. It was an unknown terrain for me and when I went in, I just wanted to make a mark on my first Dakar.
What was the first thing that came to your mind when you got an invite from Dakar?
In 2014, I finished in the Top 10 of the World Championship and after that, Dakar was really excited to have someone from India for the first time. And I was ecstatic because they featured me on their website and announced that an Indian is participating. I always looked at myself as a rider riding for myself, but when you are a first of anything, your perspective changes. You have to bear that burden of being the first.
How did you start preparing for Dakar?
To be honest, Dakar is such a huge race, spanning over 14 days and more than 9000kms, I tried to prepare as hard as I could by watching YouTube videos and everything I could get my hands on. I talked to people who had a perspective on Dakar. Everybody told me how hard is Dakar so, I prepared at the best of my abilities. Physically I was fit, but physically and mentally is very challenging.
What was the biggest challenge going into the rally?
It’s the fear of the unknown.
How does it feel to represent India at the world’s toughest race competition?
When they put the flag around me, the feeling of representing the country sunk in then.
From the April 2016 issue of FHM India.
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