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Shimla, Oct 5 (IANS)
An intrepid lot of 150 motorists set out on Sunday from this Himachal Pradesh capital town over the rugged Himalayan ranges in the 16th edition of the world's toughest motor rally, the Maruti Suzuki Raid-de-Himalaya, organisers said.
The rally will cover about 1,650 km through harsh and difficult terrain at 4,000 metres above sea level and will cross mountain passes in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir in six days.
"Raid-de-Himalaya started from Shimla on Sunday and will pass through the hostile terrains of the cold deserts of Lahaul and Spiti and Ladakh districts," Manjeev Bhalla, vice-president of the Himalayan Motorsport Association (HMA), the Shimla-based club that annually organises the rally, told IANS.
The rally would conclude in the picturesque tourist resort Manali Oct 10, he added.
Ace rallyist Suresh Rana, who won the Raid-de-Himalaya nine times in the four-wheeler Xtreme category, aims to capture the 10th title in this edition.
"This time retaining the title for a record tenth time seems as tough as climbing a mountain peak. Like every year, this time too I am gearing myself up for the rally," Rana told IANS.
In the 16 years of the Raid, the defending champion of Raid-de-Himalaya won the race five times on the trot till 2008.
Actor-producer Sohail Khan, brother of Salman Khan, is competing in Raid-de-Himalaya for the first time. He is participating in the Adventure class, an all-out speed category.
For his navigator, Sohail picked Pune's Rahul Sancheti, who ranks among the top motorsport navigators in the country for TSD rallying.
Amir Yardenay, the Israeli rallyist, is riding a Royal Enfield, while Martin Eitdorf and Jurgen Konnecke, the two oldest Raid competitors from Germany, are at the wheels of a 35-year-old classic Mercedes Benz 350 SLC. The car has been brought from Stuttgart in Germany.
"Old cars, new adventures," said 53-year-olds Eitdorf and Konnecke, competing in the Raid Adventure category.
A total of 50 competitors are competing in Rally Moto (motorcycles and quads) category, 41 teams feature in Rally Xtreme (4X4) and 51 teams in Rally Adventure.
Each team in the Xtreme (4X4) category and the adventure category comprises of a driver and a navigator.
In the high speed Xtreme, four women rallyists will be driving this year, the highest number in Xtreme category yet at the Raid.
They are Anu Rana of Delhi with navigator Khyati Modi of Mumbai, Vaneeta Kang and navigator Gagandeep Kaur, both from Chandigarh; Shuchi Thakur of Mumbai with navigator Zuzer Rangwala and Captain Madhvi Singh of Team Army with navigator Lt. Col. H.S. Katoch. All these competitors are driving Maruti Gypsies.
The other champion rallyists in the Raid are Sandeep Sharma of Delhi (Team Maruti), Harpreet Bawa of Chandigarh (Team Thunderbolt), Lt. Col. Shakti Bajaj of Team Army, Amanpreet Ahluwalia of Delhi (Team Thunderbolt), Sanjay Agarwal of Bangalore (Team Maruti), Amartej Buwal of Delhi (Team Thunderbolt) and Raj Singh Rathore of Jaipur.
The Raid-de-Himalaya is one of the two Indian motorsport events listed on the off-road rally calendar of international automobile and motorbike federations -- FIA and FIM.
Only 12 international motoring events worldwide are listed in this calendar.
