THE DESERT STORM-2014 RALLY WOULDN’T HAD BEEN POSSIBLE WITHOUT…

THE DESERT STORM-2014 RALLY WOULDN'T HAD BEEN POSSIBLE WITHOUT...

New Delhi

Ediitor-in-Chief

THE DESERT STORM-2014 RALLY WOULDN’T HAD BEEN POSSIBLE WITHOUT PARENTS AND MENTOR SUPPORT ,SHARES THE YOUNGEST PARTICIPANT JAIDEEP SINGH OF DS -2014

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The Maruti Suzuki  Desert storm is India’s longest cross country rally.It is one of the toughest rally and a learning platform for its participants.This rally is the best checker to perform test on a  person mental as well as endurance level.

Jaideep Singh the youngest of the all shares his first experience of the rally ,how he went through the mental stress and agony to complete the rally.So for some this sport might gush the adrenaline but the reality is it comes at a cost.

Jaideep journey of rallying started with DS 2014.The preparation of rally started one month before the rally with routine checks of licence,rally licence ,insurance,rally cover etc.He was given SX4 ZXI MODEL which was rally prepared with roll cage and sparco racing seats courtesy Gaurav Sharma who provided him with the vehicle and for which he extends his thanks note.This particular vehicle SX4 ZXI provided by Gaurav had already treaded in rallies such as RAID and DAKSHIN DARE before.

The racing week started with scrutiny and stickering at the maruti office on the 22nd February,2014,where the chief scrutineer Rahul Dutt checked the vehicle  personally with all the necessary items that are mandatory for vehicle which is taking part in the rally.

The rally was flagged off from THE GRAND HOTEL,Delhi on monday morning where all the vehicle were looking forward to adrenaline rush for entire week.From here everyone left for sadarshahar where the first leg was to be officially flagged off at midnight.

Delhi-sadarshahar was a roughly 7hr drive covering 350 plus Kms , jaideep got a good chance to get his hand on the handling of the car.Leg 1A was assumed to be the toughest and most challenging night stage of the rally.Jaideep car was in third position in the start lineup.The initial 50 kms were good but after that they lost the track due to darkness and got stuck in the sands. After few attempts by the car at the back they came out of the sands and continued on the track again but again after travelling few kms they again got stck in sand this time a more worst case than before.As it was difficult to push the car out of sand and the help sought from control room took time so jaideep and his coworker had a harrowing night as the place look haunted where they got stuck.

Sharing his experience Jaideep said that he was in a pathetic mood of the way how the rally stated for him and secondly for a haunted like place where they got stuck.

In the morning the help came and then assited with GPS they came back on track from where the leg 1A started.Reaching the start point they were informed that not only they were stuck at  night but some of the ace drivers like Karmajit Singh and Rana driving in XTREME were also stuck due to technical glitches.So the information like this came to Jaideep as reprise and he felt motivated that it wasn’t he got stuck and others too got stuck and with this he headed forward to leg 1 B which was to start shortly.

The experience which Jaideep had in leg1 A, made him wondering whether he would be able to complete this 7 day rally as the very first day had a lot in-store for them to bring down there excitement which they had at the starting of the rally due to sand glitches and all.It took them time to reboot themselves to a fresh start mood for the remaining rally.

As the stages got over Jaideep and his co-rider timings got better in subsequent stages and penalties which were occurring in hours were now happening in minutes,then seconds and then zero which made them happy.

The sand driving now seemed exciting and jaideep was no more nervous while driving as he has now tasted the sands behavior and understood the realities faced by the desert rally drivers.

Jaideep concludes his experience of Desert storm rally by advising to young aspirants to choose a co-rider with whom they share a good understanding and are tough at handling stress for which he thanks his co-rider who exhibited the same.

Also jaideep says that, he never would have experience such a rally if his parents hadn’t been supportive, as being the case with majority of parents this motor sports is a risky sports and not all motivate there kids to go ahead with this sports,but it was the support and love of his parents and mentors like  Adil Jal Darukhanawala and Navigator Madvav Mittal that Jaideep was able to complete this Rally.

“DESERT STORM DOES TAKE A NEW RIDER BY STORM”-

IS THE CRUX OF THE ADRENALINE GUSHING STORY BY  JAIDEEP AN AVID PHOTOGRAPHER AND MOTOR SPORTS ENTHUSIAST.

(With Inputs From JAIDEEP SINGH)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author: sarkarimirror