[sudev]

Continuing Xplore....

February 22:
The likely quote of the day : "Wait a minute! Jaisalmer is south-west of Bikaner right? Then why is the road book taking us northward??"

A new area has been found by the route team for you to be tested. Get ready to go in to off road territory. The previous day's teasers of off-road were just to whet your appetite for off road driving. The days major competition would be on off-tarmac.

A loop northward through the deadly dune country will give you glimpse of sand quarter surrounding Bikaner. Getting off the hard surface can be treacherous. While on recce one of the two wheel drive vehicle parked on apparently okay looking shoulder of the road to take a innocuous "P" break. Got bogged in sand and had to towed out. Xtreme competitors would be sent off road and you may get lucky to see a few of them struck and struggling to get out.

After the northward loop you will start heading south towards Jaisalmer using back country routes crisscrossing the national highway. Fairly long drive of around 500kms on the cards for the day.

Do not get tired. Some lovely picture opportunities of Jaisalmer for, even at night when it is lit up with flood lights.

February 23:
Right in the morning quite like Don Quixote you will make a charge at the wind mills, though of different kind. It is very easy to loose your way due to so many turns and forks. Early day is packed with action and real challenging bad-road driving with combination of tarmac roads will run you southwards. Remaining away from the NH15 we try to surprise you with TC locations.

Many of you complained of slow speeds to be maintained last year. Well bad news is expect more of same again. Good news is that we are doing a real early morning start so that we can free you of TSD nightmare before noon.

Then on its is a long long drive to Vekariya Camp beyond Bhuj just off the State Highway 45 heading north to Khavda. Breakfast in Rajasthan, dinner in Gujrat. As ads featuring AB say "Katch nahin dekha to kuch nahin dekha"

Why this?
Many participants ask us why the TC's at Desert Storm do not give their location/distance information like the other rally's do.

Well if we did the whole TSD exercise will become easy for you. Once you get fix of distance calculating your precise target time is just a matter of knowing how to use calculators or gadgets. This is not what the competition should be about - the guy with gadgets gets the prize.

Navigating from morning to evening is the challenge. Knowing where you are using road book information and your odometer (vehicle/GPS/whatever) is the key to winning. And of course we make take the challenge to next level by using terrain difficulties to slow you down. Patience and persistence wins.

[sudev]

Abbas Taskeen is urgently looking for Co-Driver to participate in the Desert Storm 2012. His navigator has dropped out at last minute due to urgent reasons.

Abbas has participated in rallies since last year including Raid-de-Himalaya and has entered Desert Storm 2012 in a rally prepared Gypsy in N'dure category. He has GPS and TSDMeter available for use of navigator.

Please contact him directly if you are interested. Email : abbastaskeen@hotmail.com, abbasenterprises52@gmail.com

[sudev]

Continuing Xplore....

February 24:
A great circle awaits all participants of Desert Storm 2012 on this day. Of course a different circle for Xplore but nonetheless a day that is designed to test the limits of your navigation capacity and patience.
You will be within Bhuj but will travel 400kms of off track, back country roads, state highway and national highway.
But first you must cross the Great Rann of Kutch and Xplore will do so at crack of dawn when things are barely visible. And road book designed to give you all opportunities to get lost. If you do have a GPS we suggest have "Log Track" function switched on so that you can at least find your way back to camp. Some years it becomes freezing cold as well. Do spare a thought for the poor marshals who would be deployed much before you land up.
Lovely lunch awaits you on the beach as blue waters of Arabain Sea shimmer at Vijay Vilas Palace. Night is again at Tropic of Cancer Camp.

February 25:
The last day and the most difficult traverse. 90kms of off road. Combination of surfaces : hard, bumpy, sandy, forest and dry lake bed. Navigation should be easier as Xtreme guys would be ahead of you but not entirely. Do not follow their tracks blindly or you may miss the area where your track diverges.

A long drive to Ahmadabad will end in prize distribution and podium.

[sudev]

Question : Why no tracks or waypoints are provided for the Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm 2012 in the TSD categories?

Answer : If these are provided then what is left of navigation? Plus the calculation of target time at your position becomes a child'd play as you know your location exactly. And that is also why the TC's do not tell you their location.

So be prepared to compete by solid navigation and dead reckoning - Xplore & Ndure

[funmaniac]

Originally Posted by sudev

Question : Why no tracks or waypoints are provided for the Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm 2012 in the TSD categories?

Answer : If these are provided then what is left of navigation? Plus the calculation of target time at your position becomes a child'd play as you know your location exactly. And that is also why the TC's do not tell you their location.

So be prepared to compete by solid navigation and dead reckoning - Xplore & Ndure

exactly sudev sir
now its gonna be a trouble for me to drive but it will be good fun
and what about tripy
regards,
hitesh

[sudev]

Use Tripy as a Odogauge and terratrip combined.

[funmaniac]

how do we manage the refueling at the camp site

[sudev]

@funmaniac : Think of a way! Use service backup or bunch your service back up with others. Ndure category should have the range in any case to do the day of just about 400kms.

[jalsa777]

Distinguished BHPian Sudev has already shared a lot of details about the 2012 Desert Storm with us in this thread. I'll just consolidate it a bit and present the main bits in one short post. (For details about the course and it's challenges, the first 3 pages of this thread will be an engaging read)

About the rally:

• The Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm will be flagged off on 20th February, 2012 from New Delhi.
• 2012 marks the 10th year of the event.
• The route passes through the rugged, inhospitable and challenging terrains of Rajasthan and Gujarat.
• There are 2 formats to the event, viz. Xtreme: All out rallying for the pros, Xplore: TSD (Time, Speed, Distance) format.
• A total of over 3500 kms will be covered in a span of six days.
• The rally will start from New Delhi as against Ahmedabad the previous year.
• The night rallying experience is integrated in the first leg itself. Night rallying was introduced last year.
• In its third leg, the Rally would cover treacherous terrains of the Thar Desert in Jaisalmer and drylands of Bhuj.
• Here on, the rally would enter the marshy landscape of the Rann of Kutch in the final lap.
• The rally will culminate on February 25th in Ahmedabad.

Manufacturer Involvement:

• The following manufacturers will be fielding their teams: Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra, Tata Motors, Fiat.
• For the first time, this year’s rally would see introduction of truck category. Four AMW trucks will compete in the ENDURE category.

More details about the 2011 Desert Storm

-

[sudev]

Thanks for summary jalsa777.

Originally Posted by jalsa777

[*]The night rallying experience is integrated in the first leg itself. Night rallying was introduced last year.

Night rallying has been done for last four years.

Manufacturer Involvement:[*]The following manufacturers will be fielding their teams: Maruti Suzuki, Mahindra, Tata Motors, Fiat.

Fiat is not officially entered but AFAIK one of the private entries is supported by them.

The range of cars also includes a WRC specs Subaru and a Toyota Prado.

[jalsa777]

The Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm Rally was flagged off yesterday (20th Feb) from New Delhi

• No. of 4-wheelers : 130+
• No. of 2-wheelers & Quad-bikes: 16
• No. of trucks : 4

[aditya79india]

As the stormers return back, someone please write back about the XUV500's offroad performance.

[nav75]

Any info on which all motorcycles are taking part in the rally?

[lionell]

Any information on where in Ahmedabad is the rally going to finish? I'd like to go see the event.

[jalsa777]

Day 2 Results:

Top 4 in Xtreme category:

1. Suresh Rana & Ashwain Naik
2. Anwar Khan & Shahdab Pervez
3. Aabhishek Mishra & Hanuman Singh Sisodia
4. Lt Col Shakti Bajaj & Major Bharat Bhushan

Top 5 in 2012 MotoQuad category

1. Raj Singh Rathore
2. Rahul Soni
3. Pramod Joshua
4. R. Natraj
5. Virendra R Vaghela

The second day of the Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm saw many up and downs in leadership positions across categories. While Suresh Rana & Ashwin Naik maintained their position, the surprise of the day was the withdrawal of Lt. Col. Subodh Verma & Col. Rajesh Singh whose car suffered a mechanical failure. Even in the Moto Quad category, overnight leader Pramod Joshua dropped to third position and the pole position was grabbed by Raj Singh Rathore.

The second day was tough for the participants as the terrain conditions faced were even more inhospitable than that in the preceding leg. The over 410 km long second leg took off from Bikaner, before hitting the sand dunes at 'Jalwali' on the outskirts and continued till 'Jaimalsar'. The rally now sees a tough fight for second position between Anwar Khan & Shahdab Pervez and 2010 champion Aabhishek Mishra & Hanuman Singh Sisodia.

The second stage of the second leg which started from 'Nokhra' and ended at 'Baap' pushed the drivers and their machines to the maximum under the hot blazing sun. By the time the participants reached Jaisalmer, the destination for today, the day's drive had sapped the energy levels on most rallyists.

The 320 kms long first leg involved driving through the night across a river bed containing loose sand, gravel, boulders, and a tough terrain in general. The leg started off at Sardarshahar at 1230 AM and traversed through Garbdesar, Siwani, Lunkaransarand finally culminating at Bikaner.

On the first day, the rally had 11 cars dropping out.