[dr_anurag]

Looking at these pictures and is that me drooling all over my computer? Bring it on!! Cannot wait for more. BTW those tents at the camp are awesome and is that the moon in the picture?

[harishnayak]

@ Dr Anurag - Those tents were nice and equipped with a dressing table , a center table and an attached bathroom too . Yes , that's a moon in the picture..awesome isn't it?

Continuing with the story

As the convoy passed through the HOPS was when i started to decipher what was taught by Sudev sir in his training the previous day.

While going through the track we came across a Tarmac area which was called the S & G ( stop & go ) & this is when the theory of WAGON R as a Storm official car got clear to me.

There are S&G areas designated in all the tracks that we had in storm which passed through tarmac region and this is where the non 4X4's were parked to do the duty , so what used to happen was that these cars used to travel all the way to the S&G location and park themselves for duty there and then move back to the camp/hotel through the tarmac route once their duty got over so this way few non 4X4 cars got the opportunity to officiate in the Storm.
For a moment this made me think that i should have got my non 4x4 car to officiate

Here is a picture of us arriving at a S&G location ie to TARMAC from OFF ROADING

[harishnayak]

Contd

Now there's a concept of PLACERS in the storm. For every stage there are few PLACER cars assigned to a certain number of cars whose duty is to lead all these cars and place them on their respective location before the rally starts so that they can operate from there , this generally is done by Storm veterans who also have the GPS with them with the TRACK loaded in it.

All these words were sounding Jargons to me till the time i practically saw them being implemented. This mock really helped me understand a lot before our actual duty started.

Finally we went through the track and stopped at a place called Indraprastha for a nice sumptuous Gujarati lunch before proceeding towards our hotel which was about 60 kms away

Going down from S&G to off roading stages











Sudev Sirs car overtaking us to get in front of the convoy







Time for some yummy Gujarati Lunch at a Dhaba


I'm trying to get into the details of the Marshal ling life so that all enthusiasts know what exactly i did/enjoyed and what one can expect if they're planning to be one in future. I'm definitely going to refer to my own thread next year before i go so that i can refresh my memory . Please do let me know if i'm going off track anytime.

[ramkya1]

Harsh,

Here's where I got a chance to be at the S&G and later the TC check at a spot like this with my 2X4. Sudev was a storehousoe of information and so willing to share, he was there the whole morning and I learned a lot about the conducting part. Needs a lot of planning, execution and skills; saw the amount of patience Sudev had to deploy to track every car and ensure all participants and officials got home OK, great work Sudevji!!! The game has evolved a whole lot from my rallying days back in the 80's.

You're doing great, explaint things beautifully. Please go on..

--Ramky
=====

Originally Posted by harishnayak

@ Dr Anurag - ........................... There are S&G areas designated in all the tracks that we had in storm which passed through tarmac region and this is where the non 4X4's were parked to do the duty , so what used to happen was that these cars used to travel all the way to the S&G location and park themselves for duty there and then move back to the camp/hotel through the tarmac route once their duty got over so this way few non 4X4 cars got the opportunity to officiate in the Storm.
For a moment this made me think that i should have got my non 4x4 car to officiate

Here is a picture of us arriving at a S&G location ie to TARMAC from OFF ROADING

[harishnayak]

Finally the evening of action had arrived with the first car to be flagged off at 7:30 pm. There we were at our HOP ( HOP 21 ) placing the flags at their designated positions for the oncoming rally cars to pass.

Sudev sir had told us in the morning that all the rally cars would be pasted with Glow stickers so that the numbers can be identified easily at night.

The official car placed before u broke down but was fixed later


Horizon at the backdrop of our GV at HOP 21





Red blinking light tied with the stick to warn the drivers


Me placing the yellow flag




Ready with the Poncho and the tally sheet














Light batton tied to the stick to show where our car was placed




Could not manage any night shots of the cars as this was the 1st day and i was tensed to ensure that everything went right and finally my dream of seeing the cars at few feet distance came true with Xtremes rolling past at roaring noises and awesome speeds

Had lots of fun using the radio and maintaining the tally sheet

[planet_rocker]

will you explain the following?:

1. Red Blinker (night) - warn drivers - against what?

2. Yellow Flag & Blue Flag

3. Light batton tied to stick - Reflective / battery - for what?

Superb Thread - 5 Stars

[harishnayak]

Originally Posted by planet_rocker

will you explain the following?:

1. Red Blinker (night) - warn drivers - against what?

2. Yellow Flag & Blue Flag

3. Light batton tied to stick - Reflective / battery - for what?

Superb Thread - 5 Stars

Please see my answers below


1. Red Blinker (night) - warn drivers - against what? - Not warn but indicate that they're passing through a HOP

2. Yellow Flag & Blue Flag - Yellow flag is placed 50-100 meters before the HOP to indicate that he's about to arrive a HOP & Blue flag to indicate the HOP position

3. Light batton tied to stick - Reflective / battery - for what? - To show that the official car is parked there so that they should not accidently come and hit them

Superb Thread - 5 Stars - My pleasure

[harishnayak]

finally the day ended at around 12 am and we headed back to the camp all tired and this was the only day when i got the opportunity to have a look at the competitors vehicles as ideally the officials and the competitors were not supposed to be at the same location.

Of the few hours of sleep that i could afford i decided to spend about 45 minutes running through all the cars that were getting serviced after the gruesome run on Day 1.

Managed to click few pictures

[informmaha]

Great Pics harish.. It would really be great to officiate these kinds of events and thanks for sharing these pics to us here.

I have a question here to all in this forum.

1) How can a Desert storm be rated with respect to Raid de Himalaya?

2) On the scale of 10, if Raid is rated as 10, how much would storm be rated? (something more than this rating?)

3) How much of off roading is applicable in this race? (maye be 90%?) This question came up to my mind when i could see all MUV's or SUV's in the pics.

4) In continuation with the previous question do we need to have a 4WD for participating in this?

[Ricky_63]

In today's HT Maruti Suzuki ran a full page advt, showing a Swift Zxi & say it completed the course. How did the Swift with the 2 wheel drive limitation, run the course, which seems like a 4x4 territory mostly ?



Cheers

[wanderernomad]

Harish you ditched me. Now I am down right jealous. But bring it on. Maybe I should also join FB, in case Sudev sir has a seat for the next year.

[harishnayak]

Originally Posted by informmaha

Great Pics harish.. It would really be great to officiate these kinds of events and thanks for sharing these pics to us here.

I have a question here to all in this forum.

1) How can a Desert storm be rated with respect to Raid de Himalaya? - I've never done Raid but it's said to be equally tough

2) On the scale of 10, if Raid is rated as 10, how much would storm be rated? (something more than this rating?) - Someone whos done both would be in a better position to answer this but trust me Storm was VERY tough

3) How much of off roading is applicable in this race? (maye be 90%?) This question came up to my mind when i could see all MUV's or SUV's in the pics. - Xtreme &Ndure need ONLY 4x4 vehicles and motos also do the same track however the Xplore has a different track

4) In continuation with the previous question do we need to have a 4WD for participating in this? For Xtreme & Ndure you need 4WD and for Xploe a 4x2 as basic as Maruti 800 would do.

-

Thanks. Please see my thoughts against your questions

Originally Posted by Ricky_63

In today's HT Maruti Suzuki ran a full page advt, showing a Swift Zxi & say it completed the course. How did the Swift with the 2 wheel drive limitation, run the course, which seems like a 4x4 territory mostly ?



Cheers

As mentioned above Xplore runs with 4x2 cars so it's possible to do Storm in a Swift.

Originally Posted by wanderernomad

Harish you ditched me. Now I am down right jealous. But bring it on. Maybe I should also join FB, in case Sudev sir has a seat for the next year.

Sir Ji Maafi de do but as you've read in my initial post that even i got this opportunity at the 11th hour so really could not help it but one things for sure that i'll keep going back every year , maybe with you next year

[harishnayak]

Leg 2, SS2 & SS3 – The Great Rann

Leg 2 was the longest leg of 300 kms from camp to camp and all categories participating for this dash ie Xtreme , Ndure , Moto & Xplore


Finally it was the time to capture some real action in the daytime as day 1 was the night leg and i could not capture any action , I shot more videos than stills as i thought it would make more sense to keep seeing them again and again in action for years to come.


How i wish i had an SLR because i was using a normal 12mp nikon P&S for this event.


We were placed by Sudev Sir on day 2 and initially had some issues in the radio connectivity which got sorted when we adjusted the cars position to catch the best signal quality possible.


*** Since we did not have enough time to get ready in the morning so the natures calls were answered in the open desert on Day 2 , Last i did this was on a river rafting trip about 8 years back when the infrastructure was not too good ***


After listening to some roaring Xtreme machines and some articulately driven Xplore machines the day finally was about to come to an end when the last Xplore car got lost and it took us about an hour to hunt the car down and take him to the tarmac road.



This is where i got to use the GPS device to go back to the tarmac region , trust me if not read properly then it can lead you in totally wrong direction or constant nagging from the Driver

Finally we settled for the day at hotel Seven Sky in Bhuj which was about 45 Kms from the tarmac and the Tarmac region started right where the tropic of cancer was passing through











Me looking at the wonderful sunset


Jam packed car with all our stuff grasping for some fresh air


Precision required in terms of Zooming in and Zooming out to know your exact location and the road ahead

[sudev]

Originally Posted by informmaha

I have a question here to all in this forum.

1) How can a Desert storm be rated with respect to Raid de Himalaya

Against each other? I would think no comparison. Each offers its own way of making life of competitors miserable. ;-)

2) On the scale of 10, if Raid is rated as 10, how much would storm be rated? (something more than this rating?)

Ask the competitors. I would rate 20 with respect to navigation and stage lengths and at par 10 with respect to driving challenge.

Extreme high temperatures are often the bane of competitors in the Desert and though it offers some pretty low temperatures but these are nothing compared to the Raid. And oxygen starvation is not something that strikes the Stormer's.

3) How much of off roading is applicable in this race? (maye be 90%?) This question came up to my mind when i could see all MUV's or SUV's in the pics.

Xtreme and Ndure needs lots of 4x4 driving. Xplore can be done in a normal off shelf car. This year weather gods were kind to competitors as it had rained a few days prior to the event so sand was "packed". Same trail when dry becomes a sand trap.

4) In continuation with the previous question do we need to have a 4WD for participating in this?

Not for Xplore category. If you have a 4x4 then you get in to Ndure category automatically. For Xtreme a 4wd is (highly) recommended.

[oldmonk]

Great thread, Harish! Thanks for the pics and official's perspective. Many ways you guys had it tougher than the participants..