[R.I.P]

Originally Posted by Passiontodrive

A beautiful video at Raid Website: To feel the terrain

YouTube - Ice Road Truckers: Deadliest Roads Sneak Peek

Oh my god.....
I passed these guys last year on rohtang pass

[evo]

Guess who`s an official/volunteer for this years raid !

[tantragna]

Guys, me along with my friend(s) are planning to go for this years event and spectate along the entire rally.

Can anyone give us some good pointers/guidance to do the same. Initially thought of taking train from bangalore to delhi along with our bikes and ride along. Since I enquired some of my friends who have previously done the event, they suggest to take a car which is more suitable to do it.

On a time a wild idea also struck my mind to drive my car all the way along from bangalore and back, but don't know how feasible it is! But am very comfortable as I used to do the marathon driving during n'number of trips which vary of atleast 300kms with all the sight seeing during a day & continuous 500kms of driving in night while on way back!

Also what and all is necessary to carry along if driving or riding apart from warm clothes, basic ration, swissnifes, sleeping bag, etc..

Edit: BTW my car is maruti zen 97 model running on petrol and lpg. Also, what is the route this time, absolutely have no idea on them! Planning to take the android GPS phone, with compass and maps. But strongly have weird feeling of no such maps available for the route!

[sudev]

Interesting idea. World over that's what people do. Go and spectate and also do a couple of days of holiday/camping on the side.

I'd say if you can get a Alto or SX4 you'd be better off. Mind you Zen can do the route but the angle of approach (nose over hand) is problem.

Since there are very few roads in that area the maps can be got from the net and are good enough.

Read the OFFICIAL HIMALAYAN MOTORSPORT WEBSITE web site carefully and you can get idea of what to do and carry.

[Zzapper]

The dates and route are finally out on the website. H* I* M* A* L* A* Y* A* N**** M* O* T* O* R* S* P* O* R* T

For the X-Treme:

9th October - 10th October 2011

SHIMLA

Administrative and Technical Scrutiny spread over 2 days to ensure Safety norms are adhered to as per the FiA, FIM and Federation regulations.

A Ceremonial Start is scheduled for the afternoon of the 10th October 2011, along with Drivers Briefing and the Press Meet.

11th October 2011 - Cliffhanger

Three special stages totalling about 75 kms of twisty fast mountain road will form the main course for the first day. Jalori pass will be absent for the first time in 13 years. The Raid will cross from Simla to Manali over a new pass- Chach Galu !

All stages have perilous cliffhangers. Staying on the road is the only priority.

Reconnaissance of the routes a must for Day 1.

12th October 2011 - Marathon

A Rally Raid is a marathon endurance event and the stages today will provide enough opportunity to test the long distance legs of your machine.

Manali to Leh will be done in a single day. 500 kms of mountain road will see 160 kms of rallying stages. Both, nearly all tarmac, the day's menu promises fast and technical adversity in plenty.

13th October 2011 - Sprint

The start on Day 3 will be easy and a short transport to Sakti will see the start of the sprint day. Over the Wari La and down into Nubra on a single 115 kms stage and then over the Khardung La and back to Leh for the night.

Two climbs, one up Wari la and the other up Khardung La, will tax your lungs and an unending descent into Nubra your brakes!

Though the prettiest pass in the region you will not see any of the beauty unless you break down!

Then there will be ice. Deceptive ice.

And the highest motorable road in the world to conquer.

14th October 2011 - Spaghetti

Day4 and the most winding routes down to Kargil from Leh. The spaghetti roads over the Jalebi Mor, Fotu La and Namika La will see tarmac driving at its best. Quick corners and no respite from the climbing and dropping natural roaller coaster into Wakha will see a first stage of to 83 kms.

Then a left into the Suru and Zanskar valleys for a short 40 kms dirt dash to Rangdum Camp.

A bitterly cold night awaits both drivers and service crew.

A thin alpine tent being the only refuge against the elements, minus 20 at least, will beg the question-"What the eff am I doing here " ?

15th October 2011 - Endurance

Day 5 and two extremely rough stages await. 186 kms out of the total 220 kms for the day will come at a time when the cars and crew are almost demolished. An extremely difficult night before will see the dishevelled crew and service patching together the machine for another trying day.

This promises to be the toughest day yet.

Survive it.

16th October 2011 - Nirvana

Day 6 will see a small early morning dash to Kargil and then a long transport into Srinagar. The lakes, abounding with lotus flowers and shikaras await as do wazwan feasts.

But to enjoy all these you would have to finish first.

17th October 2011-

Prize Distribution Ceremony

[evo]

Rotten luck as yet. After 40 KM of driving down the agra delhi road, the Check Engine light came on again and the car went into limp mode.Frenetic calls to Team BHP stalwarts like ADC and TSK done, we retraced our steps back to the service centre !Frustrati.The issue is unresolved and the first line has been sorted. If it was just the sensor acting up then it would be an easy fix. Since the dealer had already replaced that yesterday, it points to more sinister things.The trip (atleast in this car) is perilously close to being canned. Its a bad feeling.

Any suggestions ?

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by evo

Rotten luck as yet. After 40 KM of driving down the agra delhi road, the Check Engine light came on again and the car went into limp mode.Frenetic calls to Team BHP stalwarts like ADC and TSK done, we retraced our steps back to the service centre !Frustrati.The issue is unresolved and the first line has been sorted. If it was just the sensor acting up then it would be an easy fix. Since the dealer had already replaced that yesterday, it points to more sinister things.The trip (atleast in this car) is perilously close to being canned. Its a bad feeling.

Any suggestions ?

Try and get to delhi if possible. Today being a saturday, you have just one day at your disposal.
If you reach by 3pm, then head to autolinks Gurgaon, otherwise head to Oberoi cars Noida.
Give a call to SS-Traveller, he will give you the right directions for Autolinks.

[Turbanator]

Is it possible to follow the cars ? maybe couple of KMs back - or they get the roads closed .

[harishnayak]

heard that 2 cars did not pass the scrutiny. Any updates on that?

Source - A friend who dropped out of the raid due to some financial constraint.

[sudev]

No news or updates? Even the web site does not show results beyond day one.

[saintsinner]

Latest Results

2W EXTREME
No. Cat. Name Time
204 A H. FRAUWALLNER 7:07:43
201 A A.S. MOUDHGIL 7:20:03
207 A S. BABU 8:01:35
206 A L. GOTTFRIED 8:07:57
210 A L. JOHANN 8:16:37
214 A Y. LAKHANI 8:35:31
203 C M.M.C. GANAPATHY 9:00:29
220 C NATRAJ R. 9:05:21
205 A S. KITZMUELLER 9:51:39
215 C NITINJIT .S. BAWA 10:13:23
202 A H. SACHS 10:44:26
221 A VIVEK SHARMA 10:46:47


4W EXTREME
No. Cat. Name Time
1 T1 S. RANA / A. NAIK 8:41:14
9 T1 S. BAJAJ / B.N PRAKASH 8:46:30
4 T1 H.S BAWA / V. KASHYAP 8:50:19
6 T1 S. PANDE / D. SAHI 8:51:40
8 T1 A. AHLUWALIA / G.VARGHESE 8:51:41
10 T2 K. JUNG / VIKRAM 8:52:07
15 T1 HARKARN / G. MAAN 8:56:21
3 T1 ALONG AIER / SHOHE 9:04:43
26 T2 ASHISH /ANIL 9:04:48
32 T1 RAI V. SINGH / S.S BAHIA 9:06:51
14 T1 H.S SIDHU / S. LADE 9:08:31
5 T1 A.S BRAR / N. KUMAR 9:08:48
18 T2 S. VERMA / KAUSHALENDRA 9:10:37
35 T2 P. SINGH / P. KOHAK 9:21:27
21 T2 RAI / KOUNDALKAR 9:35:11
24 T2 D.JANGRA/ S.JOSHUA 9:37:06
7 T2 R. MIGLANI / M. SHADIJA 9:43:51
36 T2 R. SINGH / D. R. LOHAMOR 9:44:50
33 T1 R. BAINS / S. MEHDIRATTA 9:45:35
38 T1 S. MANSUKHANI/PD. DANIEL 9:50:33
34 T1 S. SINGH / M.S. ALI 9:58:29
17 T1 A. SHARMA / G. SINGH 9:58:31
13 T2 SHUCHI THAKUR / S. JOSHI 10:05:42
20 T2 ABROL / AJAY PARTAP 10:16:16
44 T2 S. JAIN / D. SAWANT 10:26:15
27 T2 CHOUDHARY / KAPUR 10:33:42

[amitku]

Strangely no updates for Adventure (TSD) category after Leg 1.
This is a regular practice with most race organisers. All attention, media coverage and focus goes towards the Xtreme cars.

Few points for organisers to think of:
1. TSD participants PAY more (for Raid Adventure TSD Entry Fee was much higher than Xtreme), so the Rally organisers get more moolah from TSD.
2. No. of participants in Adventure are higher (in the Raid 76 Adventure compared to 44 for Xtreme)
3. TSD Rally gets in the newbies to Rallying, who later promote to Endurance/Xtreme.
4. TSD is more skill thing and draws "intellectual" talent.

I participated in DS11 in TSD, finished 9th and were the only participants who competed without a GPS device..!! Purely on TSD Skills learned from Sudev Sir. However we were not covered anywhere, even our car didn't feature in any official/unofficial photos/coverage.
IMHO Rally organisers should start better coverage of TSD participants, give them their due, and stop the step-motherly treatment.

[oldmonk]

Originally Posted by Abbas

.

Originally Posted by sudev

.

Originally Posted by amitku

.

From what I saw, Raid organizers don't take TSD as a sport seriously.

1) Organizers assume that anyone who does 'Adventure Trial' is doing so to prepare for next year's Extreme. COC said as much during the driver's briefing - "I hope atleast 10% of you graduate to Extreme next year".

What if I don't want to 'graduate'? And want to continue doing TSDs? I'd find driving a Gypsy at 35kmph Extreme-ly boring!


2) And they do this, preparing us for Extreme, by giving unattainable speeds in very rough terrain. On the 3rd day, on a particular stage, at least 10 cars broke. The terrain was so bad that whatever one did, one wouldn't be on time. The best penalty of 2 minutes was given by an ex-INRC driver. I was 8 minutes late, my second worst TC of the rally.

What's the point of doing this? To tell us that the Raid is tough? We get it!


3) The most depressing part - all TCs were predictable. Not kidding. Every single one. Almost every TC was placed exactly at a road book instruction. Obviously most other experienced competitors also found it to be the same. I would see cars speeding to a junction, sight the TC, and then crawl (more than a minute to do less than 100m!) to the TC to be on time. While other TSD events are talking about GPS data loggers to track cars and check if they are on time all the time, allowing cars to crawl and placing TCs at instructions, is a pretty archaic way of doing things.

Obviously, it is hard to place marshals at TCs in a long event like Raid. Organizers take the easy way out by giving the marshals GPS way points and asking them to go stand there. How about a little ingenuity? How about asking some of these marshals to stand 5-10 km off a way point rather than exactly there? Why does a TC have to reveal his/her odo reading to competitors? Why do marshals allow cars to crawl?


4) Odo readings in the road book were off target many times. There were instances when they were more than 1/2 a km off. While I understand that "GPS signal is weak in the mountains" etc., this really is a result of shoddy route setting.


5) The TSD road book read like the Extreme road book. Most instructions, especially when we shared the Extreme route, were 'dips', 'more dips', 'jumps', 'crests' etc. Why would TSD cars need so many cautions? We want instructions to tell us where we are - buildings, speed breakers, bridges, tracks joining etc.


There are so many ways to make TSDs challenging and interesting, and to make even experienced competitors give huge penalties. Raid has attempted only one of them, which is to give very high speeds on rough terrain, making TSD exactly like Extreme.


Ok, enough cribbing. Some (actually, one) good points: The results tabulation process was the fastest and best I've ever seen. Every navigator is given a timing chip which the marshal syncs with his clock (which runs on GPS time) at every TC. At the end of the leg, when this chip is synced with the computer, penalties are instantly calculated. Amazing.


I want to go back to Raid and do TSD again. But I really hope organizers acknowledge the fact that there are TSD enthusiasts who come to participate because they love the sport (and not because they are checking out the terrain for next year's Extreme!), and make the event stimulating for them.

[sudev]

I know the sentiment OldMonk and that is why TSD has to be run as a mind game and not merely a point A to point B drive!!

No one else posting any travelogues/accounts of DS11 participation??

[oldmonk]

Just came back from Mughal (also organized by HMA, organizers of Raid) and wanted to do a follow up on my review of last year's Raid:

Originally Posted by oldmonk

From what I saw, Raid organizers don't take TSD as a sport seriously.

This attitude has changed, HMA did put a lot of thought into TSD this time. There were sections where both driver and navigator were challenged. Passage controls, loops etc. They even had a very unexpected (albeit small) loop on a mountain road.

Originally Posted by oldmonk

And they do this, preparing us for Extreme, by giving unattainable speeds in very rough terrain.

May be the participants got lucky here, as most of the terrain was 'ok'. Climb to Sinthan pass was the worst of the lot, but speeds here were not high for the type of terrain.

Originally Posted by oldmonk

Odo readings in the road book were off target many times.

Odo readings were accurate. A bulletin even told us instructions where GPS signal would be lost. This shows that the organizers had done the route multiple times verifying the road book.

Originally Posted by oldmonk

all TCs were predictable ... How about a little ingenuity? How about asking some of these marshals to stand 5-10 km off a way point rather than exactly there?

This was the biggest change. Unlike raid, where all TCs were next to road book instructions, this time the organizers placed TCs far away from instructions. Far enough (usually more than 1.5km) that the navigator had to get back into her 100m-200m rhythm to zero a TC. And this is not easy, especially when you are driving for many hours in between TCs.

Hope HMA implements these changes in the Raid too!