“After my crash, I didn’t remember two-three years of my life; I couldn’t even balance. But I was thinking about the Dakar [Rally] all the time.”
A lot has changed for CS Santosh since his near-fatal crash in the 2021 Dakar Rally, which left him with some significant neurological damage. But what didn’t change was his love for motorcycling and that hunger to conquer Dakar once again. Now, over three years after the incident, he’s returned to competitive rallying. It was a monumental first step for the Indian, not just because of all the work he had to put in to reach this stage but also because it was his very first rally outing with Royal Enfield.
First steps back to rallying
The 2021 Dakar Rally saw Santosh come back from the brink of death – quite literally. In the months since, he’s had to work on regaining his motor functions and memory. While racing had to take a back seat as he focused on recovery, he explored other sides of motorsport as the owner of the Indian Supercross Racing League-winning team, BigRock Motorsports.
And although he was back on a bike just eight months after his crash, there was still a long road ahead before he could even consider returning to rallying. “You look like a normal guy, but the thing is that you’ve hurt your CPU,” says Santosh.
As part of his recovery journey, Santosh has made several visits to the Red Bull Athlete Performance Centre in Austria and even worked with Michael Schumacher and Marc Marquez’s doctors. He finally feels ready to take those first steps back into the world of rallying.
The event picked for his rally return was the relatively unknown Rallye TT Cuenca – a 400km Baja format rally in Spain spanning just two days. “This is the format that we chose to compete in because it’s the smallest format in this type of cross-country rally,” explains Santosh. “I needed to first validate if I could have an aspiration for the Dakar. And it’s pretty much under the radar, so it was just me and my motorcycle.”
Of course, a few basic modifications were made to the Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 to make it rally-ready – mainly a different suspension, rally-spec tyres, a full-system Akrapovic exhaust, and the addition of the navigation tower. “It wasn’t a rally bike at all. But this is a motorcycle that you can buy out of the showroom and take off-road, and that’s what we did,” says Santosh. “So, it’s not that I’m going to go and win races on this bike, but it enables me to be who I am and at a cost that I can afford. A rally bike costs [anywhere near] 30,000 euros, so it’s an expensive motorcycle, and this, you can buy out of the showroom.”
A total of 38 racers competed in the bikes category, and Santosh ended up finishing 30th overall. It’s worth noting that this was simply a shakedown test, and the project is still in its infancy. So, while on paper, this finishing position might not seem like the most impressive, the outing achieved its main goals.
“With the bike, I’m glad that we completed this first race. That was beautiful,” says Santosh. “In terms of me, I was a little surprised that it took everything from me to compete; I was exhausted. I’m the guy that races at the Dakar, and this is like a really short format of racing, and it took its toll on my body. [But] yeah, I know what I need to work on now. You can train all you want, but unless you race, you would never know what is required.”
Working with Royal Enfield
Back in 2015, Santosh became the first Indian to participate in the Dakar Rally, and over the years, he played a key role in Hero MotoSports’ Dakar programme. However, after six years of racing together, this partnership concluded in late 2022.
Santosh remains all praise for his former team but admits that after his crash, they envisioned having him on board occupying a different role. “They were like my family; it was hard for me to leave them. [But] I’m the guy who wants to compete and be out there, and I still have to fulfil my own potential, whatever that might be,” he adds.
Since then, he’s been working with Royal Enfield. Few know this, but his connection with the manufacturer goes back several years, when he tested the first Himalayan back in 2012-2013. Santosh adds that his partnership with Royal Enfield isn’t just limited to racing, and, in fact, this is one of the major reasons why he wanted to team up with the brand.
“Royal Enfield was the first partnership we had at BigRock Dirt Park (the off-road motorcycling training facility Santosh set up near Bengaluru) with Slide School. They saw the relevance in terms of the expertise that we bring in, and they also spent a lot of time testing with us. So, it’s not just me going out there and racing motorcycles. It’s pretty much why I brought Royal Enfield on board in this manner for this race in Cuenca because it’s not just me but even my people testing and collaborating with them.”
Dakar Rally goals
Santosh says he’ll look at competing in other Baja rallies in the near future. But this is just the start, and he has his target locked on Dakar, albeit with a new goal. “I remember bits and pieces of wanting to be a top-20 rider, and I think I was in the position to do it, but life had other plans as such. Competitively, I don’t think I am that guy anymore. That guy died with my crash.”
Instead, Santosh wants to explore the very roots of the Dakar Rally, referring to the early days in the ’70s and ’80s when amateur racers would compete on production bikes, equipping them as they saw fit to tackle some of the harshest conditions in the world. “Now it [the Dakar Rally] is competitive with prototype motorcycles and all that kind of stuff. But this is me going back to the roots – having a motorcycle that I can buy out of a showroom at a price I can afford and then having the aspiration to do the Dakar in this manner,” he says.
“I’m just going to go out there and endorse the adventure aspect of motorcycling, and that’s beautiful in its own sense,” he adds.
Royal Enfield hasn’t officially confirmed any plans to race at Dakar, but the new Rally 3 class – for production enduro machines adapted for rally use – certainly gives them the perfect opportunity to explore this approach that Santosh outlined.
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