The 13th Raid-de-Himalayas concluded its journey today. The rally covered a distance of 2000 kms over six days encompassing six legs which traversed through the most undulating terrains of the mighty Western Himalayas. The winners were awarded amidst an enthusiastic crowd of notable dignitaries and motorsport enthusiasts. Mr Omar Abdullah, Honourable chief minister, Jammu and Kashmir and senior members from Maruti Suzuki India Limited felicitated the winning teams.
The high point of this edition of Maruti Suzuki Raid de Himalaya 2011 was customization of rally route in line with experience and expectations of the motorsports enthusiasts. For the first time, the Maruti Suzuki Raid-de-Himalaya operated on two separate routes to engage with two different types of motorsports enthusiasts.
This year, the X-treme and Adventure category competed on two separate treacherous and challenging routes initially, but met at Rangdum, valley situated 3,657 m (11,998 ft) above the sea level, in the isolated Suru valley in Ladakh region. After Rangdum the two category participants continued together via Penzi-La till the final stop at Srinagar, J&K. The route for the X-treme Category started off from Shimla on Oct 11th and traversed the districts of Manali and Kullu to halt at Manali. From Manali, the motorists proceeded through the mighty Rohtang Pass to halt at Leh on October 12. Next day, the raid passed through Leh including the 18,300-foot Khardung-La, the highest Motorable road in the world .The motorcyclists too followed this tough Alpine route and concluded their journey at Leh.
The route for the Adventure Trial also started from Shimla and then passed through Mandi, Kullu, Kangra, Chamba, and entered Jammu and Kashmir through Bhaderwah, Kishtwar, Kokernag and Ananatnag. From here it went to Kargil, Rangdum, Dras, Kargil, Zozi-La and culminated in Srinagar on October 16. This year the rally covered a distance of 2000 kms in 6 legs spread over 6 days which make its participants undertake a treacherous route through various crests & troughs embedded in the great western Himalayan ranges.
Final Results
X-treme (4WD – Modified/T1): 1) Suresh Rana and Ashwin Naik in Maruti Suzuki Gypsy – 12.41.22 hrs, 2) Harpreet Singh Bawa/Virendra Kashyap in Maruti Suzuki Gypsy 12.47.44 hrs. 3) Lt. Col Shakti Bajaj/Maj BN in Prakash Maruti Suzuki Gypsy - 12.48.20 hrs.
X-treme (4WD – Stock/T2): 1) Karan Jung/Vikram Sharma in Maruti Suzuki Gypsy – 13.07.59 hrs, 2) Lt. Col Subodh Verma/Maj Kushalendra in Maruti Suzuki Gypsy 13.25.36 hrs. 3) Parvinder Singh/ Paritosh Kohak in Maruti Suzuki Gypsy – 13.45.38 hrs.
X-treme (Bikes): 1) Helmut Frauwallner – 10.28.33 hrs. 2) Ashish Moudgill - 10.39.47 hrs 3) Lehner Gottfried – 11.50.59 hrs
Adventure Trial (SUV): 1) Umesh Raheja/Yogesh Raheja in Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara – 5.03 min, 2) Amol Satoskar/M K Mutafa – 13.49 min, 3) Girija Shankar Joshy/Chandra Mouli – 16.00 min
Adventure Trial (Car - Experts): 1) Pratap Thakur/Amit Gosain in Maruti Suzuki SX4 – 27.39 min 2) Rajesh Chalana/ Rakesh Diwan in Maruti Suzuki SX4 – 35.47 min
