Way back in 1967 a bunch of petrol heads got together in Baja, Mexico. To race across the desert. Today that event has snowballed into a global phenomenon. With over 250 entries every year. This year, the Thar desert in India played host to a one of kind endurance rally, which – name included –shared a lot in common with the historic rally event. Welcome to India Baja 2016. The rally which was conducted in and around Bikaner in Rajasthan, saw competitors brave the wilderness and the unforgiving desert conditions for 24 hours. In the original format, the Baja is held at a stretch without any brakes, but because the event needed to be run under the FIA regulations blanket, the stages were split into 18 and 6 hours respectively. For a debut event it was heartening to see the number of participants who gathered from around the country. In totality, there were 23 cars and 29 motorcycles that took part. The Rally was divided into a total of three stages which were run 3 times each. The total stage distance amounting to 300km of competitive and 200 of transport bringing the gross rally distance up to about 500 km. Baja India saw competitors fight it out in three categories, 4W, Moto and Quad. The 4W category was further divided into three groups T1, T2 and T3 based on the levels of modification. In the two wheeler category, competition was scarce as Dakar rider CS Santosh took an easy victory heading the time charts throughout the event. Other top contenders including Himalayan Rally veteran Vijay Parmar also started the rally on a KTM, however chose to drop out after a fall in one of the stages.
In the 4W category, it was Suresh Rana and Ashwin Naik who took home the top spot in the T1 category in a Suzuki Vitara. This after another favourite, Sunny Siddhu’s V6 Vitara encountered mechanical issue on the very first stage. In the T2 category it was Niju Padia who took top honours in his almost stock Mitsubishi Pajero Sports, which turned out to be a very capable contender in the sand. However, the fastest man on four wheels Raj Singh Rathore posted the quickest times on four wheels and took home the top spot in the T3 category in his four seat Polaris Scout. In the Quad category, it was Pramod Joshua who took home top honours. The event even saw an all women’s team in contention, which is heartening considering its a debut event. The three member team comprised of Bani Yadav and Ashima Kaushik on the wheel, and was navigated by Ashika Menezes. Unfortunately, they could only complete to stages before a mechanical issue brought their campaign to an end.