The rumours are true and we now finally have first proof of CS Santosh’s return to the rallying world. After a three year hiatus caused by his deadly crash at the 2021 Dakar Rally, CS Santosh is back on a motorcycle in a competitive forum and this time around, he’s taking to the dirt astride a very early prototype of the Royal Enfield Himalayan 450 Rally. The rally in question, the 2024 Cuenca Rallye.
After his departure from Hero MotoSports, CS announced his collaboration with Royal Enfield, just around the time of the launch of the Himalayan 450. This made one thing clear — Royal Enfield has serious plans for motorsport with the new ADV and that it is likely considering eventually entering the gruelling Dakar Rally with CS Santosh at the helm. The assumption that Royal Enfield has strong rallying plans were further solidified when Spaniard Salvatore Di Benedetto recently competed in Italy’s Swank Rally Di Sardegna with a very early rally prototype.
Coming back to CS Santosh, he announced his return to motorsport via his Instagram handle with him in his Red Bull Kini riding gear announcing his return to rallying. You can read the contents of the post below.
A quick look at the entry roster and results sheets of the 2024 Cuenca Rallye reveals that CS did indeed take part in the 400km rally held in Spain that saw participants covering a multitude of terrains, mostly at high-speed. 38 participants enrolled in the two-wheeler category in which CS Santosh finished P30 overall. While we aren’t certain, the bike in the background of CS’s Instagram post does suggest that it is afterall, the Himalayan 450 with the rally fender showcased at launch. The results aren’t the best, it does showcase that the rally-Himalayan, though in very early testing stages, is competent enough to finish what is a fairly demanding rally.
Here are some images of CS on the rally prototype at the Cuenca Rally. The images confirm that the bike is running proper long-travel suspension with proper knobby tyres. It also has the rear rally fender that was showcased as a kit for bike. The engine looks fairly stock barring the addition of the Akrapovic exhaust. What the story is on the inside is something we can't comment on just yet.
Information about the bike and CS Santosh’s plans are still scarce, but the coming days and weeks should clear a lot of the doubts that we have. One thing is for certain, we couldn’t be more excited to see CS back on a bike and competing and we cannot wait to see what Royal Enfield has in store for other international rallies and eventually the Dakar Rally.