20th Raid de Himalaya: Arindam Saikia inches closer to the crown

Arindam Saikia, R Nataraj lead Raid de Himalaya in their categories

The day three of the 2oth edition of the Raid de Himalaya saw some striking action. Arindam Saikia of Team Polaris built a substantial 15-minute lead over his competitors on Friday, getting ever so close to taking home the Raid de Himalaya crown.

Chasing the crown behind Arindam was Captain AVS Gill, driving a Grand Vitara but he has a long way to go before he nears the leader. Though, Himashu Arora of Harjee Rallying was just 53 seconds behind Gill’s tail, making a good effort to keep up with the pace of the leaders.

Though, it wasn’t a great day for Team Mahindra as both Amittrajit Ghosh and Phillipos Matthai lost time due to punctures. They were in the lead on day one.

In the Xtreme Moto Category, R Nataraj of Team TVS is leading the raid, with 13.05 minutes over team mate Imran Pasha. SD Vishwas was another 9.15 minutes behind, maintaining his third position.

On the other hand, the Alpine category already has a winner. Abrar bin Ayub of Kashmir took home the trophy after finishing the competition ahead of his closest competitor, Syed Asif Ali of Team TVS. Ayub was riding a Hero Impulse while Ali rode the N-Torq scooter.

Sharing his views on the day three performances, Vijay Parmar, President, Himalayan Motorsports, said, “Arindam’s Polaris ran flawlessly over the snow, allowing him to dominate the day. He has a huge lead now and if his car holds on and he can hang on to the lead he is sure win the 2018 Raid. Nataraj too has been class apart in this Raid. His control over the bike on ice, snow and dirt tracks has been impeccable”.

The participants performed with a constant risk of the raid being called off due to extremely heavy snowfall. In the past there have been such instances where the raid was called off due to extreme climates. The rallyists managed to complete 30km out of the 54km scheduled for day three while the temperatures hovered around -11 degrees Celsius.