Hero MotoSports Team Rally rider CS Santosh made a solid start in the Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm 2018 by closing the day one on 1st position.

Santosh, who opened the first special section, made a blazing run to complete the 86.5 km special in a good time of 1 hour and 10 minutes to finish the Leg 1 of the rally in the lead.

He made good of the new Hero 450 RR bike as well his own experience to fight off the competition from the international and domestic riders.

On the other hand, a malfunctioning headlight ended National women’s racing and rally champion Aishwarya Pissay’s campaign in the Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm here last night as she was docked a penalty of 100 hours, forcing her to retire from the week-long cross-country rally

The leg was split into two special stages of 41 km and 46 km respectively, with first special offering a perfect warm up to the riders on hard pack surface and the second special taking the challenge a notch higher with a mix of hard pack and sandy patches along with a fair bit of night riding thrown in the mix to make it more interesting for the riders.

“Today was the first day of the Desert Storm with two short stages, the second one being a night stage. It was really fast from the word go and I tried to give it my best. Overall I had a pretty good first day with everything working well for me. Looking forward to some good racing over the next few days,” Santosh said.

Bengaluru-based 22-year old Aishwarya, representing TVS Racing team, was among 11 bikers who retired in Leg-1, which comprised two Special Stages totaling about 80 Kms.

“I was running well in the day’s first Stage and was in good rhythm. I even overtook several bikes and was feeling very confident until the problem with the headlight cropped up in the next Stage.

“I was doing a night Stage for the first time ever and it was a whole new experience for me. The headlight proved to be an issue and suddenly, it stopped working. I was caught in pitch darkness, but I followed the tail-lights of other bikes for a while. I then got stuck going up a sand dune and was left all alone.

“I managed to contact the officials who arrived after about an hour, picked me up and I got back to Bikaner safely.  In view of the stoppage, I was handed a penalty of 100 hours and we decided against taking a re-start,” said Aishwarya.

The second leg will task the riders with 496 km run stage comprising of 136 kms of special stages, all in desert riding conditions, from Bikaner to Jaisalmer.