High Speed Chase

This year,to keep the spirit and moments of this internationally famous motorsport alive,Maruti Suzuki has decided to go the Dakar rally way and has created a website Marutisuzukimotorsports.in to celebrate the event. Before we turn the bend,the Dakar rally is an iconic annual event and toast of the rallying world. If the Dakar is a must do for off-road enthusiasts around the world,India’s annual event,Maruti Suzuki Raid de Himalaya,guns for the highest altitudes in world motorsport,rallying at 6,000 meters above sea level. This catapults the Raid among the top ten toughest rallies in the world.

Just like Dakar has created countless stories of endurance,bravery and triumph,so has the Raid,and just like Dakar,Maruti Suzuki is now celebrating the Raid nostalgia. With this,it also moves into the celebrations of the 15th year of the Raid. “We stepped into rallies and racing circuit when owning cars was limited to the ultra-rich. Thinking of motorsport at that time was a vision,and we followed our instinct. The masses want to be part of motorsport,especially the youth,who have all the access now and know that it’s not for the elite alone,” says Mayank Pareek,Chief Operating Officer of Maruti Suzuki.

Come October 5 and Marutisuzukimotorsports.in will upload photographs,videos,news reports,stories,champions,adventures — everything to do with the Raid. For the first time,rally enthusiasts will also be able to see the live movement of the Raid de Himalaya. The Raid is a legend,and Manjeev Bhalla,Vice-President,HMA,feels that even finishing it is an achievement. So a website that records,acknowledges,highlights and celebrates these precious moments of guts and glory was important.

From Manali’s Suresh Rana,six-time winner of the Raid; Chandigarh’s Sunny Sidhu,one of the champion marathon cross-country rallyists of the country; Along Aier of Nagaland; Major Amarinder Singh Brar of the Indian Army; Chandigarh’s Harpreet Singh Bawa,the surprise champion; Ashish Moudghil of Kalka,who scored a hatrick as numero uno in the bikers’ category to international biking hero Helmut Frauwallner; Austrian rider Klaudia Honeder,the only woman biker to participate in the tough “Bikes and Motoquads (Xtreme)” category and scores of others,the website will profile them all.

Pareek says that in the coming times,the website will also showcase Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm and the Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare. “Indians are simple people. For them,a hero is a guy who makes a few crores,like in cricket or in KBC. Men and women who reach impossible speed at the highest motorable pass of the world,chasing their passion,are heroes too. It’s time we celebrate their glories in pushing themselves and their vehicles to outrageous limits,” says Parmar.