The Day 3 of the rally or the leg 3 is a pretty long one. It starts in Kaza and ends in Sarchu. This route is very difficult, having 4 different stages – 2 transport and 2 competitive or special stages. The total distance of this leg is a huge 282 km. It starts with a transport stage from Kaza to Losar. This transport stage itself is almost 58 km and has some of the most dangerous roads. The first special stage of the leg or special stage 5 starts at Losar and goes till Gramphoo. This is the reverse route of the special stage 1 of the rally on day 1. The stage passes through Kunzum La, Batal, and Chotta Dhara and Chatru. Kunzum La had a couple of spells of snowfall on day 1 and day 2 making it colder and difficult for the participants to handle. Many of the water crossings started to freeze and ice sheets formed on the roads. Places like Batal, Chotta Dhara and even Chatru which are lower in height, had layers of ice sheets.
The temperatures at these altitudes, more often than not, drop to sub zero levels, making it very difficult for the man and machine to brave the conditions. It is thus, imperative, that the participating machines are in top shape and are replenished with the best consumable fluids possible. In that context, the mention of one of the title sponsors of the rally, Mobil 1 is important. To start off, ExxonMobil, the makers of the Mobil 1 premium lube made it possible for Team Motoroids to cover this rally so exhaustively with their logistical support. Secondly, the support of Mobil 1 to motorsport, a driving scenario which pushes the lube and the machinery surrounding it to the limit, exhibits the confidence the company has in its products. This confidence comes from the brand’s continued support to and its longstanding association with motorsport events, dating all the way back to 1978. A big shoutout to the Mobil 1 folks for giving us the opportunity to bring the coverage of this excruciatingly tough event to our audience.
Also read: MSIL Raid de Himalaya 2016 Rally Report – Day 1
The stages comprising the third day have terrible roads which got worse due to the rally vehicles passing over it a couple of days ago. The terribly bad roads were ploughed by the rally and MT tires making them totally unsuitable for any travel. A major part of the road looked like river beds with occasional sheets of ice. The transport stage from Gramphoo to Patseo is a lengthy 97 kms. The second special stage of the day or special stage 6 of the rally was supposed to start from Patseo and end in Sarchu. This stage is 51 km of winding roads with decent to bad roads. However, this stage was not started due an accident near Chatru in which veteran rider Paul Subhamoy died. He died as a result of a tragic fall near Chatru.
A total of 62 starts were recorded for the day 3. The rally runs in the opposite direction of the day 1. All the teams know this route as well as its destructive capabilities for the participating vehicles. So they took ample precautions to contain the damage which this stage would cause. The day ended abruptly owing to a casualty with 54 contestants completing the stage. These competitors posted final times with 7 retirements and the fatal accident of Paul.
Special stage 5 started at Losar. The stage first climbs up the Kunzum Pass and then descends to Batal. The route then goes ahead through Chotta Dhara and Chatru to culminate at Gramphoo. The roads of Kaza are known to be treacherous in every sense. Adding to the chaotic situation, the roads got even more damaged by the rally vehicles which traversed in the opposite direction just a couple of days earlier. The dust which holds the gravel together came off during the first leg. The drop in temperature made the little water crossings at many places into slippery sheets of ice. At many places, the rally tires dug deep into the road bringing the hard rocks under the layers out. They exposed the tires to stones. All these issues compounded the treacherous situation of the rally. The tires of many vehicles failed on this day again. However, the competitors were prepared for this and many successfully cleared this hurdle. Some even rode with punctured tires just to complete the stage.
In the 2W Xtreme category, Tanveer AW (202) started with a 3 mins and 40 sec lead over Natraj R (201). However Natraj rode brilliantly and cut down the lead by half a minute. This reduced Tanveer’s lead over Natraj to 3 mins and 6 Sec by the end of the stage. Vishwas D (205) also rode very well to post better times than his nearest competitor Umang Saxena (223) riding on a KTM Duke 390, who stood 3rd overall at the end of Day 2. He was able to cut down the lead from almost 40 seconds to 13 seconds. The lead bikes of the TVS were still ahead of the others extending their lead from almost 30 mins to an unassailable 48 mins and 43 Sec.
Also read: Raid de Himalaya 2016 Rally Report – Day 2
The 4W the stage saw a change of tables. On a route which is clearly the territory of the quads; Vitaras and Gypsys posted impressive times. Suresh Rana (01) extended his lead of 7 mins and 13 sec at the end of day 2 to a huge 13 mins and 43 sec lead over Lhakpa Tsering (01). Sandeep Sharma (05) retained his third spot in the gypsy behind Lakhpa. At the end of the stage they were differing by 6 mins and 28 sec. With a blown tire, he managed to keep up his time over the stage. The change of tire ate almost 6 mins of his time. Who knows if there was no tire failure he might have crept up a position. Harpreet Singh Bawa (07) in a grand vitara in the 4th place, extending his lead over Jas Mohan Singh (10) in gypsy. Finally they were having a gap of 6 mins and 20 Seconds.
The competitors then were supposed to complete the transport stage from Gramphoo to Patseo – 97kms. The special stage 6 was to start from Patseo, ending in Sarchu a total of 51.09 km of beautiful and scenic roads. However, the stage and subsequently the extreme version of the rally were called off due the sudden demise of Paul Subhamoy. The rally was declared to be completed at the end of the special stage 5. The positions were deemed as the final positions of the rally. Thus, the 18th Raid de Himalaya rally came to a sad end on the 3rd day.
The final classification at the end of day 3 and the rally are as follows:
4W Extreme
- Rana Suresh / Naik Ashwin – 05:09:20
- Tsering Lhakpa / Ramesh Kumar V Venu – 05:23:03
- Sharma Sandeep / Arya Karan – 05:29:31
Bikes Extreme
- Tanveer Abdul Wahid – 04:47:46
- Natraj R – 04:50:52
- Saxena Umang – 05:39:35
| Position | Driver | Co-Driver | Car | Position | Driver | Co-Driver | Car | |
| Xtreme – T 1 | Adventure ( Car) | |||||||
| 1 | Suresh Rana | Ashwin Niak | Grand Vitara | 1 | Jagmeet Gill | Chandan Sen | Swift | |
| 2 | Sandeep Sharma | Karan Arya | Gypsy | 2 | Gagan Sethi | Gagan Mehta | Swift | |
| 3 | Harpreet Bawa | Parminder Thakur | Grand Vitara | 3 | Vaibhav Poddar | Anshul Dua | Swift | |
| Xtreme – T 2 | Adventure ( SUV) | |||||||
| 1 | Jasmohan Singh | Thakur | Gypsy | 1 | Ajgar Ali | Mohd Mustafa | Vitara Brezza | |
| 2 | Prem Kumar | Mustafa | Gypsy | 2 | Sunder Singh | Daoud Zaman Khan | Vitara Brezza | |
| 3 | Sanjay Razdan | Aukta | Gypsy | 3 | Arjun Singh | Ramesh Nishank | Pajero | |
| Xtreme – T 3 | Moto | |||||||
| 1 | Tsering Lhakpa | V Venu Ramesh | Polaris | 1 | Abdul Wahid | TVS | ||
Following is an image gallery for Raid de Himalaya 2016 Day 3:
