The Red Bull Ace of Dirt, a motorcycle event that combines different off-road disciplines such as enduro, motocross and dirt-track, will be held at the Big Rock Dirtpark in Kolar, 60kms off Bengaluru, on Thursday. The winner will get an opportunity to train with C.S. Santosh, India’s first-ever Dakar rally participant, and the face of the event.
The 1.2km course will feature qualifying heats where 32 Indian riders will be divided into eight groups of four. The top two from each group will go on to the next stage where they will again compete in groups of four. The semifinal stage will feature two groups of four before a final round with four riders will decide the sole winner.
The added challenge from the semifinal onwards will be that the competitors will ride identical Hero Xpulse bikes that will eliminate any advantage or disadvantage their own machines may have had in the initial rounds.
“Most of the riders in rally sports come from a single discipline of racing. So this event helps build an overall rider,” said Santosh on the eve of the race. “Most drivers here have never seen an obstacle in their lives. Whether it is a bridge, a gravity cavity, sand, water…. all of this is new because they just race in closed circut format.”
“But here you don’t know what is going to happen. So you have to be smart to understand the limitations of your motorcycle and ensure that it is good enough to finish.”
