Gaurav Chiripal wins the 2022 Desert Storm Rally

The 2022 Desert Storm Rally was finally held after a long two-year break due to Covid-19 pandemic. For its 2022 outing, the rally was held in Jaisalmer, with the initial administrative and technical audits taking place on September 20-21. The rally consisted of 3 categories namely ‘Moto’ for bikes, ‘Ndure’ which follows the Time, Speed & Distance (TSD) format for cars and finally the full-fledged endurance ‘Xtreme’ category. Yuva Kumar won in the 'Moto' category with a blistering time of 6hr:10m:34s while Vivek Singh, with a time of 0hr:55m:09s, took the pole in the ‘Ndure’ class. The win for the 'Extreme class' went to Gaurav Chiripal who, along with his co-driver Karan Arya, clocked a time of 9hr:58m:32s.

The 2022 Desert Storm Rally saw participation of over 200 entrants. The rally consisted of some of the hardest terrains and this year the competing grid had to deal with very high temperatures and treacherous sand dunes over 1500 kilometres. As a result, only 40 per cent of the grid completed the race, with the finishers bravely fighting dehydration and exhaustion.

The rally was flagged off by BSF DIG North Aseem Vyasa with a total of 45 motorcycles, 6 Ndure and 23 Xtreme category cars. Over 50 FMSCI-trained marshals equipped with radios and 4x4 vehicles worked day and night to ensure smooth and safe running of stages. 7-time Desert Storm winner Mr Sunny Sidhu also participated to try and conquer the desert once again.

Here are the full category-wise results of the 2022 Desert Storm Rally:

MOTO

Up to 250 CC

1. Yuva Kumar - Hero Motorsports Team Rally (6hr:10m:34s)

2. Adnaan Ahamed (6hr:18m:12s)

3. Arun - Hero Motorsports Team Rally (6hr:38m:20s)

165 CC - 210 CC

1. Sathyaraj Arumugam - Hero Motorsports Team Rally (6hr:18m:12s)

2. Shivam Thakur - Project Sr (7hr:57m:57s)

3. Nitin Singh (8hr:45m:34s)

250 CC - 450 CC

1. Uday Ganguli - Project Sr (7hr:56m:30s)

2. Jatin Jain (8hr:11m:09s)

3. Vignesh Rangaswamy (8hr:27m:24s)

250 CC - 500 CC

1. Ashwini Kataria (111hr:34m:41s)

Above 450 CC

1. Happy Verma (7hr:12m:17s)

NDURE

1. Driver: Vivek Vikram Singh (0hr:55m:09s)

   Co-Driver: Sabatullah Khan/ Kunal Singhania/ SK Aniruddha

2. Driver: Raja Singh (1hr:17m:52s)

   Co-Driver: Shantanu Grover

3. Driver: Lt.Col. A.S. Sidhu - Team Army Adventure (1hr:29m:27s)

   Co-Driver: Hav. O.K. Singh

4. Driver: Parth Bhardwaj (2hr:43m:32s)

   Co-Driver: Shobit Yadav

XTREME

Below 1350 CC (Group T1)

1. Driver: Baljinder Singh Dhillon (11hr:59m:36s)

   Co-Driver: Amber Udasi

2. Driver: Jeevan Singh Dadwal (13hr:05m:03s)

   Co-Driver: M. Chandrashekar

3. Driver: Maj. Arpit Kapila - Team Army Adventure (14hr:09m:49s)

   Co-Driver: Capt. Namrata Below

1350 CC (Group T2)

1. Driver: Deepak Sachdeva (14hr:30m:16s)

   Co-Driver: Rajit Singh

2. Driver: Col. Sanjay Jadon - Team Army Adventure (123hr:43m:15s)

   Co-Driver: Sep. Udit Kumar Singh

1350 CC - 1850 CC

1. Driver: Maj. Udaiveer Chopra - Team Army Adventure (115hr:21m:21s)

   Co-Driver: Capt. Zenith Bohra

2. Driver: Parth Beniwal (125hr:25m:57s)

   Co-Driver: Sagar Mallappa

Over 1850 CC (Group T1)

1. Driver: Gaurav Chiripal (9hr:58m:32s)

   Co-Driver: Karan Arya

Over 1850 CC (Group T2)

1. Driver: Devendra Singh Rathode (121hr:47m:22s)

   Co-Driver: Vinay Bhatnagar