Desert Storm to zoom off Saturday

The famous names of Indian motorsport will race for the top spot at the 12th Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm which zooms off from New Delhi Saturday.

Asia Pacific Rally Championship (APRC) winner Gaurav Gill will take on defending champion Suresh Rana which will end at Jaipur March 1. The rally will traverse a gruelling 2,200 km through the rough outback of Sardarshahar, Bikaner and Jaisalmer to finally end at Jaipur.

"It is a matter of pride for us that about 265 champion rallyists from the country and abroad will compete in the event. The Desert Storm has graduated from a single-category event in 2003 to an event running in four categories since 2011 -- Xtreme, Moto, Ndure and Xplore," said Maruti Suzuki vice president (marketing) Manohar Bhat.

Rana of Team Maruti has beaten Gill twice earlier, in 2012 and 2013. Both rallyists are competing in Storm Xtreme which is about driving high speed over the harsh, treacherous terrain of the Thar desert. Rana has won the event thrice (2009, 2012, 2013) and is also a nine-time winner of the iconic Raid De Himalaya. In both 2012 and 2013, Gill had to bow out of the Desert Storm in the first stage itself.

Spicing up the competition is 2001, 2002 and 2004 APRC champion Karamjit Singh of Malaysia who will drive for Team Maruti.

The other major competitors in the Xtreme category (4X4) are Amanpreet Ahluwalia, Lohit Urs, Sunny Sidhu, Sandeep Sharma, Harpreet Bawa, Major Amarinder Singh Brar, Shakti Bajaj, Sarika Sehrawat, Amartej Pal Buwal and Gaurav Chiripal.

The 2014 edition will have 55 teams in Rally Xtreme (4X4) and 35 teams in Rally Moto (Motorcycles). These two categories are based solely on fastest timings. In addition, there will be 35 teams in Rally Ndure and 25 in Rally Xplore. Both these categories follow the Time-Speed-Distance format.

Rally Ndure is the more challenging category since it follows the Xtreme route. The Xtreme (4-wheelers), Endure and Xplore teams comprise two rallyists each -- the driver and the navigator.