Aboard a rally-ready Royal Enfield Himalayan 450, CS Santosh was tearing through the dirt along the Egidillo river in Spain when memories of racing through the dunes at the Dakar Rally came rushing back. “It felt just like my first time at Dakar. I loved it back then, and I still love it now,” the 41-year-old shared.

It's been three years and nine months since he faced a life-threatening crash at the 2021 Dakar. As India’s trailblazing rally racer and the first Indian to both compete in and finish the Dakar, he made his return to the sport at the two-day Rallye TT Cuenca in October.

Santosh knows all about scary crashes; he's got the scars to prove it. But none have impacted him quite like the high-speed accident in 2021, which left him with brain injuries, partial memory loss, double vision, motor skill issues, and depression.

Santosh's journey to recovery was a tough one, as he had to fill in the blanks in his memory and relearn fundamental skills, like getting his hands and legs to work in sync for simple tasks. But this off-roader from Bengaluru picked things up quickly and was back on a bike in just seven months.

Still, he wasn't ready to race just yet. It was his unbreakable determination to return to the Dakar Rally that pushed him through rehab, countless doctor visits, and months spent at sports medicine facilities all over Europe, making what seemed impossible a reality.

My memory's so shot that I can't even recall the last time I hit the track. But after the doctors told me I could dream about racing again, I finally managed to get back out there," Santosh shared, just back in India after nine months in Spain.

He figured the short Rallye TT Cuenca would be the ideal chance to see if he could still do it.

All the feelings were pretty much covered. Honestly, this race shouldn’t have been such a big deal for me. What really mattered was how my body would handle it. In the past, it didn’t really react to my training, but now I was finally seeing some progress,” Santosh shared, who took part in seven Dakar rallies between 2015 and 2021, achieving his best finish of 34th in 2018.

Even though Santosh was super excited to be back in the rally scene, just a few minutes into the race, he realized that not having raced for nearly four years was affecting him, despite all the training he had done.

It was wild how tough it was for me to perform at that level back then because, for the first time ever, I seriously considered quitting the race. I was in tune with my feelings and having inner dialogues during the rally. I couldn't believe I was even thinking about throwing in the towel. I kept wondering why I was questioning myself, said the guy from Bengaluru.

Santosh battled through his exhausted body and a storm of emotions to complete the rally after two days and 400 kilometers, finishing 30th out of 38 racers. But he wasn’t finished yet. The enduro racer decided to challenge himself even more by entering Canyamars, a three-hour endurance race, last month to really push his limits.

I felt way more at ease. My body finally accepted that this is who I am. I wasn’t thinking about it in a basic way, but my body definitely remembers. I felt really great. First off, I managed to complete the entire race. Plus, I was able to step up my game and kept improving, he shared.

Unlike in the past when finishing a rally would attract tons of media buzz, Santosh has kept his return to the dirt track pretty low-key, mentioning that the two short events don’t really count as a ‘comeback.’ “I’m doing this for myself. I wanted to keep it as under the radar as possible,” he explained.

After hanging out with his family in Bengaluru for a few days, Santosh is now off to BigRock DirtPark, his off-road training spot in Kolar. He’s gearing up for his next big event — Rally Oasis in Tunisia. This seven-day rally happening in March 2025 is what he’s calling his ‘comeback’ and is a crucial step towards the Dakar, known as the longest, toughest, and most dangerous rally in the world.

“Tunisia is a real, long rally. It’s a key part of my goal to get back to the Dakar,” Santosh said.

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