Astride a rally spec of Royal Enfield Himalayan 450, CS Santosh was riding through the dirt on the banks of the Egidillo river in Spain when memories of him flying through the dunes at the Dakar Rally flashed across his mind. “It felt the same like when I did the Dakar for the very first time. I loved it then and I love it now,” says the 41-year-old.

Three years and nine months since suffering a near-fatal crash at the 2021 Dakar, India’s pioneering rallyist, the first Indian to compete and complete the Dakar, made a comeback to the sport at the two-day Rallye TT Cuenca in October.

Santosh is no stranger to terrifying crashes. He is all scars. But none of them derailed his life the way the high-speed accident in 2021 did, leaving him with brain trauma, partial memory loss, double vision, loss of gross motor skills and depression.

Then began a long road to recovery for Santosh to bridge the gaps in his memory and to relearn basics, such as how to coordinate his hands, legs and get them to work together to achieve small tasks. But the off-roader from Bengaluru learnt quickly and was back on a two-wheeler in seven months.

However, he was far from competing. It was his indomitable spirit of returning to the Dakar Rally that made him go through rehabilitation, spend multiple sessions with doctors and several months every year at sports medicine centres across Europe that Santosh made the impossible happen.

“My memory is so affected that I don’t even remember the last time I raced. After the doctors said I could harbour ambitions to go racing again I was finally able to come through the race,” said Santosh, who returned to India this weekend after spending nine months in Spain.

Santosh realised that the short Rallye TT Cuenca was the perfect opportunity to check whether he could do it again.

“All the sentiments were basically addressed. The fact is this race should not have been a big deal at all for who I was. The most important aspect was to see how my body reacted. Earlier, it would not respond to training. But now I started to see that the body was responding to my training,” said Santosh, who competed in seven Dakar rallies from 2015 to 2021 with a best finish of 34th in 2018.

Though Santosh was exhilarated to go rallying again, a few minutes into the race he realised that not having raced for close to four years was taking a toll despite all the training.

“It was incredible how hard it was for me to be that good (back in the day) because for the very first time in my life I wanted to give up in the race. I heard my emotions. I was having conversations with myself during the rally. I couldn’t believe I was thinking about giving up. I thought to myself, I don’t know why I am asking myself this,” added the Bengaluru-born.

Santosh fought his tiring body and whirlpool of emotions to finish the rally after two days and 400kms, finishing 30th out of 38 participants. He wasn’t done yet. The enduro racer decided to push his limits and also took part in Canyamars, a three-hour endurance race, last month to further test himself.

“I was much more comfortable. My body got used to the idea that this is who I am. I was not cognitive in the basic way, but my body remembers. I felt really good. Firstly, I was able to do the whole race. Secondly, I was able set my game and kept getting better and better,” he said.

Unlike back in the day when his rally finish would garner a lot of media attention, Santosh has kept the news of him returning to the dirt track rather quiet, adding that the two short events cannot be termed as a ‘comeback’. “I am doing it for myself. I wanted to keep it under the radar as much as I could,” he said.

After spending a couple of days with his family in Bengaluru, Santosh has headed to BigRock DirtPark, his off-road facility in Kolar where he will be training for his next event — Rally Oasis in Tunisia. The seven-day event in March 2025 is what he intends to call his ‘comeback’ which will also get him on the road to Dakar, the world’s longest, toughest and most dangerous rally.

“Tunisia is a proper, long rally. It will help in fulfilling my ambition of going back to the Dakar,” concluded Santosh.