‘Proud to win women’s title in my second competitive rally… finished 12th among 21 riders’

“It’s a proud feeling for me to win the title in the ladies category in my second competitive rally but the takeaway for me from the rally is that I finished 12th among the 21 riders in my category and 30th overall. Competing against much experienced riders, who had experience of participating in many rallies, is something special for me. Even though the ladies category only saw two riders, I believe that ladies should have the choice to compete in the men’s category as well since biking does not see one’s gender. It’s all about the ability to navigate, drive and manage the machine that matters,” said Dixit while speaking with The Indian Express.

While she grew up in Delhi and learnt driving a bike at the age of 12 years, Dixit would always be interested in biking trips across India and in the world. While she worked in Abu Dhabi for more than five years before coming back to India in 2017, she would often rent a bike and travel to places. In the last decade or more, Dixit has travelled to more than 119 countries, including a bike trip to Nepal.
“Even during the trips, which were completely self-funded, I would explore driving rented bikes in off-road conditions. In Nepal, I rented a Yamaha bike and spent more than a week exploring the mountainous terrain,” said Dixit.

It was only in November 2019 that Dixit got to know about the 34th edition of the SJOBA Rally to be held in March 2020. With less than four months to practise, Dixit would spend her time on learning things like navigation, reading the log book, learning the rallying basics as well as to adjust riding in different terrains. The 2020 edition saw her finishing second in the ladies category.

“When some of my friends told me to compete in SJOBA Rally in 2019, I did not have an idea about how rallying works. Normally, one does not associate things like navigation, doing a recce of the race circuit and managing things alone as a female. But as I would start my preparations, learning new things made me believe in my riding abilities,” said Dixit.

Dixit would finish as a runner-up in the ladies category in 2020, which also saw her falling three-four times during the recce as well in the rally. While the pandemic meant that there was no SJOBA rally in 2021, the last two years saw Dixit practising yoga, a thing which she says has helped her mentally. This year, the rallyist suffered only one fall resulting in a penalty and would clock an overall timing of two hours, 28 minutes and 50 seconds to claim the women’s title and a 30th overall finish in the rally.

“During the 2020 SJOBA Rally, maintaining the right speed as well as posture was the challenge. I fell three-four times during the recce. While the conditions were muddy due to rain in the 2020 edition, the second stage saw a lot of riders struggling with the slush. This year, there was no slush on that stretch in the river bed, the small stones made it trickier and challenging. I also spent the last two years doing yoga which helped me mentally as well to gain more strength, which helped me in managing the bike with more expertise,” she said.

While there have been riders like Sarah Kashyap from the region excelling in SJOBA Rally, Dixit believes that more and more females should come up and there is a need to create right kind of training facilities as well as atmosphere. “There has to be more training schools as well as dirt track set ups to offer training to female riders as well as young riders. Rallying should be seen as a career. I remember my office not giving me holidays to compete in the rally in 2020 as they did not see it as a competition and I took a five-day vacation after many discussions to compete. The more the female riders will compete, the more competition will grow,“ said Dixit, who now plans to compete in Rally of Chamba.