By Abhishek Purohit
Hyderabad, Aug 8 (IANS): Sandeep Sharma (co-driver Karan Arya) of Team Maruti and TVS’ Arvind K.P. became champions in the four-wheelers (Ultimate Car) and the two-wheelers (Ultimate Bike) categories respectively after the final day of the seventh Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare Rally here.
Defending champion Sandeep, driving a Gypsy, completed Friday’s fifth leg in 19.38 minutes, taking his overall time to four hours, 31 minutes and 31 seconds in the off-road motorsport event that culminated with a prize distribution ceremony on Saturday. Sandeep held the lead from the first day and maintained it throughout the event.
“It is an amazing victory. We faced a lot of challenges. The stages were not at all easy but our vehicle supported us throughout and that’s why we were able to maintain our lead from the first day of the competition,” Sandeep said.
Samrat Yadav (co-driver Gaurav) of PVT team came second as the Gypsy driver finished eight minutes and 28 seconds slower than Delhi’s Sandeep.
Nine-time Raid de Himalaya champion Suresh Rana (co-driver Parminder Thakur) of Team Maruti once again failed to bag his maiden victory in the south Indian rally. The Manali based driver came third with an overall timing of four hours and 41 minutes and 25 seconds.
Den Thimmaiah (co-driver Venu Ramesh), winner of Autocross 2015 held in Bangalore, stood fifth.
After completing the fifth leg near Hampi in Bellari district on Friday, the rallysts also had to cover the 400km distance to reach here. Some of them arrived by midnight.
Only 17 out of 24 teams completed the Ultimate Car race.
In the two-wheelers competition, Arvind, riding on a TVS 450cc, took his overall time tally to three hours, 54 minutes and 51 seconds. R. Nataraj, with an overall time of 4:00:10 hours on a TVS 450cc bike, was second.
PVT’s Abdul Wahid was distant third by finishing in four hours, 14 minutes and five seconds.
In the Endurance Car category, run on Time-Speed-Distance (TSD) format, Ganesh Moorthy (co-driver T. Nagarajan) of Team Maruti grabbed the first place as he incurred a total penalty of six minutes and four seconds.
Defending champion Karthick Maruti (co-driver S. Shanker Anand) was second following a penalty of six minutes and 14 seconds. Asgar Ali (co-driver M. Mustafa) finished third with a total penalty of seven minutes and 45 minutes.
The rally was flagged off in Bengaluru on Sunday. The competititors covered nearly 2,000 kms.