Suresh Rana wins Raid de Himalaya for the 9th time

Yet again showing his dominance of the Raid-de-Himalaya car rally, local boy Suresh Rana won the 15 th edition of the race for a record ninth time in the extreme category, organisers said on Sunday.

The race began in Shimla and ended in Leh, over the weekend.

Sanjay Agarwal came second, followed by Harpreet Bawa.

Jagmeet Gill emerged champion in the adventure trail in the four-wheel and Helmut Frauwallner of Austria won the extreme section in the two wheel category.

Of the 75 cars, bikes and scooters that had entered the extreme category, 29 finished the rally - including all five participants in the newly-created scooters category.

In the adventure trail category, of the 62 cars that were flagged off, 41 made it through the final leg of the rally.

The rally this year saw the extreme and adventure trail categories compete on two different routes.

The rally travelled through some of the highest altitudes in the world. Two of the highest motorable passes - Wari La (5,250 metres) and Khardung La (5,602 metres) and one of the highest human settlements in the world, Komik (4,587 metres).