Close contest for top honours in Uttarakhand Rally

Only six seconds separated the top three in Overall classification as Rajesh Chalana and Jagmeet Gill were tied with a penalty of 30 seconds, ahead of 2012 National TSD champions Satish Gopalkrishnan (co-driver Savera D'Souza) from Bangalore, at the end of second day in the Uttarakhand Adventure Car Rally that reached Garjiya for a night halt Monday.

Chalana is competing in the cars category, while Gill and Gopalkrishnan are in the SUV class, and are involved in a three-way battle for the Overall title.

The rally will have its night halt at Garjiya, on the periphery of the Jim Corbett National Park after starting from the ski resort in Auli.

The other competitors who are scoring high in the SUV category include Vishnu Singh (navigator Adithya Anthony) and Sachin Singh (Chandrashekhar). In the cars category, Chalana is followed by Haldia's Ajgar Ali (M Mustafa).

There are a total of 31 teams in the rally which will end here Tuesday after covering nearly 850 km over three days.

Gill said he was hoping to strengthen his lead on Day Three of the rally. "When you are competing with the best rallyists in the country, a close contest is expected. I am waiting to see how the results of the second day shape up," he said.

On Day 3, the rally will go across some of the most picturesque roads in the state via Nainidhada and Kotdwar to culminate at Paryatan Bhawan, Dehradun.

The Uttarakhand Adventure Car Rally is authorised by the Federation of Motorsport Clubs of India (FMSCI) and is run on the TSD (Time-Speed-Distance) format.