Maruti, Anand lead in Dakshin Dare Rally

Erode pair of Karthik Maruti and navigator Sankar Anand took a slender lead over National TSD Rally champions Satish Gopal Krishnan and Savera D'Souza, the husband-wife tandem from Bangalore as just 42 seconds separated the top seven in the verall classification at the end of Leg 1 of the Endurance category in the 5th Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare Rally here Monday.

While Maruti (0:00:12) led Gopalkrishnan (0:00:24) by 12 seconds, in third place was Kolkata pair of Sudip Kumar Ghosh and Arindam Ghosh (0:00:26). Incidentally, the Kolkata duo led the field in the Car OE category.

Maurti and Gopalkrishnan also took the top two spots in the SUV Open category, followed by Mysore's K. Prasad and Nishanth who had a penalty of 54 seconds.

Another Erode combination of Ganesh Moorthy and T. Nagarajan led the field in the Car Open category with a penalty of 29 seconds that also placed them fourth overall, while Raveendra (Velmurugan) were second in the Car Open category with one minute, 47 seconds penalty, well ahead of Ashwin Reddy (Supreeth S) who tallied 10 minutes, 33 seconds.

Trailing Sudhip and Arindam in the Car OE category were Palthuna Raghavendra (Jeevarathinam) with a penalty of four minutes, three seconds, followed by Narayanan Iyer (Shrinivasa) who were docked 19 minutes, 14 seconds.

In all, 41 competitors took the start from Bangalore early Monday morning with 37 completing the first leg and they will head to Ooty for the second leg Tuesday.

Provisional classification (Leg 1 - Endurance):

Overall: Karthik Maruthi / Sankar Anand 1 (0:00:12secs penalty); Satish Gopalkrishnan / Savera D'Souza 2 (0:00:24); Sudip Kumar Ghosh / Arindam Ghosh 3 (0:00:26).

SUV Open: Maruthi / Anand 1; Gopalkrishnan / D'Souza 2; K Prasad / Nishanth 3 (0:00:54).

Car Open: Ganesh Moorthy / T Nagarajan 1 (0:00:29); Raveendra / Velmurugan 2 (0:01min, 47secs); Aswin Reddy / Supreeth S 3 (0:10:33).

Car OE: Sudhip Kumar Ghosh / Arindam Ghosh 1; Palghuna Raghavendra / Jeevarathinam 2 (0:04:03); Narayanan Iyer /Shrinivasan 3 (0:19:14).

Manufacturer (Suzuki Maruti): Jagmeet Gill / Musthafa 1 (0:00:31); Somdeb Chanda / Amit Saha 2 (0:00:38); Deepak Chahal / Amit Kumar Garg 3 (0:20:25).

Corporate: Pavan AK / Sagar 1 (0:06:16); Manjunath GM / Avinash 2 (0:11:05); Philip Baklin / David Sharon 3 (0:13:02).

Corporate Select: Pramod Vig / Abhilash 1 (0:39:58); Ashish Gupta / Ashvind Ratnakaran 2 (1hr, 15mins, 07secs).

Couples: Sreejith PA / Krishnaveni KC 1 (0:11:27). All Ladies: Gauri Gupta / Poulami Dutta 1 (0:56:46)