Sandeep, Rana fight back in Dakshin Dare rally

Sandeep Sharma and Suresh Rana scripted a gallant fightback for Team Maruti Suzuki in the 10th edition of the Dakshin Dare, taking the fourth and sixth positions respectively after Day 2 here on Tuesday evening.

Suzuki's Sandeep, and his co-driver Anmol Rampal, were at their aggressive best on the day, clocking 58.09 minutes in three Special Stages and one Super Special Stage for a cumulative timing of 03:35:05 over the first two days.

His teammate, 10-time Raid de Himalaya champion Suresh (with Chirag Thakur), also fought back bravely to climb from the 11th position to take the sixth position.

Suresh, who fell behind after enduring a punctured tyre on the opening day, caught up on lost time by going flat out and even posting the day's third best timing.

"I did not have the best of starts to the rally. But I am glad that I could get back into the fray. Our team (Maruti Suzuki) has its hopes pinned on me and I am quite sure that I will keep improving and fight till the end to defend my title," Suresh said.

Three-time APRC champion Gaurav Gill continued to hold on to the top position on the leaderboard after yet another power-packed performance.

The Mahindra Adventure racer, along with his co-driver Musa Sherif, was in his elements from the word go, winning all the three Special Stages and one Super Special Stage.

His teammate Philippos Matthai (with navigator PVS Moorthy) came in second, with a total time of 03:26:03 minutes.

Another Mahindra Adventure driver, Amittrajit Ghosh (with co-driver Ashwin Naik), slipped one place to take the third position after losing six minutes in the early part of the morning.

Yuva Kumar continued to lead in the bike category, winning two of the day's stages and finishing second in the third. Aakash and Vishwas are in the second and third positions.

In the TSD category, Pramod Vig and Prakash Vig jumped to the top spot, while Santosh and Nagarajan took the second spot. Srikanth and Raghuraman are on the third spot.

--IANS

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