Sandeep Sharma forges ahead

The glorious uncertainties of motorsport saw overnight leader Amanpreet Ahluwalia (co-driver Sudeep) slip to eighth spot after conceding penalty while Sandeep Sharma (Varun Davessar) moved up a spot into the lead at the end of Leg 2 of Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare that ended here Wednesday for a night halt.

The Bangalore-to-Goa, five-day cross-country event which was flagged off in Bangalore Tuesday, promises to go down to the wire with the top four placed crews covered by less than a minute.

While defending champion Ahluwalia, who was given a five-minute penalty for ignoring a stop-go sign, Dhruva Chandrasekar (Roopesh) who was third overnight, crashed his Honda City, but walked away from it.

It meant Sharma gaining a place to lead with a timing of one hour, two minutes, 27 seconds with veteran Sanjay Agarwal (Venu Ramesh Kumar) in second position, 35 seconds behind and followed by Karan AM (Shahid Salman) and title favourite Suresh Rana (Parminder Thakur).

"So far, the competition has been really close. The terrain has been fast, slippery and technical, and we know that from here on the difficulty level will definitely go higher with each day. We were not expecting the Gypsies to take the lead in the first two days, but now we look forward to maintaining this momentum and rank in the coming stages of the rally,a said Sandeep Sharma.

In contrast, the top three in the two-wheeler category maintained their positions with defending champion Nataraj Rajanna, astride a Group A TVS 450, in the lead ahead of Mohit Verma (Group B KTM 390) and Pramod Joshua (Group TVS 260), with three minutes separating the trio.

The second loop of the Special Stages for the two-wheelers was cancelled due to safety reasons while the four-wheelers completed the scheduled two runs.

Provisional classification (after Leg 2):

Extreme - 4-wheelers: Sandeep Sharma / Varun Davessar (Maruti Gypsy) 1 (01hr, 02mins, 27secs); Sanjay Agarwal / Venu Rameshkumar (Maruti Gypsy) 2 (01:03:02); Karan AM / Shahid Salman (Maruti Baleno) 3 (01:03:15); Suresh Rana / Parminder Thakur (Maruti Gypsy) 4 (01:03:23).

Four-wheelers: Nataraj Rajanna (Group A TVS 450) 1 (45:36); Mohit Verma (Group B KTM 390) 2 (47:17); Pramod Joshua (Group B TVS 260) 3 (48:44).