India's ace rallyist Suresh Rana staved off a stiff challenge from his compatriot Amanpreet Ahluwalia to lead the herd in the Extreme Category on the opening day of Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare Rally, here today.
Team Maruti's Rana, the eight-time Raid-De-Himalaya champion and holder of Desert storm crown thrice, clocked 01.04.12 hrs in his Grand Vitara to open up a miniscule lead in the first leg of this annual event.
Another Team Maruti driver, Amanpreet (navigator Venuramesh) driving a Gypsy, clocked 01.04.48 hrs to trail Rana by just 36 seconds.
Sanjay Agarwal/Shiva Prakash were 00.03.39 hrs behind the leader and took the third place on the table with a timing of 01.07.51 hrs.
The Extreme vehicles covered a liaison distance of 134 km North West of Bangalore to reach near Tiptur, Karnataka's largest coconut and copra trading hub, via Neelamangala and Tumkur.
Coconut 1, a high speed 12.1 km stretch amidst Coconut and Copra plantations took place first, and was followed by another similar tarmac and gravel stretch Coconut 2 spanning 18.8 Km. This two stage rally was run thrice to cover a total distance of 92.7 km. This was followed by 158 km transport stage to finish at Mysore.
A steep downhill 'S' curve during the Super Stage 4 proved to be a bane for the rally drivers as two cars, two bikes and one scooter pulled out of the competition due to different reasons.
A car, driven by Anwar and Shadab, fell near the sharp curve when they lost control of their vehicle and complained of mechanical problem.
A bike too fell near the curve while the nuts of the front wheel of the Gypsy came out in the Super Stage 4, resulting in their ouster. A scooter driver also slipped while negotiating the sharp curve.
