The first round of the Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare 2018 saw the participants compete in three special special stages for cars and two special stages for bikes, which were made up of dirt and gravel. The cars had to cover a total distance of 129 kms while the bikers covered a total distance of 86.42 kms.
Three time APRC champ, Gaurav Gill clinches the lead for Team Mahindra Adventure during the first round of the Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare 2018. The treacherous terrain was no problem for the veteran rally driver as he charged through the stages and finished in the top spot.
Gill with his co-driver Musa Sheriff managed to finish the three special stages five minutes ahead of his teammate Philippos Matthai who came in second. Amittrajit Ghosh managed to stay tethered to his teammates, and finished only five seconds behind Philippos.
“We were not aware of the terrain and there was lot of gravel on the tracks. I usually scorch the track but here I had to be cautious and slide through the corners rather than coming in fast,” Gill explained.
Suresh Rana of Team Maruti Suzuki Motorsport who is the defending champion, finished fourth overall. The slow pace was due to a puncture in the first special stage which cost him seven whole minutes. However, he still managed to make up time to finish behind Amittrajit Ghosh of Team Mahindra Adventure.
Yuva Kumar took top honours in the two-wheeler category in 1 hour 43 minutes. Vishwas SD manged to grab second place, almost 5 minutes behind Yuva. Akash Aithal piloted his Husqvarna to grab a commendable third place finish.
In the two-wheeler category, Yuva Kumar took the opening day’s honours, with a time of 1:43:30. Vishwas SD finished the day second with 1:48:22 while Akash Aithal took the third position with a total time of 1:49:29.
Davangere (Karnataka), September 3: India’s ace rallyist Gaurav Gill came up with a powerful performance to race ahead of the pack on the opening day of the 10th edition of the Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare here on Monday.
The Mahindra Adventure driver, along with his trusted co-driver Musa Sherif, was fast and aggressive in all the three special stages of the day, finishing them in 2:25:47 minutes.
He was a good 5 minutes faster than his teammate Philippos Matthai (with navigator VVS Moorthy) who came in second after clocking 2:30:19 minutes.
Amittrajit Ghosh (with Ashwin Naik) stayed right behind his Mahindra Adventure teammates by clocking 2:30:24, just 5 seconds more than Philippos.
In the two-wheeler category, Yuva Kumar took the opening day’s honours, with a time of 1:43:30. Vishwas SD finished the day second with 1:48:22 while Akash Aithal took the third position with a total time of 1:49:29.
The round one of Dakshin Dare saw the car compete in three special special stages (dirt/gravel) with a total distance of 129 kms while the bikers covered a total distance of 86.42 kms for their two special stages.
Gill began the first special stage on a slow note and got better as the day progressed to set the tone for the rest of the week. He, however, admitted that it was not easy driving out there and that the terrain posed a challenge initially.
“We were not aware of the terrain and there was lot of gravel on the tracks. I usually scorch the track but here I had to be cautious and slide through the corners rather than coming in fast,” Gill explained.
Defending champion Suresh Rana of Team Maruti Suzuki suffered an initial setback but showed great fighting spirit and verve to finish the day not too far behind the lead pack.
He picked up a puncture in SS1 itself which cost him 7 minutes and put him behind while he seemed to be cruising ahead. He finished the day on fourth position to underline that he will be the one to beat over the next four days.
The 2,000-kilometre long Dakshin Dare will traverse through Karnataka and Maharashtra before concluding in Goa on the evening of seventh.