The third day of Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm rally was packed with action. In an unprecedented turn of events, CS Santosh and Suresh Rana (PVS Murthy) crashed out from the rally.
In the Moto category, Hero MotoSport rider CS Santosh and Aaron Mare (Angata Racing) were battling it out for pole position with Aaron maintaining the lead. Santosh suffered a crash a few kilometers before the finish, as he was blinded by the dust that was still lingering after Aaron’s bike left the trail during the rally. The crash resulted in Santosh injuring his neck, but he still managed to finish second with an overall time of 5:36:43 hours at the end of leg 3. On precautionary grounds due to his neck injury, Santosh was forced to retire from the rally.
Aaron Mare now leads the Desert Storm in the Moto category, with CS Santosh out of the rally. Santolino Lorenzo has moved up to third position with an overall time of 5:42:49 hours, while Sanjay Kumar (Angata Racing) dropped down to fourth position, 9:43 minutes behind Lorenzo. But as Santosh has crashed out, Santolino Lorenzo will move to second place and Sanjay Kumar will move to third overall. Lorenzo won the marathon stage of leg 3 clocking a time of 2:15:48, while Aaron Mare completed the 200km special with a time of 2:24:19.
In the Xtreme category, Rana suffered an engine failure in the marathon 200km special stage, due to which he had to retire from the rally. Aabhishek Mishra along with co-driver Venu Rameshkumar led with an overall time of 6:55:38, with the national champions out of the rally. Following them in second position were privateers Raj Singh Rathore and Sagar Mallapa in their Isuzu V Cross with an overall time of 7:21:55. Dharampal Sangra and Harikrishnan representing Maruti Suzuki Motorsport were in third position with an overall time of 7:31:58.
Aaron Mare and Privateer Abhishek Mishra are now in great position going into Day 4 of the Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm 2018.
Here are the results at the end of leg 3:
Xtreme:
Xplore:
Endure:
Moto: