Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare Rally: Maruti, Anand maintain lead

Ooty, Aug 6 (IANS) While Karthik Maruti and navigator Sankar Anand driving a Mahindra Scorpio continued to lead after Leg 2, the Kolkata pair of Sudip Kumar Ghosh and Arindam Ghosh moved up a spot to second in the Endurance category of the 5th Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare Rally here on Tuesday.

Erode’s Maruti tallied 47 seconds while Ghosh, in a Maruti Esteem, had 55 seconds and Bangalore’s National TSD Rally champions, Satish Gopalkrishnan and Savera D’Souza, who were second overnight in their Grand Vitara, slipped to third with a penalty of 58 seconds.

The Kolkata pair headed the Car Open category, ahead of Babno Machaiah and Natarajan (01:03) while Ganesh Moorthy and T Nagarajan in a Mahindra Logan were third, four seconds behind.

The third Leg of the competition resumes Wednesday after a night halt here as the vehicles head to Coimbatore.

Provisional classification (Leg 2 – Endurance):

Overall: Karthik Maruthi/Sankar Anand (Mahindra Scorpio) 1 (0:00:47secs penalty); Sudhip Kumar Ghosh/Arindam Ghosh (Maruti Esteem) 2 (0:00:55); Satish Gopalkrishnan/Savera D’Souza (Grand Vitara) 3 (0:00:58);

SUV Open: Maruthi/Anand 1; Gopalkrishnan/D’Souza 2; K Prasad/Nishanth 3 (1min, 48secs).

Car Open: Sudhip Kumar Ghosh/Arindam Ghosh 1; Babno Machaiah/Natarajan (Esteem) 2 (0:01:03); Ganesh Moorthy/T Nagarajan (Mahindra Logan) 3 (0:01:07).

Car OE: Raveendra/Velmurugan (Maruti SX4) 1 (0:02:45); Palghuna Raghavendra/Jeevarathinam (VW Polo) 2 (0:03:02); Saurav Chatterjee/Ashoke Bhattacharya (Esteem) 3 (0:04:12).

Manufacturer (Suzuki Maruti): Jagmeet Gill/Musthafa (Maruti Gypsy) 1 (0:01:11); Somdeb Chanda/Amit Saha (SX4) 2 (0:01:17); Ravi Chutani/Anurag Shukla (SX4) 3 (0:34:39).

Corporate: Pavan AK/ Sagar (Scorpio) 1 (0:02:33); Philip Baklin/David Sharon (Chevrolet) 2 (0:05:13); Manjunath GM/Avinash (Esteem) 3 (0:06:09).

Corporate Select: Pramod Vig/Abhilash (Hyundai i20) 1 (0:42:17); Ashish Gupta/Ashvind Ratnakaran (SX4) 2 (01:08:04).

Couples: Sreejith PA/Krishnaveni KC (Maruti Baleno) 1 (0:05:07). All Ladies: Gauri Gupta/Poulami Dutta (Esteem) 1 (0:42:22).