Dakshin Dare rally: Sandeep Sharma and Mohit Verma emerge victorious

Dakshin Dare cross country rally

Canacona (Goa), Aug 10 (IANS) Sandeep Sharma (co-driver Varun Davessar) comfortably topped the time charts to win the overall title among four-wheelers while Mohit Sharma triumphed in the two-wheelers category in the sixth Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare cross-country rally which concluded here. Sharma nursed his overnight lead of over a minute to hold off his Maruti team-mate Sanjay Agarwal (Venu Ramesh Kumar) while defending champion Amanpreet Ahluwalia (Sudeep Halder) did well to climb from eighth to third, getting past pre-event favourite Suresh Rana (Parminder Thakur) who finished fourth Saturday night.

The biggest surprise was by Mohit Verma who astride a Group B, KTM 390 bike overcame last year's champion Nataraj Rajanna who had led over four legs and looked certain to clinch the title in the two-wheeler category. While Nataraj had to be content with a second place finish, Pramod Joshua maintained his third spot.

Meanwhile, in the Endure category that was run on Time-Speed-Distance format, team Maruti's Karthick Maruti and Sankar Anand driving the Ertiga, finished first ahead of Sachin Singh and Prathima while the pair of Ganesh Moorthy and T Nagarajan, also of Team Maruti came third.

The competitors were flagged-off from Bangalore Tuesday and completed a grueling journey of 2,000 kms through interior and north Karnataka before finishing in Goa.

Final classifications (after Leg 5):

Extreme - 4-wheelers: Sandeep Sharma / Varun Davessar (Maruti Gypsy) 1 (03hr, 41mins, 26secs); Sanjay Agarwal / Venu Rameshkumar (Maruti Gypsy) 2 (03:42:49); Amanpreet Ahluwalia / Sudeep Halder (Maruti Gypsy) 3 (03:44:56).

Two-wheelers: Mohit Verma (Group B KTM 390) 1 (03:29:15); Nataraj Rajanna (Group A TVS 450) 2 (03:33:30); Pramod Joshua (Group B TVS 260) 3 (03:35:37).

Endure (TSD): Karthick Maruti / Sankar Anand 1 (02min, 13secs); Sachin Singh / Prakash/Pratima Naidu 2 (02:51); Ganesh Moorthy / Nagarajan 3 (03:10).