Bangaloreans call the shots as rally comes to an end

City's Satish, Joshua emerge champs

On the final day of the Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare rally, it was the participants from Bangalore who shone the brightest as two of the Garden City’s very own drove home with top honours.

The terrain, which seemed bad in Udhagamandalam, got worse as the cars entered the Kodava heartland with a lot more than just competition to worry about. Cars nearly toppled, bikes slid off more often than not, but the ones that managed to stick to the road managed to successfully cover more than 400 kms between Mysore and Bangalore.

In the Ultimate category’s four-wheel section, Nashik’s Manoj Vaidya (co-driver Uday Kumar) had his chance of claiming the title on the line as Sunil Shetty and Imran closed in on him during the stages in Woshully (9.35 kmX2) and Yemmegundi (9.85 kmX2).

However, with the terrain forcing Shetty’s Gypsy and Imran’s candy blue Esteem into a state of flux during the first stage, Vaidya quite comfortably completed the rain-hit stages in an overall time of four hours, 16 minutes and 12 seconds. Shetty (co-driver Darayash D) finished second in 4:18.20 while Imran, who was in all sorts of trouble with his low-lying Esteem, was third in 4:20.37.

The two-wheelers enjoyed their ride through the Pollibetta region, but once they crossed check-point one, it was a nightmare.

With slush all over and a constant drizzle making things harder, the bikers braved their way through, Bangalore’s Pramod Joshua finally making a mark. The TVS Racing rider completed the 11 stage over five days in a time of 3:09.57 while Venu Ramesh Kumar (3:29.57) and Rohit Gowda (3:35.05) weree second and third respectively.

In the Endurance category, the husband-wife team from Bangalore of Sathish Gopalkrishnan and Savera D’Souza battled all odds to take home the crown in the 280-km race, 2.20 minutes behind the  stipulated TSD limit.

Results: Ultimate: Cars: Manoj Vaidya/ Uday Kumar (4::16:12) 1; Sunil Shetty/ Darayash D (4:18:20) 2; Imran/ Rashid (4::20:37) 3.

Bikes: Pramod Joshua (3::09:57) 1; Venu Ramesh Kumar (3::29:29) 2; Rohit Gowda (3:35:05) 3.
Endurance: Sathish Gopalkrishnan/ Savera D’Souza (-2.20 minutes) 1; Girijashankar Joshy/ Chandra Mouli (-2.30) 2; Karthik Maruti/ Anand (-2.31) 3.