JOIN USA Sivashankar and navigator G Natarajan finished day one on top with an overall penalty of 32 seconds in the third Mahindra Monsoon Challenge TSD (time-speed-distance) rally on Friday.
The Erode-based duo was a mere four seconds ahead of Umakanth Alva and Mohammed Mustafa, while Abhijeet Pai and Chandramouli M were third with a penalty of 39 second in the SUV Open category.
Participants took off from Orion Mall in Rajajinagar and reached Mangalore after traversing through a mixed terrain.
In the SUV OE category, Subir Roy and Nirav Mehta were on top with a penalty of one minute and 19 seconds, while Pratap (Adithya Anthony) is in second and Saurav Chatterjee (Ashoke Kumar Basu) is lying in third.
Last year’s overall winners, Karthick Maruthi and Sankar Anand were placed sixth with 51-second penalty, while Bangalore-based National TSD Rally champions Satish Gopalkrishnan and Savera D’Souza were placed seventh with 52 seconds as a back-log.After a night halt in Mangalore, the vehicles will proceed to Shimoga on Saturday for the second leg of the 1,200-km race that concludes in Goa on Sunday.
Over 30 vehicles from the Mahindra stables are taking part in the race that is spread over three days.
Classification (first leg): SUV Open: A Sivashankar/ G Natarajan (32 seconds penalty) 1; Umakanth Alva/ Mohammed Mustafa (36s) 2; Abhijeet N Pai/ Chandramouli M (39s) 3.SUV OE: Subir Roy/ Nirav Mehta (1 minute, 19 seconds) 1; Pratap/ Adhitya Anthony (1:30) 2; Saurav Chatterjee/ Ashoke Kumar Basu (1:48) 3.
Car OE: Wilson Padayattil/ Kuriakose Elias Parel (1:45) 1; Philip Baklin/ David Sharon (1:46) 2; K Dinky Varghese/ Balachandar R (2:20) 3.
Corporate: Rajpal Navalkar/ Sagar M (3:09) 1; Sudhindra Hebbar/ Arjun SSB (3:54) 2; Sudarshan/ Gunasekaran (10:01) 3.
Amateur: Alfred Raymond A/ Ram Kumar N (3:54) 1; Harsha K Hiriyal/ Prashanth BS (55:22) 2; RS Naresh Kumar/ Shanmugasundaram T (1::1:59) 3.
Couples: Garima Avtar/ Dhiraj Arora (1:08) 1.
Ladies: Cheshta Sood/ Pratima (23:14) 1.