The fourth leg of both Extreme and Endurance (TSD) categories in the 5th Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare Rally, scheduled to be run Thursday, were cancelled.
The Extreme category that was to run Stages at Valparai in the Annamalai mountain range about 130 Kms from here, was cancelled after the local forest department officials denied permission for the competing vehicles to drive through the competitive stages located inside Tata Tea estates.
The forest department turned down repeated requests by the organizers stating that the Stages were part of the Annamali tiger reserve and hence protected from noise pollution, although the local police and the estate had accorded permission to run the event.
Meanwhile, the vehicles competing in the Endurance category too returned to the city after police objected to "noise pollution".
Thus, the overnight positions at the end of Leg 3 remained unchanged. Amanpreet Ahluwalia (co-driver Venu Ramesh) leads in the four-wheeler category, sparing four minutes, 16 seconds to Suresh Rana (Parminder Thakur) with Imran Khan (Gagan Vijay) third, trailing the leader by 52 minutes, 19 seconds.
In the two-wheeler category, Nataraj Rajanna (TVS Racing) is sitting pretty with a 17-minute lead over Saratha and 33 minutes ahead of third-placed Akshay.
Karthik Maruti and navigator Sankar Anand from Erode head the Endurance category, just five seconds ahead of Satish Gopalkrishnan and Savera D'Souza (Bangalore).
The vehicles in the Extreme category, all modified to provide more power, tend to generate fair bit of noise when on the throttle and this was cited as the main reason for the forest department to refuse permission, besides movement of some 18 vehicles through the reserve.
The Leg-4 was cancelled just after 12 two-wheelers had completed the first of the six Stages that were scheduled for the day. The four-wheelers were to follow the bikes after a 10-minute interval, but when the forest officials refused permission, the Clerk-of-the-Course, Kuriakose Elias Paarel announced the cancellation of the leg.
The cancellation caused a lot of disappointment among the competitors who were looking forward to the Stages set in truly scenic locale. All the vehicles were subsequently ordered to return to Coimbatore.
The five-day event concludes Friday after the fifth Leg that will finish in Bangalore.
