Veteran driver Sandeep Sharma (co-driver Varun Devassar) took the lead from overnight topper Amanpreet Ahuluwalia in the extreme car category on a day of crashes in the sixth Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare Rally, which reached here today.
Sharma, driving a Martui Gypsy, displayed grit and gumption on a slippery terrain to muster a 35 second lead by leg 2 of the five-day rally, concluding in Goa on Aug 9.
Sanjay Aggarwal (Venu Ramesh Kumar) and Karan A M (Shahid Salman) moved up to second and third spot respectively. Last year's runner-up Suresh Rana (Parminder Thakur) was fourth.
Day one leader and reigning champion Ahluwalia slipped to eighth after being docked five minutes for failing to notice the 'stop and go' area on the 26 km special stage in Chitradurga.
It was an incident-packed day with C Druva (B C Roopesh) sliding their Honda City off the track and a Maruti Suzuki meeting a similar fate in the repeat run.
The new leader Sharma said the conditions were trickier than day one when the drivers battled through gravel.
"Today it was mostly about driving on the tarmac, leading to higher average speed. You could go flat out on the straights but with the track being so slippery, it was not easy to commit to corners," Sharma, the 41-year-old from Delhi, told PTI.
Looking ahead to Leg 3 tomorrow, Sharma added: "The lead that I have is not huge. Anything can happen with another three days to go. The aim will be to increase the gap tomorrow."
In the extreme bike category, Nataraj maintained his lead over Mohit Sharma and Promod Joshua.
Results (top-three): Extreme car: Sandeep Sharma/Varun Devassar(1 hour, 2 mins and 27 seconds), Sanjay Aggarwal/Venu Ramesh (1:03.02)Kumar and Karan A M/Shahid Salman (1:03.15). Extreme bike: Nataraj (45.36), Mohit Verma (47.17) and Promod Joshua (48.44).
