Sandeep Sharma and Karan Arya of Team Maruti won the seventh edition of Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare, one of the popular rallies of South India, that concluded here today.
Sandeep and Karan in a Maruti Suzuki Gypsy completed the leg in 4:31:31s.
By virtue of this win, Sandeep had also retained his crown here.
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The second spot was taken by Samrat Yadav and his navigator Gaurav followed by Suresh Rana and Parminder Thakur.
A total of 105 teams with 170 participants participated in the rally that covered a distance of 2000 km and passed through some of the picturesque locations of Bangalore, Hampi, Bellary and Shimoga.
The last day of the rally crossed the beautiful settings of Siruguppa in the area of Bellary before ending here. The route filled with winding turns, rock-strewn surface and immense amount of dirt ensured an adrenaline pumping finale. The rally participants covered a total distance of around 450 km on the last day.
In the bike category, Arvind KP secured the first spot by finishing the rally with a record-breaking time of 3:54:51s. Natraj and Abdul Wahid grabbed second and third positions respectively covering the given distance in 4:00:10s and 4:14:15s.
Den Thimmaiah, winner of Autocross 2015 held in Bangalore, finished fifth in his first cross country rally along with his navigator Venu Ramesh in their Maruti Suzuki Swift.
Women participants including Bani Yadav along with her navigator Sukhbann Manns and Harshita Gowda with Rajshekhar Gowda from the Extreme category managed to complete the rally in the end even though they witnessed great challenges.
In the endurance category, Jagdeep Gill and Chandan Sen grabbed the first position by making it to the finishing line with the least amount of penalty.
Subir Roy and Nirav Mehta followed suit at second position and Asgar Ali stood third along with his navigator M Musthafa.
This year, nine teams in Dakshin Dare have been sponsored by Maruti Suzuki along with eight teams consisting of Maruti Suzuki employees.
