The Rally, which concluded in Pune recently, saw Team Maruti Suzuki’s Suresh Rana and Ashwin Naik take home the gold in the Ultimate Cars category, while T Nataraj won top honours in the Ultimate Bikes category.
There were over 180 participants who covered nearly 2,000km, starting their route from Chitradurga and Belgaum in South India and making their way to Kolhapur in Maharashtra, and eventually finishing in Pune.
Samrat Yadav and S N Nizami finished in second place, while Sandeep Sharma and Karan Arya grabbed third place in the Ultimate Cars category. In the Ultimate Bikes category, Abdul Wahid and Sanjay Kumar finished in second and third.
Subir Roy and Nirav Mehta, in their Maruti Swift, won the Endurance category, while Karthick Maruthi and Sankar S Anand finished in second, and Raghu Nandan and Prakash M in third.
“Over the last nine years, Dakshin Dare has grown tremendously and been able to gain a strong foothold in the motorsports community in South India. The increasing number of participation from across the country along with the longest rally route are testimonials to those claims. The large participation is indicative of our reach, and influencing a larger audience through varied locations added to the rally each year,” commented Tarun Garg, executive vice president – marketing, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.
Final results:
Ultimate Cars:
Suresh Rana and Ashwin Naik - 10:11:26
Samrat Yadav and S N Nizami- 10:14:52
Sandeep Sharma and Karan Arya - 10:24:17
Ultimate Bikes:
T Nataraj- 06:12:38
Abdul Wahid -06:15:37
Sanjay Kumar -06:26:53
Endurance Cars (TSD):
Subir Roy and Nirav Mehta – 00:12:20
Karthick Maruthi and Sankar S Anand – 00:12:45
Raghu Nandan and Prakash M – 00:12:49