Bikaner, Feb 25 (IANS): The 2014 Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm continued to throw up surprises as defending champion Suresh Rana, former World champion Karamjit Singh and early leader Gaurav Gill, the 2013 Asia Pacific Rally champion all retired, leaving Raj Singh Rathore, driving a Polaris Ranger, leading the overall classification after Leg 1 here Tuesday.
Meanwhile, in the two-wheeler category, Bangalore’s CS Santosh, astride a Suzuki RMX450, surged ahead of his main rival and Raid de Himalaya champion Helmut Frauwallinger from Austria on a Yamaha WR 450F, enjoying a lead of just over a minute.
After the flag-off in Delhi on Monday, the participants reached Sardarshahr for the start of the 2,200 km rally and drama unfolded almost immediately after the first Special Stage began, as fancied drivers fell by the wayside with a total of 13 retirements after the midnight run that ended early Tuesday.
The two night Special Stages around Sardarshehar saw Maruti Suzuki-backed Rana along with his co-driver Ashwin Naik pulling out due to a mechanical problem as did team-mate and Malaysian ace Karamjit Singh (Parminder Thakur), both in a factory-supported Grand Vitara. The duo is likely to rejoin the Rally at Bikaner Wednesday.
Thus, at the end of the two Stages, Team Mahindra Adventure’s Sunny Sidhu (PV Srinivasa Murthy) and Gill (Musa Sherif), both of whom enjoyed trouble-free runs in their modified factory-supported XUV 500, led the overall classification with just three seconds separating them.
Also out for the count was Samir Thapar (Gurinder Singh Mann) of JCT Rally in a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X which packed off early into the first Special Stage due to sudden loss of power.
Quite a few who retired on the opening day will be rejoining the Storm resuming here Wednesday after a night halt, under the Super Rally provisions but with heavy penalties that put them out of contention for the title.
Sidhu clocked one hour, 30 minutes and 59 seconds as against Gill’s 01:31:02 to top the Overall standings while in third place was Rathore (Vishnu Singh), ahead of Team Mahindra Adventure’s Lohitt Urs (K Kumar), Team Incarnation Rallying’s Abhishek Mishra (Rohit Michael) and Maruti Suzuki’s Sanjay Agarwal (Shiv Prakash) from Bangalore.
The second part of Leg 1 commenced after a four-hour break Tuesday morning and the day provided more twists and turns with Gill, who had taken the lead, retiring for reasons that could not be immediately ascertained even as Rathore stepped up the pace with a brilliant drive.
Rathore timed three hours, 24 minutes, 29 seconds while Sidhu did 03:39:29 with Abhishek Mishra (Rohit Michael) of Team Incarnation Rallying in a Maruti Gypsy in third (03:49:04).
Kolkata’s Somdev Chanda (Nirav Mehta), driving a factory-supported Maruti Gypsy, led the Ndure field while in the Xplore category, Sanjay Takale (Mohd Mustafa), also of Team Maruti Suzuki, were perched on top. Both these classes are run on the TSD (Time-Speed-Distance) format.
The shifting desert sands proved to be a tricky proposition for quite a few competitors though the terrain was not a machine-breaker. Yet, it is likely that there will be more surprises in the coming days when the caravan rolls to Jaisalmer before finishing in Jaipur on Saturday.
Provisional Overall classification (after SS-2):
Xtreme: Raj Singh Rathore / Vishnu Singh (Polaris Ranger) 1 (3hrs, 24mins, 29secs); Sunny Sidhu / PVS Murthy (Mahindra Adventure, XUV 500) 2 (03:39:29); Abhishek Mishra / Rohit Michael (Incarnation Rallying, Maruti Gypsy) 3 (03:49:04).
Moto-Quad: CS Santosh (Suzuki RMX450) 1 (01:43:07); Helmut Frauwallner (Yamaha WR 450F) 2 (01:44:04); Mohit Verma (Terrain Tigers, KTM Duke 390) 3 (02:01:20).
