We have been reporting about the Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm since it was kicked off on 20th. Yesterday, we talked about about popular rallyist Sunny Sidhu retiring from the event owing to troubles cropping up in his Grand Vitara XL-7. Now, the second day of the Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm saw many up and downs in leadership positions across categories. The major news is that equally popular rallyist Suresh Rana & navigator Ashwain Naik continue to dominate the Desert Storm after many fluctuations in the rankings in the second day of event. However, the surprise of the day was the withdrawal of Lt Col Subodh Verma & Col. Rajesh Singh whose car suffered an unfortunate mechanical failure. Even in the MotoQuad category, overnight leader Pramod Joshua dropped to third position and the pole position was grabbed by Raj Singh Rathore.
Participants found the second day to be more challenging owing to the terrain getting more punishing than that in the preceding leg. The leg continued all the way till Jaisalmer. The rally should now witness Anwar Khan & Shahdab Pervez and Aabhishek Mishra & Hanuman Singh Sisodia battling it out against each other for second position.
“As Subodh and Rajesh could not complete the race, it has widened the gap between top positions. Rana is mechanically sound and pacing himself well so I don`t expect any major upsets in the later stages of the rally. With each passing day, the rally has become more challenging,” said Jayesh Desai, President, Northern Motosports.
Day 2 Results
Top 5 in Xtreme category:
Suresh Rana & Ashwin Naik
Anwar Khan & Shahdab Pervez
Abhishek Mishra & Hanuman Singh Sisodia
Lt Col Subodh Verma & Col. Rajesh Singh
Lt Col Shakti Bajaj & Major Bharat Bhushan
Top 5 in MotoQuad category
Raj Singh Rathore
Rahul Soni
Pramod Joshua
R. Natraj
Virendra R Vaghela