2015 Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare - Bigger and Better

Modified On Aug 10, 2015 04:04 PM By Bala Subramaniam

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The 7th edition of Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare was flagged off from the Orion Mall at Bangalore yesterday, 2nd August 2015. The 2015 Dakshin Dare has got more than 40% new participation with 105 teams comprising of 170 participants taking part in the rally. The rally will cover a total of 2000 kms over a span of 6 days. The rally is divided into three categories - Endurance, Ultimate Car and Ultimate Bike.

The 2015 Dakshin Dare will see the participants covering scenic yet challenging terrains of Davangere, Shimoga, Hampi, Gulbarga, Chitradurga and Bellary. The rally will culminate in Hyderabad, the City of Pearls where the winners will be felicitated on 8th August, 2015.

Day 1

With a very early start we reached Chitradurga, where the first two legs of the 2015 Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare took off. The two legs – The Windfarm and The Alpha got the rallyists zipping through numerous windmill farms, strong winds and uneven rock-strewn paths.

In the Ultimate Car category, the participants navigated through a total distance of 75 km with last year’s Dakshin Dare winner, Sandeep Sharma and his navigator, Karan Arya from Team Maruti taking the lead, with a time of 1:33:49 in their Maruti Suzuki Gypsy. Arvind K P took the lead in the Ultimate Bike category, racing towards the first position in 1:28:44. Covering a total of 370 kms, the Endurance category tested the participants on the Time-Speed-Distance format. Dilip Jain and Chandu Shekhar lead the rally covering the required distance with a penalty of just 40 seconds.

Day 2

For the second day of the 2015 Dakshin Dare, the action shifted to the coastal belt of Karnataka moving towards Shimoga covering a distance of 220 km. The hilly terrains and gravel-loose roads of Kapat Hill at Gadag district played host for the participants.

In the Extreme Car category, Sandeep Sharma and Karan Arya from team Maruti Suzuki maintained their lead with a record breaking time of 2:35:06. In the Extreme Bike category, Arvind K P continued to lead, while Subhir Roy along with Nirav Mehta took the lead in the Endurance category.

Day 3

Participants raced through the Tungabhadra Canal for the third day’s competition. With lush fields to one side and streaming water on the other, the canal stage offered an amazing combination of rocky terrain and colourful landscape for the participants with the strong winds adding more drama to the cocktail.

There were no changes in the lead for the Extreme Car and Bike categories as Sandeep/Karan and Arvind K P maintained their leads respectively. With a penalty of 2 minutes 40 seconds, Dilip Jain and Chandra Shekhar took the lead in the Endurance category.

Day 4

The fourth day took us back to the windmills as the rally was spread across Siruguppa are amidst heavy winds and cold weather. The proceedings took a wild turn for a few seconds as a wild bear ran across the path into the forest giving us goose bumps for a while.

Day 5

On the final day of the 2015 Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare, the last leg of the rally was a hectic 450 km drive from Bellary to Hyderabad through dirt and rock laden tracks. The finale ended with last year’s champion Sandeep Sharma and Karan Arya in their Maruti Suzuki Gypsy winning the Extreme Car category, completomg the leg in 4:31:31. The second and third spots were taken by Samrat Yadav/Gaurav and Suresh Rana/Parminder Thakur respectively.

Arvind K P won the Extreme Bike category with a record-breaking time of 3:54:51 while Natraj and Abdul Wahid came second and third respectively covering the given distance in 4:00:10 and 4:14:15.

In the Endurance category, Jagdeep Gill and Chandan Sen came first with Subir Roy/Nirav Mehta in second and Asgar Ali/M Musthafa in third.

Final results: