Ace cross-country rallyist Suresh Rana won his eighth Raid title at the 14th Maruti Suzuki Raid De Himalaya, driving a Grand Vitara for Team Maruti.
Delhi's Amanpreet Ahluwalia, driving a Maruti Gypsy, finished second in Raid Xtreme after while Lt Col Shakti Bajaj of Team Army, also driving a Gypsy rounded of the podium at the end of the gruelling eight-day event.
After being flagged off from Shimla on October 7, the Raid went through the high mountain passes of Baralacha La, Jalori Jot, Rohtang La, Kunzum La and Yar La, before concluding at Leh. In fact, the last competitive leg of the Raid was cancelled on account of of snow blizzards at Wari La.
Of the total 50 entries in Raid Xtreme, only 16 crossed the finish line, with DNFs including top contender Sunny Sidhu whose Mahindra XUV 500 gave up the ghost early on day one.
In the adventure category, which follows the Time-Speed-Distance (TSD) format, the top position was bagged by K Prasad, driving a Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara, while second and third places were taken by Satish Gopalkrishnan and Jagmeet Gill of Chandigarh.
Bangalore's CS Santosh emerged on top in the extreme two-wheeler class.
Results
X-TREME 4W
1st Suresh Rana
2nd Amanpreet Ahluwalia
3rd Lt Col Shakti Bajaj
2nd Helmut Frauwallner
3rd Raj Singh Rathore
ADVENTURE(TSD)
2nd Satish Gopalkrishnan
3rd Jagmeet Gil
ADVENTURE (Cars – Class I)
2nd Siddhartha Singh
3rd Chetan Joshi
Unnatee Gidithuri
Dipan Sur
