Sidhu, Michael are desert champs

After racing more than 3,500 kms, for six days across various terrains in three states, the drivers finally crossed the finish line of the Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm in New Delhi on Sunday.

Driving a Suzuki Grand Vitara, Sunny Sidhu and Rohit Michael were champions of the Xtreme T1 category. They had a little luck going their way and helped by rather dramatic turn of events as leaders Harpreet Singh Bawa and Parminder, who had been leading for most of the rally, fell back in the final leg after they lost over an hour due to failure of their vehicle’s four vehicle drive.

The duo won with a time of 14:35.06 and were four minutes ahead of second placed Rai Virendra Singh and Gunpreet. Gaurav Chirpal and Nikhil Pai made up for the final place on the podium. With every possible terrain thrown at them, the rally drivers crossed an intense route that crossed the Rann of Kutch, Thar desert and finally, the Aravali ranges.

In the other two categories, overnight leaders Sanjay Takale (Ndure) and Mukul Budhia (Xplore) took top honours.

Twenty-six-year old Rajanna Natarajan from Bangalore clinched the two-wheeler category, he was riding for the TVS Racing team.

Final results
Xtreme (Overall and Modified, T1): S Sidhu/R Michael 1 (14hrs, 35mins, 06secs); R Singh/ Gunpreet 2 (14:39:54); G Chirpal/ N Pai 3 (14:56:03). Xtreme (Stock, T2): DP Jangra/Vijuraj N 1 (16:15:23); M Vaidya/P Kohok 2 (16:15:45); A Zaheen 3 (16:52:09)
Ndure: S Takale/R Sancheti 1 (05:26); SK Prasad/S Anand 2 (05:33); R Rathore/ Chandrasekar M 3 (09:08)
Xplore: M Budhia/A Patel 1 (06:45); T Singh/GR Natarajan 2 (06:46); Dr S Choudhary/ Capt N Anand 3 (31:35)
Moto/Quad: R Nataraj (11:55:37); BR Suthar (12:07:05); Jesdavid (13:44:00)