Defending the south
Team Mahindra Adventure’s Gaurav Gill clinches 2019 Dakshin Dare title
SOUTH INDIA’S TOUGHEST rally, the Dakshin Dare returned for its 11th edition. The rally commenced from Bengaluru, with four days’ worth of stages until it culminated in Hubli. The competitors covered a cumulative distance of 2000km with defending champion Gaurav Gill back behind the wheel of the Super XUV500 to beat everyone to the finish.
Team Mahindra Adventure’s Gill and Musa Sherif got off to a very good start, finishing the first super stage in 15min 33.359sec, more than 30 seconds faster than his teammate Philippos Matthai. Privateer Amanpreet Ahluwalia, who was
piloting a Gypsy, was able to finish a close third in the opening stage but made up pace in the second stage. Amanpreet was faster than Philippos in the second stage but Gill was still untouchable. By the end of day one, Gill was leading Philippos by 1min 37sec. Team Harjee Racing’s Sanjay was leading the Ultimate bikes category astride a KTM 500 EXC while Shoeb Khan led the 165cc class.
Gill lost pace on the second day, coming in third with a cumulative time almost two minutes behind Philippos who led the days’ stages. The third day was quite a tough sprint for the Mahindra Adventure wheelmen. Although Amittrajit Ghosh was the fastest at the end of the day, the luck ran out again for Gill as he finished fifth and Philippos ran into technical problems forcing him to retire for the day. Ghosh had an advantage on the final day too, and was marginally faster than Gill who finished second. However, Gill’s faster times on day three and four added up to yet another title for Team Mahindra Adventure. Team Harjee’s Anil Wadia finished the rally in second place after consistent improvements. Team Harjee’s Sanjay dominated the Ultimate bikes category in the Group A class while Shoeb Khan was the quickest among the riders in the 165cc class aboard a Hero Impulse. ⌧