2017 Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare Concludes with Suresh Rana and R Nataraj As Winners

The 9th edition of Maruti Suzuki's annual southern motorsports rally, Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare has come to an end. The rallyists completed the fifth stage on Friday, 21 July and a grand finale was held in Pune on Saturday, 22 July to felicitate the winners.

Suresh Rana and Ashwin Naik from team Maruti Suzuki have taken first place in the Ultimate Cars category and R Nataraj from TVS Motorsport has taken first place in the Ultimate Bikes category.

Samrat Yadav & S N Nizami took second place with Sandeep Sharma & Karan Arya in the third spot of the Ultimate Cars category, both driving Maruti Gypsys.

Suresh Rana was quoted as saying, "This is our second consecutive win at Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare. With a new route this year, it was important to always keep your mind synced with the vehicle. The competition was tough with newer participants entering Dakshin Dare."

In the Ultimate bikes category, TVS Motorsport took the first two spots with their riders R Nataraj and Abdul Wahid coming first and second respectively, while the third place was taken by Sanjay Kumar.

The six-day event which was flagged off from Bengaluru on Sunday, 16 July saw over 180 participants competing against each other in order to win the rally covering a distance of around 2000 kilometres.

The 2017 Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare was the 9th edition of the annual rally, and saw two firsts. The Dakshin Dare left the southern part of India to enter the west, traversing through the terrains of Maharashtra, going from Kolhapur to Pune. Adding to this were the two Super Special Stages, through which, the crowd in Chitradurga and Kolhapur could connect with the rallyists going through the specially built tracks as quickly as possible.

Tarun Garg, Executive Vice President - Marketing, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. was quoted as saying, "Over the last 9 years, Dakshin Dare has grown tremendously and been able to gain a strong foothold in the motorsports community in South India. The increasing number of participants from across the country along with the longer rally route are testimonial to the claims."

In the Endurance category, Subir Roy & Nirav Mehta driving a Maruti Suzuki Swift led the pack followed by Karthick Maruthi & Sankar S Anand and third spot was taken by Raghu Nandan & Prakash M by making it to the finishing line.

DriveSpark Thinks!

The 9th edition of the Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare has concluded, and amidst the rain and slush, the participants have battled their way to the finish line. Mr Tarun Garg also dropped hints that new locations would be added to the rally and that the route would be changed every year, and that is definitely some exciting news.