Samrat Yadav along with PVS Murthy won the Extreme category and Shivam Thakur won the Moto category in the four day season three of the Rally of Himalayas held from Sisa with 7 stages in the menu, all cutting across the mountains right from Rohtang to Kaza. The event was sponsored by VM Sports Foundation and Hero Motocorp.
Day one was a complete tarmac stage of about 20kms from Koksar to Rohtang and after a regroup it headed back to Sisa, HQ at Sisa is 40kms from Manali. Day two had two stages to be taken on the 48.36kms stage from Gramphu to Batal which had about 23kms tarmac and the remaining gravel, while the 27kms stage two of the day had gravel from Batal to Lossar covering the Kunzum Temple, there on it was a 57kms transport towards Kazza to end the day. Day three had a 38.79kms stage starting from Kazza gate via Demul which was run twice. The final day had two similar stages to be run twice as day two from Kazza to Gramphu in reverse direction. Since the rally was running late the final stage of the rally from Gramphu to Rohtang which was about 13kms stood cancelled.
Extreme:
The pair of Samrat Yadav and PVS Murthy were the winner with a total time of 5hr 4min 13sec. In his debut rally Aaryak Rana and Aditya Sharma with a difference of 1min 18sec settled for second position Harpreet Singh Bawa and Vikram Thakur with 6min 4sec further deficit finished third. Robin and Arvind Dheerendra with further difference of over 10min finished in fourth position, Daksh Gill and Dinky Varghese K with 13sec difference stood fifth the pair of Manoj Kumar and Puneet with over 7min difference finished sixth.
T1 2WD / X1 OPEN:
The pair of Amol Satoskar and Nirav Mehta drivng a Mitsubishi Cedia were the winner of the class with a total time of 6hr 41min 49.400sec, which included about 19min of road penalties as they had to extend their service time to change the suspension after completing at batal , Leg one leaders Aditya Thakur and Virender Kashyap driving a VW Polo lost over 3hrs 27min in leg two, as they had to fix the fuel filter which snapped midway and they had to proceed, by the time they were left with 2kms to the finish, they had a broken down Gypsy blocking the road which resulted in high penalties but managed to complete the stage and were also fastest in the class in stage three and had to settle in second position with a difference of 3hrs 27min, Neil Nain and Arjun Dheerendra driving a Honda Brio had to pull out 10kms before the final stage finish due to a blown engine.
T1 4 WD / X2 Below1350 cc:
Localite on his debut Robin along with Arvind Dheerendra from Bengaluru driving a Maruti Gypsy topped the class, inspite of breaking issues in stage one on day two, they managed to catchup three cars, day three was no different from the very first stage of the day they had to run with a broken front differential and with a total penalties of 5hr 22min 23.400sec. Manoj Kumar along with Puneet finished second with 8min 47sec difference, Dheeraj Malik and Asha Malik finished third with a further difference of 39min 53sec. The pair of Mohan Lal and Rajiv Katoch with a further difference of 28min 21sec finished fourth, Capt Jaydeep Singh and Capt N Shekhawat finished in fifth position.
T1 4 WD / X3 Over 1350 cc up to 1850 cc:
The pair of Samrat Yadav and PVS Murthy apart from topping the class with a total time of 5min 04min13sec were the overall winners by dominating legs 1,2 and three, in the final leg of the rally they had sufficient lead and decided to nurse the Gypsy back to the finish without taking any additional risk. Pankaj Dutt and Vignesh Mahalingam were1hr 30min slower and had to settle for second position, Sanjay Razdan along with karan Aukta were further slower by 2min 20sec to complete the podium. Last year winner, a localite Hem Raja long with Sagar Mallappa from Bengaluru were running second in the class and third overall till they had to pull out in leg2, 12kms before the leg finish, similar was the case of the pair of Aman Preet Ahluwalia and Chandrashekar had to pull out just 10kms before the finish due to engine breakdown.
T1 4 WD / X4 Over 1850 cc:
In his debut rally localite Aaryak Rana along with Aditya Sharma finished on top with a total time of 5hr 5min 31sec and they managed to stay on top with a lead of 6min 35sec over the pair of Harpreet Singh Bawa and Vikram Thakur, Daksh Gill and Dinky Varghese with a further difference of 12min 9sec finished third.
T2 / X5 Below 1350 cc:
Lt Col AS Sidhu along with OK Singh was the winner of the class, he managed to win with a difference of 12min 10sec over the pair of Deepak Sachdeva and Rajit Kadian Singh.
Moto:
Shivam Thakur riding in M2 251 to 450cc GroupA was the overall winner by clocking the six stages in 4hr 21min 31.900sec, four of the upto 260cc GroupB riders found their way into the top five,Rohan Sharma with a difference of 19min 1sec settle for second, Gagnesh with a further difference of 7min 45sec completed the podium. Vijay Katoch missed the podium with 3min 18sec difference, Santosh Bishnoi with a further 35sec difference settled for fifth position.
GROUP A:
M 1 upto 250cc: Uday Ganguli with a total time of 5hr 17min 42.900sec was the lone finisher in the class.
M 2 251 to 450: Shivam Thakur was the winner of the class with a total time of 4hr 21min 31.900sec, Dhritimaan Singh from VM Sports Foundation was the fastest and leading in the first two leg and in the final leg after completing 55kms out of the 79kms stage had a crash and pulled out.
M 3 ABV 451: With a fastest class total time of 4hr 53min 28sec Kanwaljeet from VM Sports Foundation was the winner followed by Happy Verma from VM Sports Foundation in second position with a difference of 2hr 31min 33sec, during leg 1 stage 1 as the rear tyre came off but happy never give up attitude pushed him to the end of the finish line.
GROUP B:
M4 UPTO 165CC: Gurjinder Singh was the lone finisher in the class, he won it with a total time of 6hr 01min 59.800sec, Indersheesh Shayam did not finish and Hemant More did not take a start.
M5 UPTO 260CC: With a total time of 4hr 40min 33sec Rohan Sharma from VM Sports Foundation was the winner of the class, Gagnesh with a total time of 4hr 48min 18.700sec finished second, Vijay Katoch with a timing of 4hr 51min 36.800sec finished third. Santosh Bishnoi with 4hr 52min 12.700sec was fourth and Devilal Punjaram Lunja with a difference 41min 36sec was fifth. Capt. Jaipreet Joshi did not finish.
M6 260CC TO 550CC: Rahul Kumar was the winner of the class with a total time of 5hr 07min 58.900sec, Avinash with a difference of 21min 16sec stood second and Sumesh Reddiar with a 1hr 10min 22sec further difference was third.
GROUP C:
M8 UPTO 165CC: Shadab Karim Chishti with a difference of 10min 44sec was the winner over Vishal Das who finished second, Debasish H Dutta was 1hr 11min 34sec slower to settle for third position.
M9 160CC TO 210CC: Ishan Raspa from VM Sports Foundation made it to the top with a total time of 4hr 59min 58.200sec, Manu TM finished in second position with 16min 44sec difference, Navneet Sangar was 20min 15sec further slower to be on the podium in third. With a further difference of 4min 19sec Pallab Raj Chaudhary stood fourth and Yogesh Kagale with 30min 43sec difference was fifth.
M11 211CC TO 415CC:
Vinit Sharma with a lead of 15min 23.600sec won the class over the second finisher Manish Oraon, with a difference of 22min 21sec Jayesh Joshi finished third. Rohit Kumar Jha finished fourth while Mahak Dixit stood fifth.
GroupD:
M12 166CC TO 550CC:
With a total time of 4hr 58min 6sec Sonam Wangiyal won the class as Vinayak Mahur from VM Sports Foundation with 1min 22.900sec difference was second and was also awarded the Youngest rider tag, Ram Bikram Thapa with 2min 01sec further difference finished in third position. Stanzin Namdol was 13sec slower and missed the podium to finish fourth, Tashi Rana with 56.600sec difference was fifth and Sahil Negi with 9min 21sec further difference was sixth.
HIMALAYAN:
Sayak Mondal with 5hr 14min 51.600sec was the winner of the class followed by Mahin Ansari in second with 1hr 18min 49sec difference.
Novice Open class:
Sonam Wangiyal was the winner of the class with a total time of 4hr 58min 06sec, Stanzin Namdol finished second with 3min 37sec difference and Sahil Negi with over 10min difference secured third position. Prakash Mishra finished fourth and Manish Oraon was fifth.