The only celebrity in the 16th
Maruti Suzuki Raid De Himalaya, superstar Salman Khan’s brother Sohail Khan is
in the 13th position at the
end of the third day of the rally. He is competing in the Raid Adventure category with 51 other teams.
Sohail is driving a Gypsy for Team Maruti.
Meanwhile, Suresh Rana, Manali’s champion
rallyist who has won the iconic Maruti
Suzuki Raid De Himalaya nine
out of the total 15 times it has been organised, is leading the race in the Raid
Xtreme (4X4) category with a lead of six minutes over his closest competitor.
According to a press release, Sohail
Khan met Suresh Rana at Kaza, the desert town in Spiti valley.
Sohail warmly hugged Rana and
told the legendary rallyist that he had been waiting to meet him since coming
for the Raid.
From the 20th position on Day
One, Sohail rose on the 14th position on the second day of the rally, and made it
to the 13th position on Day Three.
Manohar Bhat, Vice President
(Marketing) of Maruti Suzuki, said that only 25 out of the total 41 teams in
Raid Xtreme (4X4) could successfully make it to the finish line at the end of
Day Three. In Raid Adventure, only 40 of the total 51 teams are left running in
the event. Maruti Suzuki Raid
De Himalaya is one of the top
ten toughest motorsport rallies in the world.
In Rally Xtreme, Jaipur
champion Raj Singh Rathore survived a tyre burst two days in a row. On Day Two,
the jagged bed of Chandra river burst the tyre of his Polaris 900, when Raj was
on a speed of approximately 120 kilometers an hour. Today, the tyre burst
happened when Raj was speeding at
Komic, one of the highest
human settlements in the world about 4,500 feet above sea level.
Suresh Rana, who is driving a
Grand Vitara for Team Maruti, is leading Raid Xtreme (4X4) with a time-score of
4.26.06 hours. Abhishek Verma of Team Thunderbolt, driving a Grand Vitara, is
second with a time-score of 4.32.16 minutes. Capt AVS Gill of Team Army,
driving a Maruti Gypsy, is third with a time-score of 4.43.15 hours.
In Raid Xtreme (Motorcycles),
Nataraj R of Bangalore, driving a TVS RTR 450 is first with a time-score of
4.10.27 hours. Suresh Babu of Delhi, driving a Suzuki RMX 450Z is second, with
a time-score of 4.43.33 hours. Sourabh Handa, driving a KTM Duke 390, is third
with a time-score of 4.42.52 hours.
Subir Roy and navigator Nirav
Mehta, driving a Maruti Gypsy, are leading Raid Adventure with total penalties
of 1.41 hours. Jagmeet Gill and navigator Chandan Sen, also driving a Maruti
Gypsy, are second with total penalties of 2.16 hours. Rajesh Chalana and Yogesh
Gupta, driving a Maruti
Swift, are third in Raid
Adventure at the end of Day Three, with total penalties of 2.23 hours.
Maruti Suzuki Raid De Himalaya
will cross some of the highest mountain passes in the world including Baralacha
La and Shingo La before ending at Manali on October 10.
Picture of Sohail Khan