Covering a total distance of 217 km, the first leg of Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm
2018 culminated in Bikaner today. Braving the scorching heat of the Thar Desert, the participants
battled it out to grab the lead in their respective categories in the 16 th edition of the rally.
Known as the Camel Country, the maximum temperature in Bikaner touches 53.5 °C in summers. The
city is famous for its Junagarh fort, Karni Mata temple and camel festival.
In the Xtreme category, Suresh Rana from Team Maruti Suzuki Motorsport was seen leading the rally by
completing the leg first along with his navigator PVS Murthy in his Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara. Following
their lead was Aabhishek Mishra and his navigator V Venu Rameshkumar and Gaurav Chiripal with
navigator, Srikanth Gowda who finished third.
Commenting on their lead on Day 1, Suresh Rana said, “We are thrilled to be part of the 16 th edition of
the Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm. With new elements added to the rally such as Roadbook navigation and
around 70% new tracks, the difficulty level of the rally has gone a notch higher. Our lead in the first leg
will definitely act as a morale booster and we hope to replicate this in the coming legs of the rally.”
In the Moto category, CS Santosh took the lead in the first leg followed by Aaron Mare and Sanjay
Kumar who came a close third.
Below is the total time of the top three participants from the NDure and Xplore category, at the end
of Day 1:
NDure category:
1. Desert Raiders: Lt Col Sukhjeet Singh Dhaliwal & Lenin J (Penalty – 00:21:00)
2. Desert Raiders: Gurpinder Singh & Mrinmoy Saha (Penalty – 0:21:55)
3. Ruchit Jadhaw & Aditya Garg (Penalty – 0:22:34)
Xplore category
1. Nipun Agrawal & Kabir Mansharamani (Penalty – 00:09:07)
2. Desert Raiders: Vishal Choudhary & Abhivek Singh Godara (Penalty – 01:13:12)
3. Surendra Gopu & Hardeep Singh (Penalty – 01:30:04)
Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm 2018 will now move towards Jaisalmer for the second leg of the rally.
