Suresh Rana (navigator Ashwin Naik) maintained the lead in the Xtreme category as the fourth leg of Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm rally ended here on Friday. Defending champion C.S. Santosh of Hero Motors also retained his lead comfortably in the Moto category.
The fourth leg comprised a distance of 300km with two special stages. Suresh Rana, driving a Vitara, won the eighth special stage but dropped to third in the ninth stage. However, Rana still had a 12-minute lead over Niju Padia and Nirav Mehta.
Niju and Nirav displaced Sandeep Sharma and Karan Arya (driving a Maruti Gypsy) from the second spot. Sandeep and Karan incurred a penalty of 23 minutes though they finished at the top in the second stage.
In Moto category the first three riders maintained their positions with Santosh having a 10 minutes lead over his nearest rivals. In Ndure category Nikunj Toshiwala and Suvarjit Dutta displaced overnight leaders Arpit Gosh and T.Nagarajan from the top.
The standings (fourth leg): Xtreme category. 1. Suresh Rana and Ashwin Naik (9:21.41): 2. Niju Padia and Nirav Mehta (9:33.19); 3. Sandeep Sharma and Karan Arya (9:46.58). Moto: 1. C.S.Santosh (7:20.57); 2. R.Nataraj (7:30.08); 3.Tanveer Abdul Wahid (7:46.10). Ndure: 1.Nikunj Toshniwala and Suvrajit Dutta (0:34.16): Arpit Gupta and T.Natarajan (0:44.02); 3. Suresh Kumar Dudi and Rajith Purusuthman (2:06.08). Xplore: 1. Karthick Maruthi and Sankar Anand ; 2. Rajesh Chalana and Satish Gopalakrishna; 3. Ali Ajgar and Mohammed Musthafa .
