Anantapur (Andhra Pradesh), Aug 29 (IANS) The Palakkad-Bengaluru combo of Adith K.C. and Harish K.N. conquered the treacherous terrain that saw many a star suffer casualty, and shot into the lead on Day 2 in the Motorsport Inc fmsci 14th Dakshin Dare rally at the dirt tracks,” about 30km from here, on Friday.

“We had a smooth run today, and our target was to bring the car home safely and gain some time in a few of our favourite sections,” said Adith, a double INRC champion in his class, who was ably assisted by Harish KN, who is fast gaining a name for his co-driver role. “Yes, we are very happy to be in the lead despite a puncture in the fag end of the day. We pulled on and protected our lead. We hope to continue at the same pace for the next four stages,” chipped in Harish. The duo gained a 15-second lead in the Honda City over second-placed Gypsy.

Vinod Singh and Shailendra Singh of the Ashva team are in second place on Day 2, followed by a clean performance by Aieman Ahmed (co-driver Sagar M) of Team VM Motorsports, as overnight leaders Archit Jindal and Aashish Bhaskar of Delhi suffered a rear right puncture and lost 15 minutes. They did survive the day and will take a start to fight back in the next two days.

Another favourite, Nikeetaa Takkala, with Pavan as co-driver, missed a right-hander and lost about 37 seconds but was still running overall second, at that stage, but later incurred a technical penalty that ended her day. She is likely to take a penalty and restart the shorter Plantation Selective sections (33.44km longer) on Saturday to stay in contention in both her classes.

The only driver from the North East, Phoebe Nongrum, took the limelight today in a Polo, as she dished out a near-perfect drive, with seasoned Venu Ramesh Kumar of Coimbatore as co-driver, and the duo stood overall fifth, and she shot to the top in the Ladies class.

The top pair of Vamcy Merla and experienced Ashwin Naik, a multiple national co-driver champion, suffered power loss in the #1 1600cc Gypsy, quite early in the day. But they nurtured the Gypsy in admirable fashion despite being forced to drive in second gear. They did finish the 77km stage in both runs, and were classified to take the restart on Saturday, and are also the lone leaders in their class 5.

Provisional unaudited results:

Overall (after leg2):

1. Adith KC/ Harish KN (Team Vamcy Merla Motorsports) (03hours, 55 minutes, 18seconds);

2. Vinod Singh/ Shailendra Singh (Team Ashva) (03:55:33);

3. Aieman Ahmed/ Sagar M (Team VM Motorsports) (03:57:16);

Class 2: Group T1: 1. Adith KC/ Harish KN; 2. Aieman Ahmed/ Sagar M; 3. Sidharth Santosh/ Vybhav Mukund Rao (Privateer) (03:57:36);

Class 10: Group T2: 1. Vinod Singh/ Shailendra Singh (Team Ashva) (03:55:33); 2. Deepak Sachyadeva/ Rajit Singh (Team Ashva) (04:03.47);

Ladies Class: 1. Phoebe Nongrum/ Venu Ramesh Kumar (Team VM Motorsports) (03:59:35);

Class 5: Group T1: Vamcy Merla/ Ashwin Naik (Team VM Motorsports) (04:04:18);

Class 8: Group T2: Akhil Jain/ Akhil Dhaundiyal (Team Ashva) (04:11:14);

Class 11: Group T2: Archit Jindal/ Aashish Bhaskar (Team Ashva) (04:13:55);

–IANS

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