suresh rana shaan kullu ki

Suresh Rana is all set to clinch the ‘Maruti-Suzuki Raid de Himalaya-2013′ trophy for the consecutive 9th time as the rally entered into its last leg. The thirty seven years old Suresh Rana along with his Mangalore navigator Ashwin Naik maintains the lead this time also. The duo is driving a Grand Vitara for the second time. Raid de Himalaya is India’s best challenge at cross country motor rallying. Earlier, on October 4, ‘Raid de Himalaya-2013′ Rally comprising three super stages was flagged off with 250 daredevils.  The Raid is a toughest challenge for all the participators of this event.  Rana dished out an impressive show of rally driving by overtaking Amanpreet Ahluwalia. But things didn’t go his way on the first day of the event, with Amanpreet Ahluwalia and Venuramesh, who had already, won the Dakshin Dare earlier this year were moving to the head of the timing sheets. While Rana and Naik were 24 seconds behind, following in third were Harpreet Bawa and Virendra Kashyap. But finally Rana managed lead. Enroute, the Raid is going through some of the highest motorable passes and human settlements in the world. These include Darcha (3360 m), Keylong (3440 m), Leh (3524 m), Kaza (3650 m), Dhankar (3894 m), Losar (4079 m), Rumtse (4300 m), Kunzum La (4551 m), Komik (4587 m) and Pang (4600 m). It will draw to a close at Leh. Notably, the Raid is classified under two categories, the X-treme for the professional and Adventure Trail for the amateur and has 5 competitive categories in which the adventure motorists compete. Suresh Rana competes in the X-treme four wheeler category.

 New in the Rally

*  For the first time, a police team (Himachal) is competing at the Raid. The team comprises Constable Munish Mehta and Constable Richa Sharma, in a Maruti Gypsy competes in the Adventure Trial category.

* Introduced for the first time Raid has Scooters, a new category, competing in the X-treme version for three days. There were only 5 entries in the inaugural year.

*  The X-treme alpine had 21 bikers, who were competing for three days only in the high speed category. This version has been introduced for the first time in 15 years of the Raid history.