After a thrilling night leg that saw the competitors tackle dirt sections and sharp bends while traversing from Siliguri to Murti on Wednesday (February 27), defending champion duo of Sk. Ajgar Ali and navigator Md. Musthafa got off to a winning start finishing leg 1 with 311 penalty points. Closely following on their heels and separated by only nine penalty points were the team of veteran rallyist Jogendra Jaiswal and co-driver Nagarajan Thangaraj. In a distant third, but still in title contention, were the team of V Santosh Kumar and C Sakhtivel with 380 penalty points.
Having navigated through a night leg for the first time in Himalayan Drive, the competitors seemed visibly happy. Some of teams are locked in tight battle, being separated by only a handful of points, making the next leg crucial to stay relevant in the title contention. However, the first leg also saw two DNFs, one on account of hose pipe damage and having to head back to baser due to a personal emergency.
The second leg of the rally, India’s only international TSD (Time, Speed, Distance) rally, was flagged off on Thursday morning from Murti. The competitors drove through tarmac that sliced through the Gorumara National Park which is home to the one-horned rhino and the Asiatic elephant, and then through dirt tracks beside a river, past Binnaguri army base and the Hasimara Air Force station before crossing tea estates and then a river bed till the end of the competitive section just short of Jaigaon on the Indo-Bhutan border.
After completing immigration formalities at the Bhutanese border town of Phuentsholing, the rallyists started the climb up steep mountainous roads for over three hours to reach Paro. This stretch of the drive was thrilling with temperatures plummeting to below freezing point. A stretch of the highway to Paro was blanketed in thick fog that reduced visibility to near-zero.
The third leg of the rally from Paro to Kalimpong in the Darjeeling Hills will be the longest, covering over 300 kilometers.
Power Drive 