2015 Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm rally was flagged off in New Delhi on 23rd February 2015 with 130 participants. 69 participants made it to the finish line after about 2300 kms, mostly across Rajasthan’s rough terrains. Abhishek Mishra from Delhi and PV Srinivas Murthy won the XTreme Cars category with a time of 14:32:28 Hrs for leg 5.
2015 Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm: CS Santosh wins Moto Quad category
Final day of 2015 Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm saw rallyists go to Jaipur from Bikaner covering about 330 Kms. Abhishek Mishra from Delhi and his navigator PVS Murthy drove a Grand Vitara in the XTreme category with a timing of 14:32:28 Hrs. Harpreet Bawa from Chandigarh and his navigator Ashwin Naik in a Vitara secured 2nd place at a time of 15:05:09 Hrs. Niju Padia of Bhavnagar and Shekhar V in their Pajero took 3rd place with a time of 16:26:18 Hrs.
Abhishek Mishra is super thrilled with the victory, as weeks of hard work has been paid off. He looks forward to next year’s rally’. He says race completion is a result of hard work, concentration and adhering to basic principles of safe driving.
In NDure category, distance remained same but in the Time Speed Distance format in Leg 5. Vishnu Singh from Jaipur and his navigator Adithya Anthony driving Vitara won after a day end penalty of 0:25:42 Hrs. Somdeb Chanda and Neerav Mehta from Kolkata finished 2nd in a Gypsy at the day end penalty of 0:33:28 Hrs. Sharavik Shah and Amit Kumar Saha in their Pajero secured third place with a day penalty of 0:34:18 Hrs
Moto Quad category saw CS Santosh secure first place at a time of 1:29:59 Hrs. Jes David of Jaipur took second place at a time of a 1:44:49 Hrs. Mohit Verma finished third clocking in at 2:04:58 Hrs. Participants got together at Hotel Clarks Amer, Jaipur at teh end of the rigorous 6 day rally. Manohar Bhatt, Vice President, Marketing, Maruti Suzuki says participants did well and raised the bar for next edition. Just over half the participants were able to finish and win. Team Maruti Suzuki continues to offer motorists the best of opportunities and vehicles for such extreme sports. Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm rally will be back early in 2016.
