Mangaluru: Ace rallyist from the coastal city, Ashwin Naik navigated to the pole position at the 9th edition of Maruti Suzuki annual motorsports rally, ‘Dakshin Dare’. The treacherous 2000 kilometre dirt rally was conquered by Ashwin accompanied by ace driver Suresh Rana to win their second consecutive title and to seal their victories in all national championships across the board.
The duo drove through some of the toughest, unused village and hill roads in India starting from Bengaluru and passing through the undulating terrains of Chitradurga and Belgaum. As an addition to the championship this year, the participants had to drive through Kohlapur and finish in Pune.
Ashwin and Suresh beat the other 180 participants in this high speed rally to win their second consecutive Dakshin Dare’s ‘Ultimate Cars’ title. Not taking into consideration the previous seven titles as both Ashwin and Rana were in the organizing team.
The most recent achievement of the duo was the ‘Maruti Suzuki Desert Storm 2017’ which they won four times earlier. “We are the champions of Raid-De-Himalaya five times in a row and in October this year we will be defending the same title for the sixth time in a row. We had also won five Sub-Himalayan rally championships among multiple other cross country national championships. All this on the Maruti Suzuki Grand Vitara”, Ashwin Naik said.
After missing the pole position of Dakshin Dare in the past year, Ashwin Naik won the same title this year to fulfil his victories in all national rally championships. “This victory was essential to me as it would complete the circle of all Indian rally championships. Dakshin Dare was the only pending victory and this achievement seals my victory streak”, he said after his arrival to Mangaluru from Pune.
The coming weekend, Ashwin is to be part of the Indian National Championship of Mahindra Adventure, ‘Rally of Coimbatore’. He will be accompanied by driver Amit Rajit Ghosh to defend the same title.
