Riders from the city made it to the podium of the 12th Motorsport Inc Dakshin Dare Rally, considered to be one of the toughest cross-country events, where the participants have to ride through stages comprising undulating gravel and dirt sections.
The rally that was spread over four days — from February 13 to 16 — saw the riders traverse a distance of over 300km around Chitradurga near Bangalore.
Patuli resident Uday Ganguli, who runs a chartered accountancy firm, finished second in Group B (261 to 400cc category). Dwarith Manna from Dum Dum, who is pursuing a bachelor's degree in commerce from Techno India College, came third.
Tangra resident Manmeet Singh who took part in the Group B (up to 165cc category) finished third in the category.
Singh, who was riding a Hero Impulse 160cc bike, said that on the fourth day he had to cover over 50kms after suffering a puncture.
“Despite having knobbly off-road tyres, the terrain was such that I suffered a puncture right at the beginning of the stage and had to ride with the puncture for more than 50km to reach a service bay where the damaged wheel was changed. The bearing that the bike and my body took made me want to quit but I made it through with sheer determination,” said Singh.
Ganguli, who has participated in multiple rallies across the country, including the Raid De Himalaya and national rally championships, rode a KTM 390 Adventure in the event.
“All the stages were quite fast and the terrain was pretty unforgiving. We had to be careful as going slow would have meant that we were out of the race. We had to take care of the bike at the same time to ensure that there was minimal damage and breakdowns,” said Ganguli.
The popular cross-country rally which was restricted to two-wheelers this year saw good response of over 36 bikes despite the pandemic. Only 23 finished the course.
The first day saw the riders take the country-side roads on the picturesque foothills, amidst the windmills near Hiriyur, while the flowing flat-out stretches near Challakere saw the top guns touching speeds of 146-kmph on Day 2 and 4. The riders from Kolkata were promoted by Project SR, manufacturers of electric bikes and off-road bikes that run on batteries.