Raid de Himalaya: Rana stays on top, Tanveer overthrows Nataraj

Wednesday’s leg ran from Pang (a village in Jammu & Kashmir) to Leh, with the competitors covering a total distance of 283.48 km. The 53.11 km dash from Daat to Debring was run in both directions to make up the day’s two competitive stages.

Rana, who drives a factory-prepared Grand Vitara and has the support of navigator PVS Murthy, holds a healthy 32.59s advantage over Sanjay Razdan (co-driver Karan Aukta).

Dharam Pal Jangra jumped up to third in the standings in an S-Cross, while Niju Padia Nanalal (co-driver Sabatullah Khan) was fourth in the field’s sole Mitsubishi Pajero Sport. Sanjay Aggarwal (co-driver N Smitha) completed the top five.

In the Xtreme Bikes category, Tanveer overtook TVS stablemate R Nataraj to take over the lead in the standings. However, the fight between the duo remains very much open as they are separated by just four minutes with half the rally still to be run.

Following Sanjay Kumar’s DNS, Rajendra RE and Imran Pasha moved up to third and fourth in the standings respectively - making it a TVS 1-2-3-4 at the top of the order. However, unlike Tanveer and Nataraj who are equipped with the more powerful RTR 450, Rajendra and Pasha ride the less sophisticated RTR 200 bike.

Further down, Mohit Thakur was fifth in a private KTM Duke.