Murti (West Bengal), Feb 26 (IANS) The pair of Subir Roy and Nirav Mehta narrowed the gap against defending champions Sheikh Ajgar Ali and Mohammed Mustafa to just one penalty point at the end of Day 3 in the JK Tyre Himalayan Drive 6 here on Monday.
Ali-Mustafa restricted themselves to 31 penalty points on Sunday to bring their total score to 85 penalty points; the Subir-Nirav team, champions of Desert Storm, picked up just 24 penalty points to notch up a total score of 86 penalty points, to set up a grand finish.
The team of Captain Vijaykumar Sharma and Chandan Sen lagged way behind at third place with 241 penalty points.
Nikunj Toshniwal-Prasenjit Roy (367 penalty points), Anand Mehta-Sabatullah Khan (375 penalty points) were in the fourth and fifth places.
In the local category, Gagan Sethi and Dhiraj Arrora maintained their lead with a total score of 700 penalty points.
The competitors drove through the Lothar river embankment and then down the East-West Highway to enter the Itahari forest for another competitive section that took them over dirt tracks cutting through forests and then a dry riverbed.
They then re-entered India through Kakarvitta and drove past Gajaldoba, which is being promoted by the West Bengal government as a major tourist attraction.
The rallyists then crossed Lataguri to reach Murti, located beside the Gorumara National Park, home to rhinos and the white-headed bison.
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