Murti (West Bengal), Feb 27: 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.