Greater Noida: The final round of the JK Tyre Racing Championship came to a thrilling finish in front of over 10,000 vocal spectators and motor sports fans at the Buddh International Circuit. After setting the tone on Saturday, the best drivers in India came up some spectacular high speed action as the country’s premier motor racing championship drew to a close with the crowning of champions.
Vishnu Prasad of Meco Racing became the first ever champion in the JK Racing India Series that was introduced this year by JK Tyre in technical partnership with Italian racing outfit, Eurointernational. In the Formula LGB 4, redoubtable Sarosh Hataria of Dark Don Racing took the champion’s title, while Rahil Noorani of Mumbai took the top honours in the JK Tyre Volkswagen Polo R Cup.
In the final two races of the JK FB02, Kolhapur-based, Chittesh Mandody, who clinched his maiden victory in this class on Saturday, came up with a stunning repeat performance by taking two more victories making a hat-trick of wins over the weekend. Arjun Maini, who was in the running for the championship along with Vishnu Prasad, finished third in the first race of FB02 class, which he followed by a third place finish in second race of the day. Championship leader, Prasad, finished second and third respectively in the two races, which was enough to ensure him the championship with 179 points. For his super effort in his debut year in the class, Prasad has earned himself a free test in European Formula 3 in Italy with Eurointernational.
In the JK Tyre Volkswagen Polo R Cup, Gaurav Mehta won the first race of the day, with Jeffrey Kruger and Rahil Noorani in second and third places respectively. In the second race, Kruger was back at the top ahead of Noorani and Karthik Tharani. But being an invitation driver, Kruger’s points were not taken into account towards the championship. As a result, Noorani was crowned as the champion in the VW Polo R Cup with a total of 392 points. Prashant Tharani finished the year with 368 points in second place, while Angad Matharoo ended the season in third place with 312 points.
In the only race of the Formula LGB 4 of the day, Kartik Krishna took a fine victory ahead of Vishnu Prasad and Rohit Khanna. Despite finishing outside the top three, it was Hataria’s day, as he was formally crowned as the champion with 230 points, followed by Prasad at 162 points and Krishna in third place on the points table with a tally of 149 points.
But it was the Ultima Queens, who brought the house down when they lined up on the grid for the final race of the day. Sheila Verschuur from The Netherlands once again repeated yesterday’s performance to clinch a fine victory, with Edina Bus and Lieette Braams-Van finishing in second and third places respectively.