Chennai: Dark Don’s Ashwin Sundar and Tiger Sports Arjun Balu stole the limelight sealing their championship titles in the LGB Formula 4 and Indian Touring Cars categories respectively in the 15th JK Tyre-FMSCI National Racing Championship here at suburban MMST track in Sriperumbudur.
The JK Tyre-VW Polo R Cup featured a star studded line-up including names such as Armaan Ebrahim and winner of the JK Racing Asia Series at Silverstone - Akhil Khushlani.
In the first race, championship leader Ameya Walavalkar did well to finish first ahead of Avdumber Hede and Saurav Bandopadhyay. Walavalkar was the fastest on the track and clocked the best lap of the race at 20:00:875 on his way to the chequered flag.
In the second race, Mumbai’s Raahil Noorani demonstrated excellent racing skills to finish ahead of championship leader Walavalkar and Saurav Bandhyopadhyay, both of whom had finished on the podium in Race 1 held earlier in the day. Owing to the reverse grid format followed in the second races of each round, Akhil Khushlani started from pole but squandered the opportunity after he was awarded a 20 second jump start penalty giving Noorani his maiden victory of the season.
Taking to the starting grid with the sole aim of winning the race to garner points in the Formula LGB 4 class, Ashwin enjoyed a solid start and never looked back to record a memorable victory. In fact, Ashwin ignored the traffic and chaos all around to him to stay focussed on his race. An incident in the middle of the race brought the red flags out following which the race was restarted.
Ashwin resumed the race at an even more scorching speed and went on improving upon his time until the sixth lap when a safety car situation closed the gap between him and the rest. Ashwin returned a best lap time of 1:57.120 seconds and finished half a second ahead of team mate Sarosh Hataria.
The eventual podium finish provided the answer as he went on to seal the championship not only for himself but creditably for his team Dark Don Racing. Sarosh Hataria also from Dark Don Racing maintained consistent pace to remain the immediate follower behind Ashwin like he did in the last two races and finished runner-up. Ashwin has accumulated a massive 186 points followed by Sarosh at 132 points and Saran Vikram in third spot with 106 points.
Similarly, in the Indian Touring Cars class, Coimbatore’s Arjun Balu kept himself away from rest of the grid and his sole decision not to take any risk and cashed in on his strong start to slot in and remain in front all through the race before taking the chequered flag. There was a lot of action happening around the track behind Arjun but he remained focused on his goal of winning the title, trailing him was of veteran Leela Krishnan who performed superbly to finish second after being pushed to the sixth spot in between the race. Incidentally, Leela returned the best lap time of 1:57.904 seconds compared to Arjun’s 1:58.553 seconds. V.Ram Narayaanan, also from Big Foots Racing came third in 20:26.987 seconds.
With the winner getting 25 points for top place finish in each race, Arjun has 168 points to his credited compared to Leela’s 117 points and Rajvirdhan with 93 points is placed third on the leadership board.
In the Indian Junior Tour Cars category, Chennai lad Feroze Khan put in a superlative performance to finish first after starting from the back of the grid. He blew yesterday in the qualifying event and then getting readied for the first race to finish a creditable second, stood out with a great performance. In the championship standings Feroz Khan shot up to the leadership position with 173 points followed by Diljith racing for Eram Group on 140 points and Mumbai’s Fahad Kutty racing for Team Game Over on 137 point.
With this round coming to a close in the most exciting manner possible, the contenders are certain to challenge the leaders in the deciding round of the 15th JK Tyre-FMSCI National Racing Championship, and that promises a round of electrifying races worthy of a season finale!
Results:
Volkswagen Polo R Cup:
• Race 1 - (10 Laps): 1. Ameya Walavalkar 20:28.528, 2. Avdumber Hede 20:36.307 and 3. Saurav Bandopadhyay 20:46.396
• Race 2 - (10 Laps): 1. Raahil Noorani 20:31.102, 2. Ameya Walavalkar 20:39.396 and 3. Vishnu Prasad 20:40.796)
LGB Formula 4:
• Race 3 - (10 Laps): 1. Ashwin Sundar (Dark Don Racing) 20:57.155, 2. Sarosh Hataria (Dark Don Racing) 20:58.236 and 3. Chittesh Mandody (Meco Racing) 21:04.345
• Championship Standings: 1. Ashwin Sundar - 186 points, 2. Sarosh Hataria - 132 points and 3. Saran Vikram – 106 points
Indian Touring Cars:
• Race 2 - (10 Laps): 1. Arjun Balu (Tiger Sport India) 19:57.393, 2. N Leelakrishnan (Big Foots Racing) 20:01.547 and 3. V Ramnarayanan (Big Foots Racing) 20:26.987
• Championship Standings: 1. Arjun Balu - 168 points, 2. N Leelakrishnan - 117 points and 3. Vijaykumar Rajvirdhan - 93 points
Indian Junior Touring Cars: A
• Race 2 - (10 Laps): 1. S Feroze Khan 22:18.470, 2. S Sreeram (Mega Racing) 22:18.915 and 3. Diljith Shaji (Eram Group) 22:19.313
• Championship Standings: 1. Feroze Khan – 173 points, 2. Diljith Shaji – 140 points and 3. Fahad Kutty - 137 points.
By Indian Sports News Network