The last day of the third round of JK Tyre National Racing Championship saw many upsets in various categories of races that were held today at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore. Ashwin managed to hang on to his championship lead with 78 points overall. Karthik Tharani managed to bag another race win and is now second in overall championship with 68 points. Nayan Chatterjee is third in contention with 66 points, dropping one place down because of the DNF in the first race of third round. The JK Tyre Novice Cup saw lot of politics and changes in result as one of the racers did not abide by the competition norms. The second and third races of Formula LGB 4 saw Chittesh Mandody taking the top honours in both races. In Suzuki Gixxer Cup, Joseph Matthew won a last lap thriller. Here are the highlights of all the races across the four categories:
To put it briefly, the third race turned out to be a battle between Karthik Tharani and Nayan Chatterjee. Karthik started from pole position, with Nirmal and Nayan in second and third positions on the grid. Karthik led the race from the start and Nirmal was close behind him. Nayan in third position was constantly attacking Nirmal for the second spot and the latter defended his position, but only for a couple of laps, as Nayan quickly overtook Nirmal from the inside at C1. Karthik made most of his pole position and continued to lead the race. Soon after, Nayan was closing in on Karthik and for the entire duration of the race, he was tailing and trying out all the overtaking maneuvers, but in vain. Nayan Chatterjee had no answer to Karthik Tharani’s defense. Karthik defended superbly and never made a single error during the 15-lap race. At the end, Karthik won the race, with Nayan close behind him. Meanwhile, Ashwin Datta managed to outsmart Nirmal in the last few laps of the race, but he was a distant third, as the real battle was between Karthik and Nayan.
The last race started as reverse grid for the top six and Yash Aradhya was on pole position, with Brayan and Nirmal in second and third positions on the grid. Yash Aradhya was leading the race followed by Nirmal and Brayan. Nirmal was constantly behind Yash’s tail and the latter defended his position. The top three (Yash, Nirmal and Brayan) were fighting it out for the top spot while the next three (Ashwin, Nayan and Karthik)racers were slugging it out for the second position. With five laps to go, Nirmal managed to overtake Yash and took the lead. Yash, in a bid to defend his position made a slight error and went off the track, losing pace and dropping a couple of positions. But he recoverd quickly and was in second position. Nirmal managed to get a decent lead over the rest of the racers fighting down the order. The four racers behind him were in a squabble, racing close behind and slipstreaming past each other in the narrow 2.1km circuit. In the final laps, Brayan slipstreamed past Yash down the main straight and overtook him as the race progressed, putting himself in second. At the end, Nirmal won the race followed by Brayan and Yash in second and third positions respectively. Ashwin Datta took the fourth place and Nayan Chatterjee had to settle for fifth place, as he couldn’t push his car too far because of the steering issues that he was facing.
Two races were conducted and the first race of the day started in reverse grid. As a result, Rupesh Sivakumar of Dark Don Racing started on pole position, followed by team mate Sarosh Hataria and Diljith TS in second and third positions on the grid. It was a tight race with 25 racers and lots of wheel-to-wheel racing and close encounters. Rupesh, Diljith and Sarosh were the top three leading the race, but Sarosh managed to take the lead with Diljith tailing behind him. Rupesh went off track near C1, damaged his rear axle and the race was yellow flagged. At this point, Sarosh was the race leader followed by Chittesh and Raghul. Raghul too spun out near C5 and dropped down the order to 15th place. Rohit Khanna started from eighth position, fought his way back up to lead the race briefly dropped down and again made his way back up to first place. He was given a 20-second penalty for avoidable collisions that he caused in the race due to the protests by other racers. Many drivers protested against other racers as it was a tightly packed race and there were many race incidents. As a result, Chittesh, who finished second, inherited the first place , followed by Sarosh and Sohil Shah.
In the second race, Chittesh, Sarosh and Sohil occupied the top three places on the grid. Chittesh had a good start and he led the race with Sarosh tailing behind him. Raghul managed to slot himself behind Sarosh in third and the trio led the race. During the course of the race, Raghul, Rohit and other cars had damaged their noses; one car had the top fender flying off the car. Amit Kumar Bora spun out near C1 and the race was red flagged. Two laps were run under safety car period. At this point, Sarosh was leading with Chittesh and Ragul in second and third. Rohit Khanna was close behind in fourth place and he managed to overtake Raghul to occupy third place. But as he came out of C2, his car’s nose came flying off obstructing his view. This slowed him down. Sarosh led the race right till the last lap when Chittesh, making use of the slipstream, snaffled the lead from Sarosh to take home his car. Sarosh had to settle for a second place and Raghul finished third. Balaprasath finished fourth followed by Sandeep and Diljith.
Vishnu Prasad leads the Championship with 59 points and Raghul is just two points down at 57.
The last race of the season in this class witnessed a lot of drama and race incidents. Hashim EKP started on pole position with Kunal and Tijil in second and third grid positions. Right in the first lap, Ashwin Nair slowed down due to mechanical problems. Kunal had a bad start and was pushed down to fourth. Aman Chaudhary spun out at C1. Tijil slipstreamed behind Hashim and took the lead away from him. Hashim, in a desperate move to get back the lead, hit Tijil from behind. This incident pushed Hashim down to fifth position. Tijil remained unaffected and continued to race. Meanwhile, Suriya Varathan slipstreamed past Kunal and was in second position. Tijil lead the race followed by Suriya and Hashim. With two laps to go, Hashim overtook both Suriya and Tijil and went on to cross the finish line first. Tijil gave a tough competition and finished a close second. Suriya Varathan finished third and Jamwal Digveshwar took the fourth spot. In a dramatic turn of events, the other racers protested against Hashim, as he had already won a podium in the Ethios Cup. The Novice Cup rules say that one cannot compete in this class if one has ever won a podium in any other competitive racing event. This rule meant that he was disqualified from the races and thus, Tijil Rao inherited the race win. Second and third places went to Suriya Varathan and Jamwal from Jammu. However, Suriya Varathan walked away with the championship title and Tijil finished overall in second.
Joseph Matthew started on pole position with Malasawndawngliana and Sachin Chaudhary in second and third grid position. Joseph had a good start and Mala was close behind. The trio of Joseph, Mala and Sachin increased the gap gradually between themselves and the rest of the pack. With seven laps to go, sachin closed in on Syed and they both were battling it out for third position. Meanwhile Sruthi Nagarajan, one of the two women racers in the Gixxer cup, set her personal best laptime. Syed had got the better of Sachin and he took the third position. With only four laps to go, Joseph increased the gap between him and the rest and he looked unstoppable. Mala and Syed were trying to find the pace but Joseph had built a good lead. With only one lap to go, unexpectedly, Mala closed the gap built by Joseph over the 10 laps and in a last lap thriller, both were racing neck to neck and there was no quarter given. It was a major scare for Joseph who had a great start and built a massive lead. The fight for the top spot went right down to the wire. Down the main straight of the final lap, Joseph and Mala were racing neck to neck – Mala was only 0.087 seconds behind Joseph. In the end however, Joseph held his nerve and won the race, with Mala centimetres behind him. Syed came home to a third place finish and Sachin settled for fourth. The last race of the Suzuki Gixxer Cup turned out to be a last lap thriller.
Here are the results:
Euro JK 18:
Race Three: 1. Karthik Tharani (15:37.117); 2. Nayan Chatterjee (15:38.043); 3. Ashwin Datta (15:40.886)
Race Four: 1. Nirmal Uma Shankar (15:42.818); 2 Brayan Perera (15:46.014); 3. Yash Aradhya (15:47.130)
LGB 4:
Race 2: 1. Chittesh Mandody (Avalanche; 18:47.313); 2. Sarosh Hataria (Dark Don; 18:47.409); 3. Sohil Shah (MSport; 18:47.957)
Race 3: 1. Chittesh Mandody (20:11.953); 2. Sarosh Hataria (20:12.040); 3. Raghul Rangasamy (MSport; 18:13.676)
Gixxer Cup:
JK Tyre Novice Cup: