Day 2 of Round 3 of the JK NRC kicked off with the Red Bull Road to Rookies youngsters battling it out for the last time this season, followed by the other LGB F4, Gixxer Cup and Euro JK 17 races. Here’s all the action from the day;
Road to Rookies Cup
Lalhruaizela had already secured his berth as India’s representative at the Rookies Cup qualifiers to be held in Spain later this year. He started the last race of his season in P2, behind Jaden and with Lalnunsanga in P3. Lalnunsanga lead the race for the most part, with Lalhruaizela hot on his tail and Jaden meanwhile was fighting hard to hold third place. However, on lap 6, Lalhruaizela pulled a neat move on Lalnunsanga to move in to the lead while Jaden capitlised on the situation and moved in to second. The three were neck in neck down to the last lap, but ultimately it was Jaden who made it to the chequered flag first followed by Lalnunsanga and Lalhruaizela.
LGB F4
With a reverse grid form P8, Diljith TS started the race on pole followed by Saran Vikram Tmars and Nabil Hussain at P2 and P3 respectively in Race 2. Saran seems to get a good start but lost out heavily in C1, dropping down to seventh. Diljith took the lead and Raghul Rangasamy, who started at P5 had moved in to second with Sandeep Kumar in third. In the second lap, Rahul took the lead but gave it back to Diljith a couple of laps later. Diljith started pulling a small lead and Rahul came under attack from Sandeep. As Diljith started pulling away, Raghul and Sandeep decided to use each other’s tow to try and get better times and chase down Diljith. However, they did that to avail so they began racing ahead. In the end, Diljith took the win followed by Raghul Rangasamy in second and Sandeep Kumar in third.
Raghul started Race 3 in pole, followed by Diljith and Chittesh Mandody in P2 and P3. A malfunction with the lights at the start caused the race to be red flagged and started again. Upon the restart, Raghul and Sandeep jumped Diljith, who moved in to third. An incident in lap 1 itself forced the safety car out — Raghul was in the lead, followed by Sandeep and Diljith. Upon the restart, the three of them fought hard for the three podium positions, constantly swapping places with each other. However, in the 7th lap, Raghul spun out at C8 and dropped down to 8th position. Meanwhile, Diljith managed to get in front and get himself a good lead. The battle for third was heating up, with Rohit Khanna trying his best to keep off Vishnu Prasad and Chittesh. In the penultimate lap, Rohit spun out and lost a position. Meanwhile Raghul had climbed back up and was threatening to take third. In the last lap, it was Raghul who got the better of Chittesh and Vishnu, claimed third with Diljith winning and Sandeep coming off second best.
Gixxer Cup
Joseph Matthew started Race 2 on pole, followed by Malsawmdawngliana and Lalmawipuia. Joseph got off to a good start, and held on to the lead for quite a while, though Malsawmdawngliana was hot on his tail. Halfway through the race, Joseph lost one position to Malsawmdawngliana and then in the next lap, lost two more and dropped to fourth. Sachin Choudhary, India’s representative at the Rookie Cup qualifiers last year was in second with Syed Muzammil Ali in third. Sachin took the lead from Malsawmdawngliana, while Joseph moved back in to third place. It was only in the last lap that Malsawmdawngliana pipped Sachin of the lead, forcing Sachin in to second and Joseph in to third.
Euro JK 2017
Anindith started Race 3 of the weekend on pole, followed by Vishnu Prasad and Akash Gowda. When the lights went out, Anindith capitalised on his pole position and went in to C1 with his nose in front. Vishnu was close behind, while Akash Gowda was trying his best to fend off an aggressive Ricky Capo. Six laps in, Ricky made a move on Akash, and made it stick — Akash lost out badly though, dropping positions to Nayan Chatterjee and Nirmal Uma Shanker as well. The race remained in this order till the end — Anindith in first, Vishnu second and Ricky third . Towards the end of the race, Vishnu made up some time on Anindith but it was too late and they saw the chequered flag before he could catch him.
Vikash Anand started Race 4 on pole, followed by Akash Gowda and Nayan Chatterjee. Vikash took off way before the green lights came up and was slapped with a 10 second jump start penalty. Instead of making the most out this situation and getting a good lead, he slipped up at C1 and went wide dropping down to fifth. Akash took the lead, with Vishnu in second and Ricky Capo in third. Akash was driving a defensive line to keep the charge Vishnu behind him, but could not do so for long — Vishnu took the lead in lap 2 itself. He pulled a huge lead out in the front, but what was spectacular was the places Anindith was gaining — four laps in, he moved in to third after starting at P6. An incident in lap 9 called the safety car out and negated the huge lead that Vishnu has built up in the front. However, that didn’t matter because he controlled the restart well and remained comfortably in the lead. Anindith climbed up to second in the eight lap, pushing Akash further down to third, and in to the sights of a charging Ricky Capo. Vishnu took the win, followed by Anindith and Ricky tried everything in the book to get past Akash but could not — leaving Akash on the last rung of the podium.