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Sport - Racing : Motor

Team Red Rooster hogs the limelight

Sports Reporter

— PHOTO: R. Shivaji Rao

THE CHAMP: Gaurav Dalal of Team Red Roosters who won the overall individual title in the Formula Rolon category.

CHENNAI: The highs and lows of motor racing were on explicit display in the final leg of the J.K. Tyre National racing championship at the Madras Motor Race Track here.

While a beaming Team Red Rooster hogged the podium in its debut season, Formula Swift championship leader Saran Vikram’s final salvo was crushed by some out-of-tune, irresponsible driving.

In the Formula Rolon class, Gaurav Dalal of Red Rooster was let down by his car as he failed to drive to a top-three finish in either of the final round races on Sunday, but a chancy third-place acquisition in the re-scheduled second race of the third round ensured that he claimed the title by the proverbial skin of his teeth. It was a deserved win as Gaurav had done enough in the past few months to stake a valid claim on the Formula Rolon championship.

An even more gratifying occurrence for the debutant Red Rooster team was that though Gaurav failed to finish in style, both races of the Formula Rolon on Sunday were won by his teammates — the first by Sarosh Hataria and the second by Akhil Kushlani; both wins sealed the team championship in Red Rooster’s favour.

Act of rushness

In the Formula Swift class, an allegedly deliberate and “unsportsmanlike” overtaking manoeuvre by championship leader Saran Vikram suffused mild excitement to a dreary outing and also spelt disaster for the WSRF with Leela racer, who lost the title after all his individual points were scrapped following an act of rashness on the track.

Saran’s audacious attempt at lurching past Karthik Shankar’s automobile in the second race of the Formula Swift LGB class resulted in an ungainly pile-up of no less than four cars, with the purported culprit — Saran — pushing himself through the mess to take the lead even before the vehicles had crossed the first bend.

Engine trouble or, as some would say, divine justice, forced Saran out of contention after the two laps.

After protests by the waylaid drivers, a committee of race stewards later decided that Saran’s driving had been “unsportsmanlike” and chose to strip the driver of all his individual points, effectively ending his dreams of a victorious season. According to Rajan Syal, Chairman of the Race League, Saran’s act was in clear violation of the code of motorsports.

“The stewards have taken Saran’s act very seriously and decided to penalize him by withdrawing all his individual points. His team’s standing, though, will remain unaffected. The driver placed second in the rankings — Karthik Shankar — would move up one place and be crowned champion instead,” he said.

The results:

Formula Rolon: Race-1: 1. Sarosh Hataria 14:36:203, 2. Akhil Kushlani 14:43:753, 3. Rayomand Banajee 14:50:930; Race 2: 1. Akhil Kushlani 14:38:714, 2. Sarosh Hataria 14:39:594, 3. Anand Prasad 14:55:816; Round 3: Race 2: 1. Akhil Kushlani 14:43:271, 2. Rayomand Banajee 14:50:436, 3. Gaurav Dalal 14:53:537.

Formula Swift: Race-1: 1. Kartik Shankar 15:35:960, 2. Saran Vikram 15:40:085, 3. Prithveen Rajan 15:48:944; Race-2: 1. Rayomand Banajee 16:01:183, 2. Prtihveen Rajan 16:04:850, 3. Akhil Devarag 16:05:869.

Super bikes - 600 cc: Race-1: 1. Praveen Keerthi 15:48:184, 2. Gopinandhan 16:09:029, 3. Kathi Venkataraman 16:09:238; Race- 2: 1. Praveen Keerthi 15:32:850, 2. Kathi Venkataraman 16:06:339, 3. Gopinandhan 16:19:997.

Super bikes - 1000 cc: Race-1: 1. Alok Sashidhar 15:49:507, 2. Mazhar Ahmed 16:45:638, 3. Sanjay 16:46:667; Race- 2: 1. Alok Sashidhar 15:47:768, 2. Mazhar Ahmed 16:19:730, 3. Deepak Murali 16:58:354.

Saloon cars: Race-1: 1. Radha Selvaraj 12:29:565, 2. Vidyaprakash 12:31:673, 3. Sailesh 12:43:509; Race-2: 1. Vidyaprakash 16:51:600, 2. B.Vijayakumar 17:02:608, 3. Siddharth Kishore 17:03:129.

Race Star cars: Race-1 (6 laps): 1. Mazdayar Vatcha 14:00:554, 2. Deepak Chinnappa 14:08:284, 3. M.S. Ravindra 14:15:009; Race-2 (8 laps): 1. Mazdayar Vatcha 18:43:342, 2. Deepak Chinnappa 18:49:816, 3. M.S. Ravindra 18:50:276.

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