Mumbai Falcons, represented by Kush Maini and Mikkel Jensen (Denmark), won two of the three races while the Bangalore Racing Stars tandem of Arjun Maini and Oliver Webb (England) took the honours in the other as the curtains came down on the inaugural franchise-based XI Racing League at the MMRT, here on Sunday.
However, the event was far from smooth with numerous issues cropping up with various cars forcing a delay to the qualifying event and the races. Earlier, Saturday’s events had to be cancelled due to logistical issues.
The first race of the day, won by Bangalore, took a heavy toll with six cars packing up due to mechanical reasons. Only nine cars managed to take the start with three retirements even before the race started. It left a six-car grid, a car for each team, for the second and third races.
Race One was interrupted by a safety car period after one of the cars blew the engine. Bangalore started fourth behind Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Blackbirds Hyderabad, but managed to pull ahead with some smart tactics.
The teams were required to make a mandatory driver change between the ninth and 14th-minute window and Racing Stars, powered by Arjun and Webb, got it spot on and then held off a late charge from Mumbai to win the race.
The second race began on the reverse grid of the previous race standings. As such, Delhi’s Gaurav Gill, the three-time Asia Pacific Rally champion, started from pole and led until he pitted for Raghul Rangasamy to take over. The latter maintained the track position to finish second behind Mumbai. Bangalore was third after starting fifth.
Mumbai went on to complete a double, finishing on top in Race Three ahead of Bangalore and Hyderabad.
The results (Provisional):
Race One: 1. Bangalore Racing Stars (Arjun Maini/ Oliver Webb) 27mins, 23.458secs; 2. Mumbai Falcons (Kush Maini/ Michel Jensen) 27:24.018; 3. Blackbirds Hyderabad (Vitantonio Liuzzi/ Gosia Rdest) 27:28.969.
Race Two: 1. Falcons (28:02.222); 2. AD Racing Delhi (Gaurav Gill/ Raghul Rangasamy) 28:21.637; 3. Racing Stars (28:25.847).
Race Three: 1. Falcons (27:59.175); 2. Racing Stars (28:03.838); 3. Blackbirds (Luizzi/ Akhil Rabindra) 28:28.382.
