On an incident-filled day, B. Vijaykumar (Coimbatore) and S. Feroze Khan (Chennai) came up with a cracker of a show in their respective classes in the season’s opening round of the 15th JK Tyre-FMSCI National Racing Championship at the Kari Motor Speedway Circuit in Chettipalayam, near Coimbatore, on Sunday.
Mumbai’s Fahad Kutty, the first race winner, set the pace early in the day in the second race for Indian Junior Touring Cars.
He was challenged from the start by Feroze and Thrissur’s Diljith.
But Fahad, who burnt the midnight oil working on the top end of his car, kept his cool to complete a grand double.
Short-lived happiness
He rejoiced with his friends over a double podium finish, but only for a while as he was excluded on technical grounds.
And Feroze, lucky as he was, celebrated on top of the podium. Diljith and S. Sreeram (Coimbatore) finished for the next two places.
Bigger drama
Even as Fahad was ruing his fate, a bigger drama unfolded in the race for Indian Touring Cars. Nine cars out of the 19 on the grid saw the finish line.
The red flags came out quite frequently, thanks to the regular collision, and added to the agony of the frontrunners.
Cashing in
Team Prime Racing’s Vijaykumar, Kari circuit’s big man, cashed in on the chance to win the race much ahead of Chennai’s Bala Vijay (Moto Rev India) and former seven-time National rally champion N. Leelakrishnan (Big Foots Coimbatore).
“The number of restarts gave me a chance to practise. And, I managed to race confidently to the finish line,” said Vijaykumar.
Goa’s Avdumber Hede and Mexico Deigo Duez shared a race win each in the JK Tyre-Volkswagen Polo R Cup race. Hede got the better of Mihir Dharkar in an action-packed opener.
The race was red-flagged after nine laps and resulted in a double split. Hede took the top spot with a total aggregate time of 14:30.038s. Debutant Sandeep Kumar (Chennai) impressed, finishing a creditable third.
The results (Race 2):
Indian Touring Cars: 1. B. Vijaykumar (Coimbatore) 00:19:16.391; 2. B. Balavijay (Chennai); 3. N. Leelakrishnan. Indian Junior Touring Cars: 1. S. Feroze Khan (Chennai) 00:20:43.084; 2. Diljith (Thrissur); 3. S. Sreeram (Coimbatore).
Volkswagen Polo R Cup: Race 1: Avdumber Hede (Goa) 00:14:30.038; 2. Mihir Dharkar (Mumbai); 3. A. Sandeep Kumar (Chennai). Race 2: 1. Deigo Duez (Mexico) 00:19:17.543; 2. Alisha Abdullah (Chennai) 00:19:24.290; 3. Prashanth Tharani Singh (Chennai) 00:19:24.881s.
