New Delhi: The 9th JK Tyre National Rotax Max Karting Championship came to an exciting finish at Hyderabad today. The championship, which kicked off in June earlier this year at the JK Tyre-MMS Kartainment Track, returned here for the final round in what turned out to be the most competitive races of the season. The day ended with Pradyumn V Danigond (Team Mohites Racing), Krishnaraj Mahadik (Team Mohites Racing) and Ameya Bafna (Team Rayo Racing) being crowned ‘National Karting Champions’ in the Micro Max, Junior Max and Senior Max classes respectively.
The championship was closely fought with few points separating the positions, and it all boiled down to the last race of the season to determine the positions. In the Micro Max category Pradyumn V Danigond with 219.5 points managed to hold on to his lead ahead of Phaneesh HB (Team Mohites Racing) on 202.5 points and the Mira Kirit Erda (Team Maini Racing) at 198.5 points.
Speaking about his season Pradyumn V Danigond said, “It has been a wonderful season and I glad to have finished on top. It has been a close season with competition from Phaneesh and Mira but my team and mechanics have done great to help me through the season.”
The Junior Max class however witnessed a huge upset, Kush Maini (Team Maini Racing) who was leading up until the last round had a forgettable Final race which cost him the championship. Krishnaraj Mahadik (Team Mohites Racing) with 421 points finished on top followed by Kush Maini (Team Maini Racing) on 415 points and Dhruv Mohite (Team Mohites Racing) with 396 points.
Krishnaraj Mahadik talking about his championship victory said, “At the beginning of this round Kush was leading the championship and eventually it all boiled down to the last race of the season. The difference between him and me was 5 points and I knew that a good weekend here would take me to the top. That is exactly what happened, though I finished second in the Pre-final I had a very good Final race which eventually helped my finish on top of the championship table.”
In the Senior Max class Ameya Bafna (Team Rayo Racing) who has been dominating the last few rounds continued his consistent performance and took the top honours in the championship standings with 405 points. Completing the top three were Mithun Ganatra (Team Maini Racing) and Anshuman Chatterjee (Team Rayo Racing) who finished on 400 and 391 points respectively.
Commenting about his season, Champion Ameya Bafna said, “It has been a very good season for me and I glad to have performed consistently throughout. The championship was close with just 2 points separating Mithun and me but I am thrilled to have won the title. It has been a good learning for me this season and I am looking forward to the Rotax Max karting Championship in Portugal later in the year.”
In the Micro Max class Mira Kirit Erda started the Pre-final race from the first position and did well to beat Pradymn V Danigond but only by 0.34 seconds. The Final race was nail biter, Mira lead the 14-lap race till the last corner, but Pradyumn had other ideas. With about 5 meters to the chequered flag, Pradyum showed some great straight-line speed and sneaked ahead of Mira by the smallest possible margin. Phaneesh who finished second in the overall championship pit in a consistent performance finishing third in both the races on the final day.
The Junior Max category began with the Pre-final, starting from pole position Kush Maini had another brilliant race finishing first ahead of Krishnaraj Mahadik. The Final race which as it turned out was also be the championship decider started with Kush on the top, but his luck seemed to have run out in the middle of the race with some problem with his kart causing him to lose steam costing him valuable positions. Making the most of the situation Mahadik put in a stellar performance to finish the race 1.113 seconds ahead of Abhirath Shetty, followed by Dhruv Mohite (Team Mohites Racing).
The races in the Senior Max category were all about racing skills and sheer guts. Defending Champion and karting veteran Chittesh Mandody (Team Mohites Racing) demonstrated his experience to finish first in the Pre-final only to be disqualified for a technical infringement. This resulted in Gaurav Davare (Team Rayo Racing) taking the top spot followed by championship leader Ameya Bafna and team-mate Anshuman Chatterjee. The Final race was a battle of veterans, starting in eight position Vishnu Prasad (Team Meco Racing) left behind racers lap after lap biting on the heels of Ameya Bafna, joining him in the battle was Chittesh Mandody who started at the back of the grid. It was not long before Ameya had to yield to the veterans in a bid to keep his championship standing, this resulted in Vishnu taking the top spot followed by Chittesh and Ameya.
By Indian Sports News Network
