Chennai: Day one of the fifth and penultimate round of the 15th JK Tyre FMSCI National Racing Championship got underway at the Madras Motor Race Track in Sriperumbudur on Saturday. The day began under sunny skies but got overcast as the day progressed, at one point it threatened to rain, but then the rain gods kept away.
 
In the JK Tyre-VW Polo R Cup qualifying round Goa’s Avdumber Hede finished on pole with championship leader Ameya Walavalkar and Saurav Bandyopadhay qualifying second and third respectively.
 
In the LGB Formula 4 class Dark Don Racing drivers Ashwin Sundar and Sarosh Hataria hit peak form at the right time of the season to almost seal the team championship title in the class with one more round to go after this.
 
The first race of LGB Formula 4 event, turned out to be a one team affair, after the top two drivers were identified at the end of qualifying earlier this morning.  Dark Don Racing’s Ashwin Sundar, the leader on championship point table and Sarosh Hataria had an easy outing.  They were unchallenged throughout the ten lap race that they indulged in some fun mid-way the race interchanging places in front before Ashwin finally took his appointed first place on podium.  Sarosh, who had a spin in last but one lap, finished second and in fact, returned the best lap timing of 1:56.547 seconds.
 
It was a different story in the second race held later in the evening with the drivers returning slower timings.  Both Ashwin and Sarosh were going bumper to bumper for a better part of the race, however, Ashwin, who has been in good nick managed to forge ahead for top honours followed by Sarosh and Gautham Parekh. Saran Vikram did a shade better in the second race finishing fourth.
 
In the Indian Touring Cars class, Coimbatore’s Arjun Balu of Tiger Sport continued his form to finish on pole in the qualifying, and maintained the momentum to win the race in a start to finish affair.  Forging ahead at the start he branched out at the first turn from his followers, for a couple of laps he had to ward off challenges from the veteran Leelakrishnan, D. Vidya Prakash and B. Vijayakumar both racing for Prime Racing, but managed to leave him behind soon.  Then on he had a clear passage all through to the chequered flag
 
The Indian Junior Touring Cars race witnessed a new winner in Chennai’s Raja of Performance Racing.  Raja surprised everyone including Fahad Kutty (Team Game over) and S. Feroze Khan (Chennai), the top two drivers on Championship point table. S. Naredran (IPL Powerpak) and S. Sreeram (Mega Racing) came second and third respectively.
 
Day 2 promises more knuckle cracking action at the Madras Motor Race Track with Race 2 of the Indian Junior Touring Cars class at 10:00 am followed by Race 1 of the exciting JK Tyre-VW Polo R Cup at 11:00 am.
 
Results:
 
LGB Formula 4: Race 1: 1. Ashwin Sundar (Dark Don Racing - 17:53.143), 2. Sarosh Hataria (Dark Don Racing - 18:01.616), 3. Gautham Parekh (Wallace Sports & Research Foundation - 18:08.616)
 
LGB Formula 4: Race 2: 1. Ashwin Sundar (Dark Don Racing - 19:52.077), 2. Sarosh Hataria (Dark Don Racing - 19:53.160), 3. Gautham Parekh (Wallace Sports & Research Foundation - 20:00.981)
 
Indian Touring Cars: 1. Arjun Balu (Tiger Sports India - 19:58.769), 2. N. Leela Krishnan (Big Foots Racing - 20:19.772), 3. D.Vidya Prakash (Prime Racing - 20:21.752)
 
Indian Junior Touring Cars: 1. Raja (Performance Racing - 21:57.332), 2. S.Narendran (IPL Powerpak - 22:09.433) and 3. S. Sreeram (Mega Racing Beema Sports - 22:19.473)
 
JK Tyre Volkswagen Polo R Cup: Qualifying: 1. Avdumber Hede (Goa - 2:00.17), 2. Ameya Walavalkar (Mumbai - 2:00.331) and 3. Saurav Bandyopadhay (Mumbai - 2:01.062).

By Indian Sports News Network