Twenty-year-old Vishnu Prasad, proved once again why he is hailed as the Indian driver to watch out for, by stamping his class on the 1st round of the JK Racing India Series, featuring the powerful FB02 cars, powered by the 1.2 litre BMW bike engine, and run under the tutelage of world’s elitist racing outfit- Team Euro International owned by Antonio Ferrari,

Starting the race in pole position, at the Kari Speed Motorway in the feature race of the JK Tyre Racing Championship 2014 on Saturday, Vishnu left in his wake FIA ‘Young Driver’ winner Akhil Rabindra and Nayan Chatterjee to take the chequered flag of the 15-lap race in a total time of 16:44.861. Akhil finished 11.846 seconds behind in 16.56.707, while Nayan Chetterjee, making his debut in this class, finished a creditable third, clocking 16:59.429, 14.568 seconds behind the winners.

The Volkswagen Polo R Cup also had its share of excitement and thrills, with two crashes in the first lap forcing a restart. There was more drama in store as the provisional winner, Karminder Pal Singh, was penalized 30 seconds by the stewards for overtaking under the yellow flag and ultimately slipped down to 9th position.

Angad Singh Matharoo emerged winner of the 15-lap race in a time 19:27.254, followed by Anshul Manoj Shah iin 19:29.572 and Lee Keshav Gupta in 2.941.

In the first race of the day, featuring the Formula LGB4 single-seaters, Diljith T Shaji of Dark Don Racing emerge winner in 18:38.073, followed by teammate Sudarshan Rao in 18.45.147 and Meco Racing’s Rahul Rangaswamy in 18:55.203.

Vishnu had made his intentions clear in the qualifying round held earlier in the day, focused to the hilt in realizing his plans to finish on the top of the grid with the best with the best lap time of 1min 05.096 seconds and best speed of 116.136 kms.

He continued in the same vein in the main race, clocking his fastest lap time of 1:05.693 and reaching the top speed of 115.367 kms.
The VolkswWagen Polo R-cup event, which is in its fifth year in succession, witnessed strong tussles amongst the top three drivers, who started at top three pole positions. Before completing the very first lap, Karthik Tharani of Chennai, Lee Keshav Gupta of Delhi and Ansul Manoj Shah Maharashtra were involved in an accident and the race was forced to be restarted.
 

None of the three could come under the start lights in the re-started event but Ansul and Lee Keshav, who went to the pits rejoined the race (from pit start) and claimed podium finishes.

In the Formula LGB 4 event, Kerala’s Diljith Shaji was in his elements as usual and was unbeatable in both the qualifying and the main race. In fact, in the last three laps, Diljith was brilliant while forging ahead of his rivals and, in fact, the seasoned and more experienced Sudarshan Rao of Karnataka, a pilot by profession, failed to make any dent to the chances of the leader.

The second round of the JK Tyre Racing Championship 2014 will be held at the Kari Speed Motorway on July 12 and 13.

Driver’s Quotes:

Vishnu Prasad “It was definitely a good race and everything went pretty good during practice as well. It was a close race between me Akhil (Rabindra) and Nayan (Chatterjee). Nayan has done well considering that it is his first year and as the weekend goes along, tomorrow is going to be more tougher for me,” said Vishnu with a note of caution.
Diljith Shaji “I was pretty confident of racing well and winning the race,” an overconfident Diljith told media persons at the post race conference.
The Kerala driver also sounded optimistic about the next race on Sunday. “The win has given me the perfect boost and I’m all the more confident of winning the next race,” he said with a smile.

Results:

Jk Racing India Series FB02: Vishnu Prasad 16:44.861; Akhil Rabindra 16:56.707; Nayan Chatterjee 16:59.429; Ameya Bafna 17:03.772; Karthik Krishna 17:14.780

VW Polo R Cup: Angad Singh Matharoo 19:27.254; Anshul Manoj Shah 19:29.572; Lee Keshav Gupta 19:30.195; Gaurav Anil Mehta 19:31.395; Utsav Shah 19:35.274

Formula LGB 4: Diljith T Shaji (Dark Don Racing) 18:38.073; Sudarshan Rao (Dark Don Racing) 18:45.157; Rahul Rangaswamy (Meco Racing) 18:55.203; Ameya Bafna (Rayo Racing) 18:56.031; Vishnu Prasad ((meco Racing) 18:56.895