Goa : Goa couldn’t get any hotter…as it witnessed the hottest-ever motorsport action at the grand finale of JK Tyre National Karting Championship 2001, which concluded today at Goa Kart Racing. Eighteen of the nation’s most promising driving sensations, selected amongst thousands of speed freaks through the regional rounds of JK Tyre National Karting Championship 2001 in eight cities, competed in hot pursuit for the coveted title of JK Tyre National Karting Champion 2001. And it was Ameya Walvalkar from Mumbai, who turned the heat on others, as he drove towards a spectacular victory…not only winning the Championship but also a brand new Ford Ikon and a JK Tyre sponsored professional drive at JK Tyre National Racing Championship 2002. Following him closely were S.Narendran  from Chennai and Adil Amaan from Mumbai winning the second and third positions respectively.

JK Tyre National Karting Championship 2001, billed as the greatest motorsport spectacle of India, is an attempt by JK Tyre, the pioneers of motorsports in India, FORD INDIA, CALTEX Lubricants, NOW ISP & SEGA to identify and honor the budding motorsport talent in the country. The Championship, which into its second year of running, stormed Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Baroda, Hyderabad, Kolkata & Ludhiana-witnessing unprecedented karting action involving hundreds of wannabe Narain Karthikeyans, before landing at Goa for the Grand national finale.

The finale started with 3 heats on a grid of six karters each. Ameya Walvakar, Sameer Ebrahim, Abhimanyu Jadhav, Adil Amaan, S. Narendran & Arvind KC qualified for the final grid of six karters. At the hotly-fought finale, Sameer took the lead closely chased by Ameya. The hot chase continued for few initial laps of the 24 lap race, but fate had its final call as one of the two engines of Sameer’s kart failed…enabling Ameya to overtake him. Ameya maintained his lead, driving spectacularly, rightfully entering the history books as the second JK Tyre National karting Champion 2001.

Position	Name	City	Prize
First	Ameya Walvalkar	Mumbai	JK Tyre National Karting Champion 2001 Trophy, Ford Ikon and a pro-drive at JK Tyre National Racing Championship 2002
Second	S. Narendran	Chennai	JK Tyre National Karting Championship 2001, First runner-up trophy and Rs.50,000/= Cash prize
Third	Adil Amaan	Mumbai	JK Tyre National Karting Championship 2001 Second Runner-Up Trophy and Rs.25,000/= cash prize

Race Report

The tempo of the grand finale of JK Tyre National Karting Championship was set one day in advance only…as it witnessed its closest ever qualifyings round, at which the difference between the qualifying timings of top six karters was just 4/10th of a second!

The grand finale witnessed the battle amongst 18 of best karting  talents of the country at picturesque Goa Kart Racing track, Goa. These included the 16 regional champions from eight cities where the regional rounds were held, besides Abhimanyu & Sameer Ebrahim, who outwitted the runner-up winners of other cities to win themselves an opportunity to compete in the finale grid. The round consisted of 3 heats of 12 laps of a grid of six karters each, positioned on the basis of their qualifying timings and then a final of 24 laps with top two karters of each heat.

The first heat started with lot of ablomb & cheerful enthusiasm, led by Ameya Walvaker from Mumbai. However, a slight crash between two competitors at the first corner led to the race being restarted. Rayomond Banajee took the lead, but Ameya soon overtook him to regain his pole position. However, showcasing exemplary maneuverability, S. Narendran overtook all others to be at second position.  And then turning on the heat to Ameya, overtook him to capture the first position, which he spectacularly maintained throughout the remaining laps…though closely followed by Ameya. For the third position, Ameya was overtaken by Amol Patel, who maintained his 3rd position at the end of the first heat. S. Narendran & Ameya, who ended at first & second positions respectively qualified for the grand finale.

The second heat started with Sameer Ebrahim in the lead, followed by Rajiv Patel. Though Rajiv took the lead, he was soon overtaken by Sameer. Rajiv crashed into the side wall…losing precious time as well as enthusiasm. Sameer maintained his lead throughout, with Arvind KC & Fazal Khan following him in close pursuit for the second position. The race ended with Sameer at first position, followed by Arvind & Fazal…with Sameer & Arvind qualifying for the grand finale.

The third & final heat started with Mahinder Jubbal at the lead, followed by Abhimanyu & Adil. Abimanyu took the lead, closely followed by Adil Amaan. Misfortune struck Mahinder & Shabbir as they crashed with each other, leaving only four competitors in the fray for the race. The heat witnessed  close chases between Abhimanyu & Adil for the first two positions and Karthik & Ashutosh for the next two positions. Towards the end of the race, Ashutosh overtook Karthik for the third position. Abhimanyu & Adil ended the race at the first & second positions, thus winnng themselves a position on the grand finale grid of six best karters of the nation.

This was followed by race amongst children under the 14 years of age, which indeed witnessed a real hot chase amongst all the competitors. The race was won by Aditya Patel from Chennai, followed by Anand Prasad, who is also from Chennai and Akhil Khushlani from Hyderabad. Besides winning gleaming JK Tyre National Karting Championship trophies, Aditya also won a cash prize of Rs. 15,000 and the other two kid champions also won attractive cash prizes.

This was then followed by a special demo race by kids aged between 5 and 8 years of age, in special karts designed by KnK karts…establishing that karting is a safe sport and he fact that even the kids are ready to embrace the challenge of speed, hinting at the bright future this sport will have in the nation.

The final line-up for the JK Tyre National karting Championship 2001 was: -

Ameya Walvalkar (Mumbai)           (pole position)
Sameer Ebrahim (Chennai)
Abhimanyu Jadhav (Bangalore, coming from Kolhapur)
Adil Amaan (Mumbai)
S. Narendran(Chennai)
Arvind KC (Hyderabad, coming from Kolar – Karnataka)

The race started with Sameer taking the initial lead, closely followed by Ameya Walvalkar. While both these karters took the lead, the initial laps witnessed lot of bumping amongst other karters as they hotly battled to outdo the others. Adil Amaan closely followed at third spot, but only soon to be overtaken by Abhimanyu, who was then outwitted by S. Narendran…hinting at close chases. Meanwhile, the focus of the attention remained the bumper-to-bumper chase between Sameer & Ameya for the coveted first position, with Sameer spectacularly maintaining his lead. But as fate would have it, one of the engines of his two-engine kart failed, giving a leeway to Ameya to finally gain lead over Sameer. The engine failure put Sameer at a major disadvantage, as he ended up at the last of the pack. With no strong competition, Ameya maintained his lead for rest of the laps, closely followed by S. Narendran, Adil Amaan, Abhimanyu and Sameer at the last. Arvind was shown the black flag and had to leave the race. The 24 lap grand finale round of JK Tyre National Karting
Championship 2001 had its share of twists and upswings and finally ended with Ameya Walvalker being crowned as the next national karting champion, thus becoming the second Mumbaite after Asif Nazir to win this prestigious championship. S. Narendran picked up the 1st Runner-up trophy, followed by Adil Amaan as the 2nd runner-up.