8th JK Tyre National Racing Championship 2005

November 30: The last phase of the battle for the championship title will decide the new national racing champions in all the 3 categories – Formula LGB, Formula Maruti and Esteem - as the seventh and final round of this year’s JK Tyre National Racing Championship gets underway this weekend at the MMST track at Sriperumbudur near Chennai.

With the cream of Indian racers being seen in action the battle for the championship title promises to be a delight for the viewers and racing connoisseurs. And with no racer having emerged with a winning lead in two categories – Formula LGB and Formula Maruti — the final round promises a weekend of action packed with gutsy adrenalin and nail-biting thrillers. The results of this final round could prove to be the decisive factor for the championship title in all the three categories.

The premium race category - Formula LGB – that has seen some of the best racing action in this year’s championship promises to be a nail-biting thriller. Mumbai’s Ameya Walavalkar Mumbai who was leading till the 4^th round had to surrender the lead to Pune’s Rayomand Banajee. Rayomand of Team Valvoline now leads the pack with 92 points while Ameya and Sarosh Hataria from Chennai are close behind with 88 and 77 points respectively. With both Rayomand and Ameya having come up with some brilliant racing efforts, the duel between the two in the finals promises the fireworks. Although Sarosh is quite behind in the competition, he also has the possibility of making it to the top two should luck desert Rayomand or Ameya in the last two races.

Going all out to regain honors in the Formula Maruti category will be Kolkata racer and championship leader Amitrajit Ghosh of Team Valvoline who will also have to come up with a significant performance to ensure that he regains the lead to wrap up the championship. But with tall and lanky Rayomand Banajee from Pune – who apart from Team Valvoline has acquired backing from CINTHOL has had a very good season so far – coming up with decisive and winning performances in the last couple of rounds and grabbing the championship lead at the end of the 6^th leg, it will be yet another tense couple of races. Also in contention for the top slot will be Gaurav Dalal of Team Gabriel. It will be a fascinating threeway battle for the championship between Rayomand with 81 points, Amitrajit Ghosh with 77 and Gaurav Dalal with 76 points.

And in the Esteem category Ayub Khan with 9 wins out of 12 races is well set to wrap up the championship. Having built an almost unbeatable lead of 20 points Ayub only needs a good finish in the races this weekend to emerge champion after a gap of 3 years. However K. E. Kumar in 2^nd place with 91 points has an outside chance of winning the championship if Ayub fails to finish in both the races. The battle for the third place will now be a two way fight between Saran Vikram(54 pts), B. Vijay Kumar(53 pts). Ashwin Sunder with 44 pts cannot be ruled out of contention for the 3^rd place.

The Championship consisting of seven rounds is promoted by The Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI). The qualifying session will be held on Saturday (December 3).

The races will commence at 10.30 am. Entry for the public is free.

	Esteem	Pts	Formula Maruti	Pts	Formula LGB	Pts
1	Ayub Khan	111	Rayomand Banajee	81	Rayomand Banajee	92
2	K E Kumar	91	Amitrajit Ghosh	77	Ameya Walavalkar	88
3	Saran Vikram	54	Gaurav Dalal	76	Sarosh Hataria	77
4	B.Vijay Kumar	53	Karna Kadur	40	Aditya Akkineni	51
5	Ashwin Sunder	44	Aditya Patel	34	Gaurav Gill	29