8th JK Tyre National Racing Championship 2005

Racing action was at its best at MMST track at Irrungattukottai near Chennai, with the championship race hotting up further up in the premium class Formula LGB and Formula Maruti categories. As today’s races were run on the full track, the number of laps per race were reduced to nine. Formula LGB category saw some of the best races of the day as it showcased all the ingredients of a thriller. It has been a three way fight for the top slot between Ameya Walavalkar, Rayomand Banajee and Sarosh Hataria. And today was no different as the battle continued. It was after a long time that a father and son combination were seen in action. While the father and veteran Kamalesh Patel was fighting it out in the Esteem category, the son 16 year Aditya Patel made his presence felt in the qualifying round of Formula (FISSME) category notching up his first ever pole positions - 2^nd in race 1 and 1^st in race 2. And in the Formula Maruti category new challengers are emerging. The likes of Aditya Patel and Sahil Shelar all look set to upset the top rung.

In the premium racing category Formula LGB pole leader Rayomand Banajee stood tall as he returned to top form after a long lull and stole the show with an outstanding display of skilled driving and speed to take the chequered flag in Race 1. Rayomand led all the way while Ameya Walavalkar starting 2^nd on grid and Sarosh Hataria starting 3^rd fought it out for the second spot. Ultimately it was Sarosh who broke away to move upto 2^nd place while Ameya had to settle for the third place. The speed of these Esteem engined formula cars have delighted both spectators as well as racing enthusiasts. Ameya finished in third place. The novice prize was annexed by Raphael Allan. In an action packed Race 2 Rayomond dominated right from the start to come up trumps and finish his second win of the day which also put him ahead in the the overall championship. Spectacular efforts from 4^th in grid Aditya Akkineni and 7^th in grid Afsar Riyaz put them in 2^nd and 3^rd places respectively while Sarosh Hataria and Ameya Walavalkar were pushed to 5^th and 8^th places. Novice prize was won by Aditya Patel.

The first lap of Race 2 saw the vehicles of Gaurav Dalal, Saahil Shelar and Amanpreet Ahluwalia vehicle go for a spin forcing the race to be halted. The races commenced again this time as a 6 lap race. Pole leader Aditya Patel was not able maintain his tempo in this race and despite putting a desperate effort ended up second next to Amitrajit Ghosh. Rayomand Banajee who performed consistently today in all his races finished in third place.

Race 1 of the day was in this category and started with a grid of 10 cars. This event which has been so far dominated by the veterans saw the addition of two more of them –Harish Samtani and Kamlesh Patel - in the grid. Veteran racer and championship leader Ayub Khan looked unstoppable despite starting third and by the 6^th lap had moved up to grab the lead only to lose it as problems cropped up in his vehicle pushing him down to 4^th place. Pole leader K E Kumar after being given a fright by Ayub held to his position to bring up his maiden 1^st place win in this championship. Finishing second was Saran Vikram while Ashwin Sunder finished third. Race 2 saw Ayub Khan starting in pole back to his winning ways. With only 7 cars in the grid and after getting to a fast start Ayub did not give any leeway this time and ensured that he lead till the end. Taking the chequered flag for the ninth time in 10 races Ayub Khan now has a tally of 104 points in the championship with his nearest rival K E Kumar trailing by 31 points. Meanwhile as Ayub raced to victory a threeway fight was on for the 2nd place between K E Kumar, Saran Vikram and B.Vijay Kumar. However Kumar stuck to his guns and was able to finish second while Saran Vikram came in third. Radha Selvaraj’s absence from this round did not deprive him of his overall championship position – 3^rd – although he is far behind the 2^nd placed K E Kumar.

Pos	Competitor	Timing	Competitor	Timing
1	K E Kumar	20:04:789	Ayub Khan	20:07:250
2	Saran Vikram	20:05:037	K E Kumar	20:11:469
3	Ashwin Sunder	20:10:467	Saran Vikram	20:12:216
	Fastest lap		Fastest lap
	Ayub Khan	02:11:383	Ayub Khan	02:12:170
Tuner Arumugam			Sivaramakrishnan

Pos		Competitor	Timing	Competitor	Timing
1		Gaurav Dalal	19:44:234	Amitrajit Ghosh	--
2		Aditya Patel	19:44:304	Aditya Patel	--
3		Rayomand Banajee	19:58:603	Rayomand Banajee	--
Novice Prize				Novice Prize
Sahil Giridhar 20:27:978
Tuner Bhaskar				Manekshaw
	Fastest Lap			Fastest Lap
	Amitrajit Ghosh 02:09:268			Aditya Patel 02:08:631

Pos		Competitor	Timing	Competitor	Timing
1		Rayomand Banajee	18:32:229	Rayomand Banajee	18:39:584
2		Sarosh Hataria	18:33:957	Aditya Akkineni	18:41:368
3		Ameya Walavalkar	18:34:055	Afsar Riyaz	19:01:121
Novice Prize				Novice Prize
Raphael Allan 18:56:433				Aditya Patel 19:11:963
Tuner Shanta Kumar				Amalraj
	Fastest Lap			Fastest Lap
	Ameya Walavalkar 02:00:651			Rayomand Banajee 02:01:644

	Esteem	Pts	Formula Maruti	Pts	Formula LGB	Pts
1	Ayub Khan 104		Amritajit Ghosh	77	Rayomand Banajee	76
2	K. E. Kumar	73	Rayomand Banajee	70	Ameya Walavalkar	71
3	Radha Selvaraj	44	Gaurav Dalal	67	Sarosh Hataria	67

K E Kumar

K E Kumar

Timing

Gaurav Dalal

Novice Prize

Timing

Rayomand Banajee

Novice Prize