The final round of the JK Tyre Rotax Max Karting Challenge was held at the CIK approved International Karting track in Kolhapur. The final was a cliffhanger for both the Junior and Senior categories whereas the Mini Max category was more or less sealed by round 4 in coimbatore.

Ameya Walavalkar from Mumbai and Aditya Patel from Chennai were fighting it out in the senior class, while Vishnu Prasad ( Chennai), Karan Goenka ( Kolkatta), Parth Ghoprpade ( Kolhapur ) and Chitesh Mandody ( Kolhapur ) were all vying for the top slot in the junior class. In the Mini Max class, Shashank Ravishankar from Chennai had sealed the championship by round 4 with continous wins in all the 4 rounds.

The Junior class witnessed the most amount of drama with 4 of them in with a chance to win the title. Vishnu Prasad had a lead of 3.5 points on his nearest rival Parth Ghorpade and a 5.5 point lead over Chitesh Mandody the eventual winner from Kolhapur.

After qualifying in 2nd spot with Chitesh Mandody qualifying in pole, the championship leader played safe in the heats by finishing 2nd in both heats. However there are no points for the heats. Came the Pre Final, Vishnu made the biggest blunder of his life. After trailing Chitesh closely for a few laps, Vishnu made a bold move on Chitesh going into the series of hairpins at the back end of the track. The move did not come off and Vishnu lost 6 places in the bargain. Chitesh built up a sizeable lead with Karan Goenka lying 2nd and Parth 3rd. Vishnu by then had made up on some lost ground and was hounding Parth to regain 3rd place. Here again the youngster from Chennai lost his cool and collided with Parth thus damaging his suspension and had to crimp home last. This put paid to his chances in the Finals as he had to start last.

Chitesh took the chequered flag comfortably which earned him pole for the final race. With no one to match his pace, Chitesh took off in the final race and built a commanding lead to finish first comfortably and seal the championship, as the championship leader, Vishnu, could at best finish 3rd after starting 9th on the grid. It was Chitesh’s day and he earned the championship win with some fine driving by qualifying on pole and winning both the heats, the pre final and the final. Chitesh Mandody will now represent India in the Junior class in the Rotax Max World Karting Finals in Al-Ain ( Dubai ) on the 1st of December 2007.

In the senior class the suspense went on till the last lap of the final race. Championship leader, Ameya Walavalkar qualified on pole with a couple of tenths to spare. 2nd placed Aditya Patel qualified 3rd with Rayomand Banajee qualifying in 2nd place. The 2 heats belonged to Ameya who paced himself well and won both heats quite comfortably. However, it was the pre final and final races which mattered and the pressure was on all for the Sunday’s two races. Engineers from both teams worked hard on the karts to provide the drivers a winning balance.

In the pre final, Aditya Patel made a good move on Ameya in lap3 and from then on held off Ameya to take the chequered flag. Ameya finished a close 2nd . The final race was the cliff hanger. Whoever won it would take home the trophy and get to go for the Rotax World Finals in Dubai in the senior class.

Aditya started well from pole. Rayomand Banajee who started 3rd made a desperate move on the inside of Ameya and nearly pulled it off, but could not find the grip on the dusty track. Ameya regained 2nd spot and then hounded Aditya. But with Aditya having a better acceleration out of the medium and slow corners, Ameya could not find the pace to challenge him though he had a better top speed down the straights. Aditya slowly and surely opened the gap to 2 seconds and took the chequered flag after a hard and well fought season. Aditya will accompany Chitesh to take part in the Rotax Max World Final, Senior class in Dubai.

The Mini Max was as expected for the qualifying, heats and pre finals. Shashank Ravishankar dominated and won both the heats and the pre finals. However in the finals, Shashank got passed by Arjun Maini into the 1st corner. Fighting back hard, Shashank overdid his braking into the hairpin bend and collided with Arjun Maini. This gave Surya Raghuraman no place to go, which then left the door wide open for Dhruv Mohites to take the lead . By the time Surya and Shashank could recover, Dhruv was already a full lap ahead. Arjun Maini was in tears as his kart could not rejoin the race and the race was won by Dhruv Mohites followed by Surya and Shashank.

Shashank took the honours by winning the championship and the special awards for the maximum number of pole positions and the maximum number of wins and missed the chance of equalling Armaan Ebrahim’s record of 10 poles, 10 fastest laps and 10 wins.

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