Coimbatore, May 4: Karters from various countries survived the grinding of racing in difficult conditions and sweltering heat but the winners never relented in their goals of returning good timings in all the five races that was held in the JK TYRE Rotax Mojo Asia Challenge 2008 (second leg) here at the Kari Motor Sport track today.

Kolhapur youngsters Parth Ghorpade and Samyuk Shah of Mumbai (in Junior section) and Bhushan Jadav (Junior Novice class) were among the creditable winners in the second leg today, while Hyderabad’s Akhil Khushlani stole the thunder proving his abilities in great measure and held on to his solid start to pip well known driver, Mikko Nassi of Finland, who had won the third place in the Senior category in first leg that was held in Malaysia last month.

Showing good reflexes in forging ahead at the start from his second position on the pole behind Nassi, Khushlani drove an intelligent race and never yielded to a challenging Nassi through out the race. Nassi was a trifle late at the start and paid for his slackness. However he tried to take over Khushlani, who was classy on the straight but showed his abilities at the bends to increase his lead by inches. It turned out to be a hard fight event between the top two as positions for other placing kept changing at every turn. It was the grit and determination that helped Khushlani (17:03.812 secs) to bring cheers to a goodly crowd at this Industrial city. Malaysia’s Ooi Fei Hoong took the third spot.

Winners of the senior category (top 5)
( L to R) Mummahed Afiq Ikhwan, Mikko Nassi, Akhil Khushlani, Ooi Fei Hoong and Rayomand Banajee

Kolhapur’s Dhruv Shivaji Mohite took to the chequered flag to the cheers of Indian camp in the “Micro Max” event that was run to ten laps. At the start he was lying in the third position behind Surya Raghuraman of Dindigul and Singapore’s Brendan Seibi , the pole leader. Mohite had a hard time as his two leaders were competing with each other till the fourth lap. However, Mohite showed great opportunism as he weaved way to second position and soon after the fifth lap forged himself to the front. Then on, Mohite, who also returned the best lap timing of 8:16.851 secs, never looked back before winning the title clocking 49.075 secs. He was followed by Seibl (48.900 sec) and Krishna Mahadik (49.924 secs) also of Kolhapur to win the silver and bronze medals respectively.

The more experienced drivers from Malaysia including Mummahed Nabil, who finished third in the first leg tried his best to break the hold of Ghorpade in the Rotamax Junior category. Ghorpade, who clocked 13:43.913 secs, proved himself as the best in the business as he made a start to finish affair as he maintained a good speed and kept enlarging his lead at every stage of the race. Nabil was also shocked by Samyuk Shah, who was at the Malaysian’s tail and his haunting efforts paid off in the last two laps. Samyuk overtook the Malaysian at the home bend and made it a top two finish for India.

In the novices category races opened to the Indian karters, Kolhapur’s Bhushan Jadav stole the limelight finishing way ahead of others and the lone girl competitor in the event. Sneha Sharma of Mumbai and Saurav Bandyopadhyay of Thane West came second and third respectively to grab the honors in the senior category, while Vikash Anand, Sandeep Kumar and Abha Mankar finished for top three positions in that order.

Race results
Seniors : - 20 laps - 1. Akhil Khushlani 17:03:812 2. Mikko Nassi 17:04:029 3. Ooi Fei Hoong 17:10:992
Juniors : - 15 laps - 1. Parth Ghorpade 13:43:913 2. Samyak Shah 13:50:484 3. Muhammed Nabil 13:51:801
Micro Max - 10 laps - 1. Dhruv Mohite 08:16:851 2. Brendan Seibl :09:06:714 3. Krishna Mahadik 09:17:565
Novice – Senior : - 15 laps - 1. Bhushan Jadhav 2. Sneha Sharma 3. Saurav Bandyopadhayay
Novice – Junior : - 15 - laps- 1. Vikash Anand 2. Sandeep Kumar 3. Abha Mankar

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