Chennai, February 14, 2009: Valentine’s Day this year also signaled the beginning of yet another affair between man and machine heralding the new racing season for formula cars with the 12th edition of the JK Tyre FMSCI National Racing Championship getting off to a rousing start today at the Madras Motor Race Track at Irungaatukottai.

India’s premier motor sport championship witnessed full grids in both Formula Rolon Chevrolet and Formula LGB Swift categories. With the top cream of the Indian racers including several past and present champions over the last few years in the fray the 12 year old championship has all the makings of a thriller in the offing.

And today’s results did prove that the experienced and the youth shared honors. In the Formula LGB Enduro races Sudanand Rajan of Team Wallace Sports stole the thunder with a dominating performance displaying therein his tremendous driving skills. In the allotted time frame the experienced pilot racer from Chennai completed 22 laps with a timing of 45:28:724. Finishing second with 22 laps in a timing of 45:28:952 was Akkhil Devrag from Team Rams Racing. And taking the third spot was Akkhils’s team mate Vishnu Prasad : 22 laps in a timing of 46:12:851.

Race 1 in the Formula LGB Swift class saw Chennai youngster Vishnu Prasad of Team TVS Girling recording his maiden win in the National championship. Starting on pole, Vishnu blazed away to build up a comfortable lead from which there was no looking back. Finishing in second place was Vishnu’s team mate Sudarshana Rao from Bangalore while Prithveen Rajan of Team Wallace Sports came in third.

(Left) Sudanand Rajan of Team Wallace Sports (R) Dilip Rogger

In Race 1 of the JK Tyre Super Bike Cup in the 600 cc expert class which featured some of the country’s top international riders, it was the young man from Chennai Dilip Rogger who came up with an enthralling display of speed which left the viewers breathless. Displaying superb riding skills and tremendous control Dilip – the fastest Indian on two wheelers and India’s first Asia GP racer - roared away on his Honda CBR bike to record a comprehensive win in his category. Dilip’s victory was all the more commendable as he stood first after he was imposed a 20 second fine for a false start. Finishing a distant second was S. Gopinandhan while Kiran Babu came in third. In the 600 cc general category Vivek Pillai took the honors with K.V.Balaji and Alisha Abdullah finishing second and third respectively. It was an all Bangalore show in the 1000 cc class with V. Vikram taking the chequered flag with a thumping win way ahead of his nearest rival Mazher Ahmed. Sanjay Kumar finished third.