Saturday,
04th July 2009, Coimbatore : On a demanding day of wet weather
conditions where skills of a driver come in to being, S.Narendran
from Team Ram’s Racing showed alacrity
in great measure in taking the honors to register his second successive
win of the season in the grueling Formula LGB Hyundai endurance race
in the 12th edition of JK Tyre FMSCI National Road Racing Championship
here today.
With
Round 3 of the prestigious lone national championship shifting focus
on to other main events, Chennai’s promising youngsters Goutham
Parekh and Ashwin Sundar hogged the limelight
in the Formula LGB Swift and Formula Rolon Chevrolet events respectively.
One
of the bunch of international drivers from India, Ashwin Sundar
highlighted the day’s proceedings in his goal to win
the Formula Rolon Chevrolet 15-lap race. Endowed with good control and
having known the line of the track like back of his hand, Sundar
had a good start amongst the bunch of dare devils. His unrelenting
attitude and controlled aggression saw him enlarging his lead right
in the second lap and then kept up a commanding position.
Everyone
at the track, including his Team Speed boss and India’s only Formula
One driver, Narain Karthikeyan, were at dismay as Sundar’s
car started emitting heavy smoke with just three laps to go
for the finish.
Here,
Sundar kept on to his job despite the marshals showing
the flag to caution him. Though his car was not moving as fast as it
was, Sundar managed to win mainly because of having
consolidated such a massive lead earlier on.
Later,
Karthikeyan, who appreciated Sundar’s
decision to continue and finish the race, said “under
that circumstances, I would have done the same thing. Ashwin did a wonderful
job”.
Another
contender, Gaurav Dalal of Team Red Rooster
Racing did not finish the race as he hit a curb before turning
to the straights and his car’s floor bed buckled in.
Independent
racer Saran Vikram finished second while Shankar
Narayanan of Team Amaron Pro Racing with Meco
finished third.
It
was a dramatic Race1 which unfolded in the Formula LGB Swift category
under wet conditionds due to rains. Soon after race started the drivers
had to negotiate the straights and the corners under challenge conditions.
In this, Chetan Anand of Wallace Sports was
the first to go off the track forcing exhibition of yellow flags through
the track and the complete race was held under this caution and in fact
Chetan’s vehicle stayed at the same point till
the race was completed.
With
the Stewards hauling up a dozen of the drivers for interrogation at
the end of the race, seven of them were declared as expelled for an
infringement for “speeding or overtaking” under yellow flag.
Amongst the seven, Vishnu Prasad, Akhil Devrag, K.Prasanth and Sudarshana
Rao (all four from the TVS Girling of Ram’s Racing) suffered the
brunt, while Prithveen Rajan of Wallace Sports, who actually finished
first in the event was also part of the seven drivers, who faced the
expulsion.
Expulsions
apart, former JK Tyre Junior Cup champion Goutham Parekh (20:23.838
secs) of Wallace Sports, who finished second before
the results were revised for infringements, was elevated to first position,
followed by his team mate and last year’s junior cup winner Gokul
Krishna (20:44.224 sec) and Meco Racing’s J.Mitra
(20:50.745 sec) for second and third positions respectively.
Unlike
in the Formula LGB Swift event, the drivers had sighs of relief in the
Formula LGB Hyundai Endurance race as they had the felicity of driving
on a dried up track for most part of the second half of the 35 lap race.
Duly, it became alive after Sudanand Rajan of Wallace
Sports, who was looking to be a run-away winner was overtaken
by the ultimate winner Narendran, who was paid off
for his strategy of waiting game.
Sudanand
was
at his wills best as he methodically remained ahead of others and in
fact went on increasing the lead till the 18th lap. Having been pushing
his car too much Rajan perhaps faced problems but Narendran
being happy in constantly in the second position, grabbed the
opportunity to close in steadily on the front runner before forging
ahead for the first position. Then on, Narendran never
looked back before taking the chequered flag with a timing of 45 mts,
26. 361 seconds. Narendran’s team mate, Akhil
Devrag (45:34.146 secs) and Sudananad Rajan (45:42.595
secs) took to second and third spots on the podium.
At
the end of the event, Narendran said “Today,
my strategy worked wonders. I never wanted to push my car and waited
like a hawk for an opportune time. I was able to do that mainly because
of the swiftness shown by my team when I went in to the pits in the
eighth lap”.
At
the end of three of the six legs to decide the Champion Driver of 2009,
Narendran and Sudananand have so far
tallied 24 points each.
The
Super Saloon category saw a exciting battle with the veterans taking
charge right from the start. It was an engrossing duel between B.Vijaya
Kymar (Big Chief) of Prime Racing and T.
Radha Selvarajan (Raptor) of Rad Racing. After
leading in the first half, Radha lost the lead to Vijaya
Kumar who eventually clinched the win in a thriller, Sailesh
Bolisetti (Turbo) from Vizag and Rad Racing finished
third.
In
the Super Bike Expert class, it was Alok Sashidhar ,
Emmanuel Jebaraj and K.V.Balaji who
took the honors in the 1000 cc and 600 cc expert and novice categories
respectively.
The
remaining races will be held on Sunday, 5th July from 10.30 am onwards.
Entry for the public is free.
Results
Formula
Rolon – 15 laps
Race 1 - 1. Ashwin Sundar 17:30:491 2. Saran Vikram 17:33:261
3.Shankar Narayanan
Formula
Swift – 15 laps
Race 1 - 1. Goutham Parekh 20:23:838 2. Gokul Krishna 20:44:224
3. J.Mitra 20:50:745
Super
Saloon Cars – 15 laps
Race 1 - 1.
B. Vijaya Kumar 19:00:797 2. Radha Selvarajan 19:05:992 3. Sailesh Bolisetti
19:17:655
Super
Bikes – 10 laps - Experts -
Race 1 - 1. Emmanuel Jebaraj 11:53:659 2. Vivek Pillai 11:54:682
3. Gopinandan 12:26:480
Super
Bikes - Novice
Race 1 - 1. K.V.Balaji 12:24:894 2. Sumit Lucas 12:59:370 3.
Alisha Abdullah 12:08:603(1 lap less)
Super
Bikes – 1000 cc
Race
1 -
1. Alok Sashidhar 12:28:093 2. Sanjay Kumar 12:02:947 3. Ramji Govindarajan
12:24:251
**
END **
