Krishnaraaj D. Mahadik and Kush Maini won one race each in the newly-launched Euro JK-16, the premier class in the first round of the 19th JK Tyre FMSCI National Racing Championship at the Kari Motor Speedway on Saturday.
Maini won the opening race hands down and Mahadik worked hard for his win in the second, which witnessed quite a few slips, spins, pile-ups and a re-start.
The very first lap had an incident and resulted in a 30-minute delay to get the cars in shape and form a healthy grid. It seemed to upset the calculations of Maini and a few others, who could not find their feel after that.
Despite all the confusion, Mahadik managed the situation like a master.
The race of the day was the one between Vishnu Prasad and Ashwin Sundar in the Formula LGB4 class.
The former seemed to be in command for the most part of the race. But Ashwin quietly worked his way through the field and positioned himself well to attack the leader in the closing stages.
Ashwin, back on the track after a three-year layoff, slid a bit in the first corner of the penultimate lap, letting Vishnu off the hook.
Before Ashwin could recover, S. Sudarshana Rao sneaked through and went on to finish second. Ashwin, putting up a brave fight, took third spot.
Ashish Ramaswamy of Red Rooster Performance proved his class in the Indian Touring Cars race, clocking 12:24.973s for the top spot, followed by veterans C. Rajaram and D. Vidyaprakash, both Prime Racing, for the next two slots.
The results (provisional):
Euro JK-16: Race-1 (15 laps): 1. Kush Maini 14:45.354; 2. Akhil Rabindra 14:48.002; 3. Anindith Reddy Konda 14:49.023. Race 2: 1. Krishnaraaj Mahadik, 2. Anindith Reddy; 3. Aakash Gowda.
Formula LGB4: Race 1 (15 laps): 1. Vishnu Prasad (Meco Racing) 18:20.004; 2. Sudarshana Rao Karwal (Dark Don Racing) 18:22.323; 3. Ashwin Sundar (Dark Don Racing) 18:26.841.
ITC: 1. Ashish Ramaswamy (Red Rooster Performance) 12:24.973; 2. C. Rajaram (Prime Racing) 12:25.852; 3. D. Vidyaprakash (Prime Racing) 12:34.894.
