17-year-old Arjun Chheda fully captailised on a poor start by pole-sitter Ishaan Madesh from Bengaluru and took the honours in the MRF F2000 races. Finishing third behind the pair was another Bengalurean, Tarun MB who briefly was in P2 before yielding ground to Ishaan Madesh in the first lap. \u201cIt was my signature start, but hopefully, I will do better tomorrow,\u201d said Ishaan, the recently crowned National karting champion, reflecting on his tendency to botch starts from pole position. Arjun was happy to score his fourth win of the season, but said: \u201cI had my moments, but managed to keep it all together.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n
In the MRF F1600 race, Sai Shiva Sankaran, also 17 from Pune, started from pole position and held off two Bengalureans, Arjun S Nair and Nigel Abraham Thomas to consolidate his position at the top of the points standings. \u201cI made a lot of mistakes in the first part of the race but got into my rhythm in the last three laps. Hopefully, I will not repeat the mistakes tomorrow,\u201d said Sai Shiva Sakaran.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Meanwhile, Surat\u2019s Biren Pithawalla (N1 Racing) also profited from a retirement by championship leader and pole-sitter Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) whose car packed up due to electrical problems in the formation lap itself, and scored an easy win in the premier Indian Touring Cars (ITC) class that was run concurrently with the ITC 1625, Indian Junior Touring Cars and the Super Stock class, making up a grid of 19 cars.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Pithawalla, the defending champion, missed the qualifying session earlier in the day after the driveshaft gave away on the out-lap. \u201cMy team did a fantastic job in getting the car (Volkswagen Polo) ready for the race in quick time,\u201d said Pithawalla who jumped into the lead starting from P5 in the very first lap and cruised to victory, ahead of Lonavla\u2019s Dhruv Chavan (Buzzing Hornet) and Malaysian Perajun Krishnan (Performance Racing).<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Further down the grid, Nikhanth Ramabalu topped in the ITC 1625 class with his Performance Racing team-mate 80-year-old Vidyaprakash Damodaran finishing in P2 in an all-Coimbatore finish.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Bengaluru\u2019s Rithwik Thomas (Race Concepts) fought off Viswas Vijayaraj (DTS Racing) from Nellore to win in the IJTC category while veteran from Thrissur Diljith TS (DTS Racing) eased past Sri Lanka\u2019s Kesara Godage (Performance Racing) in the Super Stock class.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
Further down the grid, Nikhanth Ramabalu topped in the ITC 1625 class with his Performance Racing team-mate 80-year-old Vidyaprakash Damodaran finishing in P2 in an all-Coimbatore finish.<\/p>\r\n\r\n
The day ended on a dramatic note with Vinith Kumar winning the Formula LGB 1300 race despite a semi-spin exiting the final corner in the last lap while Joel Joseph came in a close second and Lokith Lingesh Ravin completed the podium.<\/p>\r\n\r\n