Shahan will represent India in the Grand Final at Sarno in Italy between October 19 to 26 where drivers from nearly 60 countries will participate
Shahan Ali Mohsin displays caution with an eye on the title as the karters were forced to race on slicks as rain hits the last race of the National Championship. An INDIAinF1 image
Bengaluru, 25 August 2019: Talented Agra racer, Shahan Ali Mohsin won the JK Tyre fmsci Senior National Karting Championship and became the youngest to bag the senior crown as the Nationals concluded at Meco Kartopia on Satuday.
In the fifth and final round, Shahan came third in the Pre-final race and went on to claim the second place in the Final in a wet race after the slight rain but the two podium places were enough as he went into the last round with a 12-point advantage.
“First of all, it was a big relief to get over the line,” Shahan said sporting a smile, as ever. “Even though you have a handy lead, it is still that you need to finish the weekend. A small technical error and it can snatch away all your points. There is no doubt that I am extremely happy to become the youngest driver to win in the Senior category of the Indian National Karting championship.”
Shahan, who also started to take part in the Formula racing this season, took part in the Round 2 of the MRF F1600 Championship at Chennai this month but had a mixed bad as he encountered rain for the first time in his single-seater career. But this week-end, he was back to his karting roots for the final round of 2019 JK Tyre FMSCI National Rotax Championship.
Shahan with with the Championship Trophy in Senior Category.
Shahan was the youngest to compete in the Senior category when he made his debut in the top category last year. The year helped him to learn the nitty-gritty at the senior level and now he is crowned as the youngest Indian National Karting champion in the Senior category. Juniors are allowed to compete in the senior category as per the guidelines set by the FIA and CIK, especially with regards to the age limit.
It was a straightforward start to his weekend as he qualified on pole and won Heat 1 and Heat 2 but after the rains, he was cautious and the two podiums were enough for his to seal the championship.
It was Shahan’s sixth championship win in four years. The Senior title of 2019 adds to his 2015 Indian National Cadets, 2016 Asian Cadets, 2016 Indian National Cadets, 2018 Indian National Junior, and 2018 Indian Junior X30 series.
“It was a day of mixed weather as it started out to dry but the two races towards the end were under tricky conditions, with the finals being a crazy race where we were running on the slick tyres in wet conditions. It was all about bringing the kart home with enough points to seal the championship. A big thanks to my team MSport and JK Tyre without whom, this wasn’t possible.”
Bengaluru, 24 August 2019: Ishaan Madesh of Peregrine Racing stole the limelight as the JK Tyre fmsci National Rotax Max Karting Championship 2019 concluded with the fifth round at the Meco Kartopia here on Saturday.
Ishaan Madesh bagged the top honours in the Micro Max class and was declared the Champion for the year 2019. He also bagged three other special awards. Mohamed Ryan of MSport became the Junior Max Champion while Shahan Ali Mohsin of Agra was crowned champion in the Senior Max category.
Ishaan and Shahan were declared the Best Driver of the Year in their respective classes while Mihir Avalakki of Bengaluru was adjudged as the Best Driver in the Junior Class. Anshul Sai Shivakumar won the Best New Comer of the Year while Amir Sayed bagged the Akbar Ebrahim Most Improved Karter of the year award.
Champions:
Micro Max Class:
1. Ishaan Madesh (Peregrine Racing) – Micro Max Champion
2. Jagrath Detroja (Peregrine Racing) – Micro Max Runner Up
3. Anshul Sai Shivakumar (Birel Art India) – Micro Max Second Runner Up
Junior Max:
1. Mohamed Ryan (MSPORT) – Junior Max Champion
2. Rohaan Madesh (Peregrine Racing) – Junior Max Runner Up
3. Abhay M (Birel Art India) – Junior Max Second Runner Up
Senior Max:
1. Shahan Ali Moshin (MSPORT) – Senior Max Champion
2. Manav Sharma (Peregrine Racing) – Senior Max Runner Up
3. Amir Sayed (MSPORT) – Senior Max second Runner Up
Team Championship:
1. Micro Max Category – Peregrine Racing
2. Junior Max Category – MSPORT
3. Senior Max Category – MSPORT
Special Awards:
1. Maximum Number Of Wins – Ishaan Madesh
2. Max Number of pole positions – Ishaan Madesh
3. Best Driver of the Year – Micro Max : Ishaan Madesh
Junior Max : Mihir Avalakki
Senior Max : Shahan Ali Moshin
4. Best New Comer of the year – Anshul Sai Shivakumar
5. Akbar Ebrahim Most Improved Karter of the year – Amir Sayed
File photo of Suhail Ahmed from Round 1. Suhail will be gunning for top honours in the C6 550cc class. Photo: Facebook @MotoPortSeena
Coimbatore, 22 August 2019: TVS Racing star Rajendra RE, who made a clean sweep of all the three rounds thus far in Pro-Expert Group A, will be missing the Round 4 of the MRF MoGrip fmsci Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) for two-wheelers here on Sunday.
Teammates Tanweer and defending champion R Nataraj too failed to submit the required documents during the scrutiny and the Group A event is expected to be cancelled. All the riders will be hoping for dry weather after the wet and slushy Round 3 in Pune and locals and other stars like Venu Ramesh Kumar and Suhail Ahmed will be gunning for overall honours.
The 2W Rally of Coimbatore, promoted by Godspeed Racing of Pune and organised by Coimbatore Auto Sports Club (CASC), will be run on a mix of dirt and gravel Special Stages. The event has attracted 70 riders in nine classes.
The total distance of the route including the transport section is 109.27 km. The two Special Stages, Black Thunder (14.35 km) and the Thunder World (14.10 km) will be run twice in the same direction taking the Special Stage rallying distance to 56.90 km.
The nine classes that form the National championship are Super Bike (Pro Expert, Group A), Super Bike (Expert Group A), Super Sport 130 Group B, Super Sport 165 Group B, Super Sport 260 Group B, Super Sport 400 Group B, Super Sport 550 Group B and Scooter 210 Group B and Ladies Class Group B.
A dozen local riders have entered for the Star of Tamil Nadu category which is run exclusively for riders from Tamil Nadu.
INDIAinF1 starts a series on champion drivers and riders beginning this week. As we head to the third round of the Indian National Rally Championship in Jodhpur next Sunday, we feature Lokesh Gowda, the winner of SUV Challenge at the second round in the Rally of Coimbatore.
Car #3 Lokesh Gowda and Uday winning the Sprint de Bengaluru near Chikkaballapur in March. Photo by Arun T Pillai
Bengaluru 19 August 2019: The Indian National Rally Championship has always been a flagship event in Indian motorsports and it enjoyed huge patronage and high visibility with both the fans and the participants embracing it to make it popular and ever-green.
However, the Rally Nationals in two-wheelers suffered many breaks and heartaches before the championship was revived once again. Likewise, the rally events in the last few years have taken a beating with rising costs and other ground-level difficulties faced by drivers and teams alike, and the promoters and organisers too despite their best efforts have failed to pump-in the necessary resources both financially and otherwise to promote the sport. INRC has become a shortened event winding up in one-and-a-half days and the huge amounts that the promoters have to pump in, has strained even the big guns.
Under these circumstances, the arrival of Champions Yacht Club as the new Promoter has brought in a whiff of fresh air for the drivers and teams. Though the stage distances and the format remains the same, many drivers found new enthusiasm with the Champions Group fielding teams in all classes and backing them with the much-needed financial and technical support. Many talented and even experienced drivers and co-drivers were supported by the group and some of them have regained their wonted form with many of the nitty-gritty issues taken care of by the Team.
One of such drivers who was back in the limelight with Champions Group picking him up to drive for Team Champions is Lokesh V Gowda. The former celebrated bike rider, who pairs with talented navigator Sudhindra BG, has tuned his Honda CRV to field it in the SUV Challenge in the INRC. After their winning exploits in the curtain-raiser at the Sprint de Bengaluru, the Bengaluru duo put behind the travails at Chennai, where they had suffered a set back in the South India Rally and bounced back in the second round at Coimbatore, thriving the tricky terrain at the Windmill farms of Kethanur, and mastered the slushy conditions to come out triumphant in the SUV class. For the record, Team Champions made a sweep of all the three podium places in this class.
The top three places in the SUV Challenge went to Lokesh Gowda and co-driver Sudhindra BG who won the support class, while Gagan Karumbaiah and Thimmu Uddapanda pair came second followed by veteran Sanjay Agarwal and Smitha N.
Usually, the top classes always hog the media limelight and to support other winners, this Indian Motorsports website, www.INDIAinF1.com, will start a series of articles, beginning today, to feature the winners in the lower categories, as they too deserve appreciation for the hard work and dedication, which is no less than any other class. Today we feature Lokesh Gowda.
Well-deserved winners in the SUV Challenge class, Lokesh Gowda and Sudhindra on the podium in Coimbatore
At the turn of the century, Lokesh Gowda made his debut in motorsports as a bike rider in 2001, at a local Autocross event, and soon he became addicted to motocross after winning his class in his third-ever event. And immediately, the passion found its strong roots.
“As a teenager, I was always intrigued by motorsports especially two-wheelers and the cross-country rallies ignited my interest. In 2001, I started with a local 2w autocross event and it was an instant addiction,” said Lokesh, who took to the sport, like a duck to water.
“From there-on I followed my passion, participated in local autocross events and started competing with professional riders,” he added. Soon his talent was noticed and his dedication yielded results with the stalwarts at Yamaha spotting him. He was selected as a Factory Rider for Team Yamaha India in 2002.
“I toured all over the country, racing for Team Yamaha for the next three years winning multiple events and motorsports became a way of life,” Lokesh quipped. He went on to win the MRF National Motocross Championship in 2003 and retained with equal vigour in 2004 to become a National champion twice in quick succession but unfortunately, he faced a jolt… out of the blue with Yamaha pulling out of racing in India.
He continued rallying as a privateer in the 2-wheeler category for a few more years making that much more effort without the support that factory-backing brings both financially and otherwise but a major on-track crash, at the INRC Chikmagalur event saw him fracture his right elbow and he also damaged his right shoulder in 2009.
Lokesh Gowda in his hey days. A file photo of Lokesh taking a jump during one of the INRC events.
It was the first year when IMG Sports and PSP together began to bring some professionalism into the sport bringing in much-needed facilities for the drivers and riders. The accident brought to focus the need to bring in more safety measures but unfortunately, Lokesh has decided to rest his bike.
But they say passion never dies. And soon Lokesh was back on the track, but this time he switched to cars. “In 2011, I moved into 4-wheeler dirt racing because it offered much comfortable driving in comparison to 2W rallying due to my arm injury as I felt, I could race without causing more damage to my shoulder or elbow,” the champion revealed.
Starting with Indian National Autocross Champion in 2012 he finished as the first runner-up in the championship and moved into Indian National Rally Championship in 2013 as a co-driver.
In 2014, he participated in the popular home event of K1000 in Bangalore as a driver and followed it with the Coffee Day Rally where he finished 2nd. In the following years, he continued participating in several Dirt events, Autocross events, Quarter-Mile drags along with INRC and won many of them.
But when queried why he maintained a low profile, he said: “Unfortunately, in India, a motorsport rallyist’s passion takes a backseat when it comes to nurturing dreams. The lack of attention to the sport, the ‘Zero’ funding, athletes receive from the government and the lack of sponsors are big obstacles for any participant to go forward. “Each one of us in the sport is deeply into self-budgeting our expenses. Many of us spend from our personal savings to continue the sport and keep up our passions alive and we run dry pretty soon. The same happened to me and so I had to stop rallying again after 2015. Getting a sponsor was a task in itself,” he quipped with a tinge of disappointment writ large on his face.
But his face lit up as soon as we started to talk about the present scenario. “Thanks to Team Champions, who came forward bringing in immense support. They provided the funding and importantly rekindled our interest imposing confidence in me. Their interest towards the betterment of rally drivers and motorsports in the country made me rethink and I joined the Team in 2018,” he said. He did not forget to thank Subhakar Rao, the team owner and promoter Mrs.Hemamalini Nidamanur of Champions Yacht Club. “Vamcy Merla has been a great support and he also helped us to get additional support from the JK Tyre,” he added talking about how drivers were helped to rope-in corporate sponsorship, though partially.
“The second round of INRC at Coimbatore has been great and rewarding considering the unsuccessful run I had at Chennai. Thanks to JK Tyres for their great support and sponsoring at the Rally of Coimbatore, I finished first in the SUV category. I am looking forward to next round in Jodhpur and winning this year’s championship title,” he concluded.
The Round 3 of the Champions Yacht Club fmsci INRC for four-wheelers will take place in Jodhpur, Rajasthan from September 20 to 22.
Arjun Balu (centre), winner of Race-3 in ITC category, flanked by second-placed Aditya Patel (left) and Dhruv Shivaji Mohite. Photos by Anand Philar
Chennai, 18 August 2019: On a day which began in heavy showers and ended in bright sunshine, Coimbatore veteran Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) completed a grand double in the Indian Touring Cars class to head the leaderboard as the fourth round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Car Racing Championship concluded at the MMRT, here today. Also achieving a double was Bengaluru’s Rithvik Thomas (Race Concepts) in the Super Stock category.
Overshadowing the day’s proceedings was the 10-car pile-up in the MRF F1600 race that started in heavy showers and lasted barely 300 metres. as pole-sitter Yash Aradhya spun when he put wheels into a puddle, thus losing grip. The cars behind him, with nowhere to go, crashed into one another resulting in the abandonment of the race. None of the drivers suffered injuries barring cuts and bruises, but with 10 cars badly damaged, it was decided to cancel today’s scheduled three races and run them in the next round in September.
Hyderabad’s Jeet Jhabakh (No.5) in action while winning Race-2 in VW Ameo Class.
“The next round in September, will thus have seven races in MRF F1600 category. It was an unfortunate incident with Yash running into a puddle and spinning. With so many cars badly damaged, we decided to put off today’s three races and have them in the next round,” said Chairman of the Meet Vicky Chandhok.
In Race-1 of the ITC category, that was declared “wet”, Balu and Patel were locked in a thrilling fight at the head of the field. Starting from pole, Balu maintained his position with Patel in close attendance. Three laps from the finish, Patel moved past Balu, but slipped back to second in the next lap when he ran wide at the last corner. Balu moved to the front and went on to win.
In Race-2, run in fair weather and reverse grid, the three VW Ventos of Patel, Dhruv Shivaji Mohite and Ishaan Dodhiwala, switched to slicks, while Balu, starting eighth, remained on wet tyres. It was not long before the four moved to the front with Mohite pulling off a fine win ahead of Patel and Balu. The third race in this category, was a virtual procession with Balu, starting from pole, winning comfortably and unchallenged, followed by Patel and Dodhiwala. His two wins this weekend, took Balu’s tally to 148, way ahead of Mohite (119).
Arjun Balu (No.39), who won a double in action .
Spearheading a podium sweep for Race Concepts team, Sudanand Daniel, an airline pilot based in Singapore, won a dramatic wet first race in the Super Stock category for his maiden success of the season, with Rithvik Thomas and R Rajashekar in tow. RP Rajaran (Performance Racing) took the honours in Race-2 ahead of Rithvik Thomas and Daniel. In the next outing, Thomas survived a close fight with Daniel for his second win of the weekend. Rajarajan completed the podium.
Jeet Jhabakh (Hyderabad) and Pune’s Prateek Sonawane won a race apiece in the Volkswagen Ameo Class category. After eight races over three rounds this season, Mumbai’s Saurav Bandyopadhyay (305 points), winner of the first race yesterday, leads the championship in this category followed by Sidharth Mehdiratta (298) from Lucknow and Sonawane (294).
Chennai, 17 August 2019: Bengaluru teenager Sohil Shah made the best of the pole-position start to notch a fine win in the premier MRF F1600 category and head the leaderboard in the Round 4 of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Car Racing Championship at the MMRT here today, that had a delayed start owing to the rains in the morning.
Due to the late start, only two of the four races scheduled for the day could be completed. The remaining races would be added to the six slated for tomorrow which will have an early start 8.15 am. It was a difficult day with changing weather conditions leading to several changes in the schedule.
In the day’s other action, Mumbai’s Saurav Bandyopadhyay took the honours in the Ameo Class race while Coimbatore ace Arjun Balu of Race Concepts (01:51.474) and team-mate Bengaluru’s Rithvik Thomas (01:59.425) grabbed pole positions in the Indian Touring Cars and the Super Stock categories, respectively.
Sohil Shah photos by Anand Philar
The lights-to-flag win today was Sohil’s third success in a row, having won the last two races in the previous round last month. With three more races are scheduled for this category tomorrow, Sohil heads the championship with 81 points, well clear of Mumbai’’s Nayan Chatterjee (63).
The finish to the six-lap race (reduced from eight laps), which Sohil dominated while enjoying a commanding lead, was under the Safety Car which came out following an incident on Lap 5. As the Safety Car came in on the last lap, Sohil, rolled his car over the finish line ahead of Chennai’s Sandeep Kumar and Manav Sharma (Faridabad).
“I enjoyed a good lead through the race until the Safety Car period. We all bunched up behind the Safety Car, and I played it safe before crossing the finish line,” said Sohil who has taken a “gap year” after completing 12th standard.
Further down the grid, Nayan Chatterjee (Mumbai) who was leading the championship coming into this round, and Vishnu Prasad (Chennai) received 30-second penalties for overtaking under yellow flag, denying them any points.
Chennai, 16 August 2019: Popular international driver Aditya Patel will replace Karthik Tharani Singh for the Volkswagen Works team in the ITC class and he will be racing against his mentor and former coach Arjun Balu, as the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Car Racing Championship 2019 flows into a critical phase with the fourth and penultimate round scheduled to start at the MMRT on Saturday.
Karthik Tharani escaped with a one-race ban after a grave violation in the third round. Though he is serving only one-race suspension, Volkswagen Motorsport, who promised `clean racing’ as they made their debut in the National Championship this year at Coimbatore, decided to keep him out for the entire round and Tharani will miss three races. Incidentally, Aditya is set to make his saloon car debut in the championship and will be racing at this track after a lapse of 11 years.
With the front-runners in the championship stakes tightly bunched in all the categories that will be on view this week-end. The expectations of close racing are high in all the classes including premier MRF Formula 1600, Indian Touring Cars and Volkswagen Ameo Class.
Aditya Patel is set race against his mentor and former coach Arjun Balu, left, in the ITC races on Saturday for Volkswagen team. Photo: Anand Philar
In the previous rounds, winner-picking was a hazardous guess and it would be much the same this weekend with a clutch of India’s top racing drivers, ranging from bubbling teenagers to battle-hardened veterans, lining up on the grid, each seeking precious championship points.
The MRF F1600, with four races scheduled over two days, and a maximum of 100 points on offer, has four drivers – Nayan Chatterjee (Mumbai, 63 points), Chennai’s Vishnu Prasad (58), teenager from Bengaluru Sohil Shah (56) with two wins from four starts and A Bala Prasath from Coimbatore (43) – heading the leaderboard, but wary of others who have them in their sights.
The popular Indian Touring Cars category, a triple-header for this round, has developed into a bitter fight involving veteran racer from Coimbatore Arjun Balu (80 points), driving a Race Concepts-prepared Honda Vtec car, and championship leader Chennai’s Karthik Tharani (86) in a factory-supported Volkswagen Vento. Tharani, winner in two of the five outings, failed to take a drive-through penalty and ignored the black-flag in the previous round to attract the suspension.
Tharani is replaced by Aditya Patel, the 2007 Formula Rolon champion, who has been a participant in various international touring cars series abroad (VW, Audi, GT Asia) in the past decade.
“Obviously, I am quite excited to be racing at the MMRT, virtually my home circuit, after over a decade (his last outing was in 2008, a one-off race). Interestingly, my Formula Rolon car in 2007 when I won the championship for NK Racing, was prepared by Arjun Balu and his brother Sanjay. So, it’s quite extraordinary that this weekend, I am racing against Arjun!” said Aditya.
The Super Stock category, to be run on a combined grid with the ITC class, presents a similar picture with Bengaluru’s Rithvik Thomas (Race Concepts) leading RP Raja Rajan (Performance Racing) from Chennai by eight points. The pair has won three races apiece and with three more to be run this weekend, a thrilling battle between the two is on the cards.
The VW Ameo Class, which was upgraded to National Championship status, and boasting of 18-car grid, has three drivers, Pratik Sonawane (Pune), Jeet Jhabakh (Hyderabad) and Saurav Bandyopadhyay (Mumbai), in that order separated by eight points with Delhi’s Anmol Singh Sahil in fourth, a further nine points behind.
Chetan Shivaram and Dilip Sharan of Team Akshara win the overall title in the Rally of Coimbatore. Photo by Venu Ramesh
Coimbatore, 11 August 2019: Brothers Chetan Shivram and Dilip Sharan of Team Akshara, played a cautious game and focussed on keeping the car on track with a safety-first approach, to chalk-out a deserving win in the Rally of Coimbatore, the second round of the fmsci Indian National Rally Championship (INRC), promoted Champions Yacht Club, at the Windmill farms of Kethanur, near here on Sunday.
Chetan painted the town yellow in his stock Volkswagen Polo prepared by FRK Racing and supported by Ideal Racing and displayed controlled aggression with his brother Sharan calling the notes. The focussed Bengaluru duo weathered a sustained challenge from Race Concepts’ Younus Ilyas and Harish Gowda, the INRC Sprint champions and won by a narrow margin of 4.6 seconds. Further behind, the talented youngster from Kerala Arakkal Fabid Ahmer, with co-driver Sanath Gopalan, also in a Polo prepared by Chettinad Sporting came third for Team Champions. Fabid who was trailing 5th overnight also won the second place in the INRC 3 class.
Chetan Shivaram and Dilip Sharan on the podium. Photo. Chetan’s FB post
Nurturing their four-second lead was made easy as overnight second-placed privateer Suhem Kabeer and co-driver Jeevarathinam clocked 14min, 43.10sec and lost time in the 6th stage to Chetan’s 8:21.30, as they got stuck in the slush but behind them Younus Ilyas (Harish) of Race Concepts who were running third, started reducing the 19-second gap. Chetan Shivaram, however, managed to cling on to the lead and not only won the overall title but also topped the INRC 3 category. Despite losing six minutes or so, Suhem held on to the third place in INRC 2 class but lost the overall podium finishing 15th. Younus was ahead in two of the three stages but that was not enough as they settled for overall second place.
But Younus and Harish had the consolation bagging the title in the INRC 2 category. For the record, it was the doctor from Kerala, Bikku Babu, along with co-driver Milen George who won all the three stages today with top-notch driving. But the experienced Kerala duo found it too difficult to make up the time, over an hour, which they lost in SS5 on Saturday.
Vaibhav Marate and Arjun Balachandran’s Honda City flying through windmill stages. Photo Prabhu Kethanur
But the highlight of the day was the drive from talented youngster from Mangalore Dean Mascarenhas, who fielded his VW Polo as a privateer along with navigator Shruptha Padival. The duo who are leading the championship coming into Round 2, lost a lot of time on Saturday but made tremendous progress jumping 32 places to finish overall 10th and had the bonus of a second place in the INRC 2 category.
While many started today to get leg points, 17 cars failed to finish among the 57 that took the start on Saturday. Pre-event favourites Gaurav Gill and Musa Sherif of Team Mahindra Adventure once again suffered for want of dependable machine and finished 44th in line with teammates Amittrajit Ghosh and Ashwin Naik who were 43rd. Karna Kadur and Nikhil Pai of Arka Motorsports too had a forgettable event finishing 50th overall.
Younus Ilyas and Harish Gowda pose during the Rally of Coimbatore. Photo: FB
In the SUV Challenge, Team Champions swept the podium winning all the top-three places. Lokesh Gowda and co-driver Sudhindra BG won the support class while Gagan Karumbaiah and Thimmu Uddapanda pair came second followed by veteran Sanjay Agarwal and Smitha N.
The next round of the championship will move to Jodhpur in Rajasthan from Septemeber 20 to 22. Kochi, Bengaluru, and Chikkamagaluru will host the last three rounds respectively in November and December.
Gagan Karumbaiah and co-driver Thimmu Uddapanda who won the SUV Challenge cruising on Saturday stages. Photo: Venu Ramesh
Ishaan Madesh of Peregrine Racing keeps his unbeaten record in the Micro Max Championship and leads the table. Photo FB @SharithaDivakar
Bengaluru, 10 August 2019: Ten-year-old local schoolboy Ishaan Madesh of Peregrine Racing kept his slate clean winning all the four races to retain his place at the top of the leaderboard in the Micro Max category after final and pre-final races of Round 3 & 4 in the JK Tyre fmsci Indian National Rotax Karting Championship 2019 at Meco Kartopia here on Saturday.
Agra’s Shahan Ali Mohsin of MSport and Bengaluru’s Rishon of Birel Art won three races each in the Senior Max and Junior Max categories, respectively but both lost the top spot in the pre-final on Friday. While Shahan leads the Senior Max table with 351 points, Mohamed Ryan is still ahead with 322 points in the Junior Max category, thanks to his three 5th place finishes along with a sixth.
On Podium from left: Ruhaan (2nd), Rishon (1st) and Mihir Avalakki (3rd). Birel Art won 12 of the 13 podium places in two rounds in the Junior Max category.
Ishaan, a student of Vidya Shilp Academy in Bengaluru, and the youngest of the two Madesh brothers, won both the Final and Pre-Final races of Round 3 on Friday and went on to win both the races on Saturday to complete a clean sweep and retained his position at the top with 356 points with an unbeaten record. His teammate Jagrat Detroja could only take third places in all the four races but is second in the championship standings with 330 points ahead of Anshul Sai Kumar (317) who failed to get a podium in the two rounds this weekend.
Rishon lost some points coming second to Mihir Avalakki in the Pre=Final race in Round 3 on Friday. Mihir came second in two other races while Ruhaan Alva took a second and two third places on the podium in the Junior Max category.
In the Senior Max class, Vishnu Prasad who won the Pre-Final in Round 3 on Friday, took the second place in the final but could not make it to the podium in Round 4 on Saturday. Yash Aradhya and Manav Sharma shared the minor spoils.
Ishaan Madesh (centre) keeps his unbeaten record intact. An INDIAinF1 photo
Provisional Unaudited Results: Round 4:
Senior Max Final (18 laps): 1. Shahan Ali Mohsin (MSport, Agra) (16:42.810); 2. Yash Aradhya (MSport, Bengaluru) (16:43.229); 3. Manav Sharma (Peregrine Racing, Faridabad) (16:46.895). Best lap: Shahan 55.349. Pre-Final (15 laps): 1. 1. Shahan Ali Mohsin (MSport, Agra) (13:58.934); 2. Manav Sharma (Peregrine Racing, Faridabad) (14:03.310); 3. Yash Aradhya (MSport, Bengaluru) (14:06.307). Best lap: Shahan 55.555.
Chetan Shivaram (left) and Dilip Sharan who took the lead after Day 1. An INDIAinF1 image
Coimbatore, 10 August 2019: On a day full of surprises, INRC 3’s Chetan Shivram of Akshara Racing jumped into the early lead in the Rally of Coimbatore, Round 2 of the Champions Yacht Club FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship, here on Saturday. The overnight rains made the terrain at the Kethanur Windmill farms in Palladam very slushy and only 33 cars of the 58 that started finished the day.
Chetan and his brother co-driver Dilip Sharan were most comfortable in the treacherous terrain, marked by slushy conditions and loose sand, posting a total time of 1:05:32.900 hours to complete Day 1’s five stages to be ahead of a record field.
Suhem Kabeer (with Jeevarathinam) and Younus Ilyas (Harish Gowda) were hot on the tail of the leader, taking the second and third positions by the end of the day. The two JK Tyre drivers, both INRC 2 contenders, were in their elements, with Suhem showing consistency in all the stages while Younus won the last two stages to climb into the top three.
Hot favourite Gaurav Gill (Musa Sherif) of Mahindra Adventure gets stuck in the INRC on Day 1, Saturday at Coimbatore. An INDIAinF1 image by Prabhu Kethanur
Hot favourite Mahindra Adventure’s Gaurav Gill (Musa Sherif) began on a positive note, scoring the fastest times in the first three stages before he picked up a puncture in SS 4 and had to eventually pull out with a malfunction.
Even Karna Kadur and Nikhil Pai of Arka Motorsports and comeback boy Vikram Mathias, along with co-driver Sujith Kumar of Race Concepts had a rough day, falling out of contention after the third stage. Round 1 winner Dean Mascarenhas managed to finish but a very poor second stage that got his car stuck in slush hurt him badly, sliding him to the 20th position.
Rahul Kantharaj and co-driver Vivek Bhatt negotiate slushy terrain on Saturday. Photo: Venu Ramesh Kumar
“After continuous rainfall last night, it suddenly became sunny in the morning leading to the surface becoming really hard. There were stones all over the stages which made it difficult. I am obviously not happy with my current scenario but would say that I would take it as a learning experience and I will bounce back strong,” Gaurav said after the end of Day 1.
Interestingly, none of the 6 INRC entries managed to finish on the first day.
Right behind Suhem and Younus in the INRC 2 category was Ritesh Guttedar (& Lokaranjan H.J) of Team Champions, who is well-placed in the overall category too, finishing fourth.
