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Tag: Black BIrds Hyderabad
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Sohil Shah aces the field for maiden win in Indian Racing League
Coimbatore, 16 Nov 2024: Championship contenders Goa Aces JA Racing received a massive boost when Sohil Shah destroyed a high-quality field and delivered a hat-trick of pole position, race win and best lap, in the Round 5 of the Indian Racing League at the Kari Motor Speedway here on Saturday.
It was 23-year-old Shah’s first win in the Indian Racing League which is promoted by the Racing Promotions private limited. He did it in style beating the likes of veterans Neel Jani of Black Birds Hyderabad and Alvaro Parente of Speed Demons Delhi, who came in second and third respectively. However, Parente was docked a five-second penalty for a “infringement”and was pushed to P4 with Jon Lancaster of Chennai Turbo Riders moving upa spot to P3.
The winning margin of 17.156 seconds underlined the dominating performance by the Bengalurean that came on the back of several podium finishes this season.
With the sun out and track almost fully dry following rains earlier in the day, it was Shah who roared away from the rolling start and with every lap increased his lead over Jaani, Lancaster and Parente who got involved in a close battle.
In the latter half of the race, Lancaster slowed down with an engine issue, giving up his P3 spot to Parente. Up the road, Shah kept increasing the lead, followed by Jaani and Parente and the trio finished in that order while Lancaster came in fourth, but subsequently moved up to third as the Portuguese driver was penalized for an infringement.
Behind the front-runners, Shah’s team-mate Shahan Ali Mohsin finished an impressive fifth after starting from P12 to bring more cheer to Goa Aces JA Racing team. However, Shahan dropped to seventh following a 20-second penalty for a “infringement”.
“I am very happy with this win today after several podium finishes. It was a good race and am pleased with my performance as the grid had top drivers like Jaani, Parente and Lancaster,” said Shah.
The two-day Indian Racing Festival, sponsored by Kingfisher Soda, JK Tyres, Mobil 1 and Megha Engineering & Infrastructure Limited.
Formula 4 Indian Championship
South African Aqil Alibhai (Black Birds Hyderabad) came up with yet another brilliant drive on a drying Kari Motor Speedway track to post his sixth overall and fifth win in a row to consolidate his spot on top of the leaderboard in the FIA-certified Formula 4 Indian Championship.
Finishing in P2 was his closest rival,Ruhaan Alva (SrachiRarh Royal Bengal Tigers) who wasted a pole-position start while Canadian Hady Noah Mimassi(Chennai Turbo Riders) completed the podium while also winning the Rookie award besides clocking the best lap of the race.
At the start, Alva made a poor getaway and left the door open at Turn-1 for Alibhai to forge ahead. Thereafter, the South African maintained his lead, literally tiptoeing past the water patches and later the back markers. Behind him Alva settled in second place unable to come close to making a move on Alibhai while Mimassicouldn’t make much headawayand had to be content with P3.
Reflecting on his performance today, Alibhai said: “I am happy to win today. I had a good start but had to be careful due to the water on the track. Towards the end, others were catching up, but I managed to maintain my lead and want to maintain the momentum tomorrow and win the championship.”
27thJK Tyre-FMSCI National Racing Championship
Starting from P2 on the grid, Bengaluru’s Tijil Rao (Dark Don Racing) pulled off yet another win to move closer to the championship title in the 27th JK Tyre-FMSCI National Racing Championship on Saturday at the Kari Motor Speedway.
In a close LGB Formula 4 race, Tijil held off a strong challenge from Chennai’s Saran Vikram Tmars (Momentum Motorsports) while Rookie Dhruvh Goswami (MSPORT) from Bengaluru finished third.Meanwhile, as many as seven drivers failed to finish the incident-filled race.
Royal Enfield Continental GT Cup
Championship leader Navaneeth Kumar S from Puducherry consolidated his position on the points table with one win and a P2 finish in the Royal Enfield Continental GT Cup. His arch-rival, Rohan R from Coimbatore matched the performance to remain in title contention.
Meanwhile, Bengaluru’s Yogesh P also notched a double in the Amateurs category to seal the championship in this class.
The results (Provisional):
Indian Racing League (Race-1, Driver-A) 25 mins+1 lap:1. Sohil Shah (India, Goa Aces JA Racing) (26mins, 34.598secs);2. Neel Jani (Switzerland, Black Birds Hyderabad) (26:51.754);3.Jon Lancaster (UK, Chennai Turbo Riders) (26:54.848).Best Lap:Sohil Shah (01:03.088).
Formula 4 Indian Open (Race-1, 25mins+1 lap):1. Aqil Alibhai (South Africa, Black Birds Hyderabad) (26:14.474);2. Ruhan Alva (India, ShrachiRarh Royal Bengal Tigers) (26:15.614);3. Hady Noah Mimassi (Canada, Chennai Turbo Riders) (26:17.254).Best Lap:Mimassi(01:10.638).
JK Tyre-FMSCI National Racing Championship:
LGB Formula 4 (Race-1, 15 laps):1. Tijil Rao (Bengaluru, Dark Don Racing) (22:02.750);2. Saran Vikram Tmars (Chennai, Momentum Motorsports) (23:03.725);3.Dhruvh Goswami (Bengaluru, MSPORT) (23:04.504).Rookie: 1. Dhruvh Goswami (23:04.504); 2. Abhay Mohan (Bengaluru, 23:06.147); 3. Neythan McPherson (Pune, Momentum Motorsports) (23:08.494).
Royal Enfield Continental GT Cup (Race-1, 9 laps) – Professionals: 1.Rohan R (Coimbatore) (11:44.984);2. Navaneeth Kumar S (Puducherry) (11:45.320);3. Anish Shetty (Bengaluru) (11:45.470).Amateurs:1. Yogesh P (Bengaluru) (12:16.480); 2. Johring Warisa (Umrangso) (12:16.891); Johnson Saldanha (Mangaluru) (12:22.450).
Race-2 (6 laps) – Professionals:1. Navaneeth Kumar S (07:48.397);2.Anish Shetty (07:50.894);3. Rohan R (07:51.227).Amateurs:1. Yogesh P (Bengaluru) (08:08.594); 2. Johring Warisa (08:10.664); 3. Johnson Saldanha (08:21.798).
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Akhil Rabindra, Neel Jani star in Black Birds sweep: Indian Racing League
Irungattukottai (Chennai), 27 Nov 2022: Indian Racing star Akhil Rabindra displayed excellent driving skills and consistency to post a victory in the Sprint Race 2 and later combined with teammate Neel Jani, sharing the car, to win the Feature Race. The duo put strong contenders Black Birds Hyderabad on top of the championship table with a clean sweep of all the three races in the second round of the inaugural Indian Racing League at the Madras International Circuit here on Sunday.
Godspeed Kochi’s Ruhaan Alva and Fabienne Wohlwend came second in the Feature Race clocking 37 minutes, 05.957 seconds, followed by Amir Sayed and Shohil Shah of Goa Aces who timed 37:23.507 for their third place. Winners Akhil and Neel posted a winning time of 36:55.401. Each of the 12 cars in the Feature race saw a driver change after a mandatory pit stop. Neel Jani also set the fastest lap in the Feature Race 1:31.274.
Akhil Rabindra of Black Birds Hyderabad who excelled on Sunday. Godspeed Kochi’s Ruhaan Alva and Fabienne Wohlwend celebrate on the podium after taking a second in the Feature race. Photos by Srinivasa Krishnan Talking to INDIAinF1.com, Neel Jani said: “It was great to see IRL finally lifting off, after a bumpy start! Obviously, I am very happy about the 3 wins that Akhil and I could give to Team Hyderabad Black birds!
“We had our fair share of issues in free practice but we managed to go through them step by step, and by qualifying we started to get ontop of things. Clean sweep this weekend, could not have hoped for more!”
“It is special as this is my first win on Indian soil,” the Swiss driver, whose father is of Indian origin, added.
Sprint Race 2
Earlier Rabindra, the 26-year old Bengaluru-born Aston Martin Racing Academy driver, who is a regular in the GT4 Euro Series, began the day with a deserving win in the Sprint Race 2, dominating from pole to flag. He clocked 46:48.660. The race saw a Safety Car period after an incident where Raoul Hymen of Goa Aces and Shahan Ali Mohsin of Speed Demons Delhi had a contact but later with about four minutes to go, the race was red flagged when Celia Martin of Speed Demons Delhi lost control, spun and slid backwards crashing on to the tyre barriers. All the drivers escaped unhurt.
Godspeed Kochi’s Fabienne Wohlwend from Liechtenstein came second in 46:49.383, defending admirably against a marauding Jon Lancaster of Chennai Turbo Riders, who clocked 46:49.963. Rabindra set the fastest lap at 1:32.108.
Ruhaan Alva in action on Sunday. Feature Race
Black Birds dominated the week-end and now top the table with 118 points, with their Team A comprising of Akhil and Neel, garnering full 100 points that are on offer from three races. But they had a heart-break when their second driver combo of Anindith Reddy and Lola Lovinsfosse, who garnered 18 points in the two sprint races together, were well on course for a podium finish but Lola outbraked and lost balance, suffering a DNF on the last lap.
A brilliant drive by 16-year old Ruhaan Alva and teammate Fabienne Wohlwend got them a well-deserved second place in the Feature race and they put Godspeed Kochi in second place with 84 points. Fabienne put the #1 Blue-coloured machine into fourth place after starting from P9, and handed over to Ruhaan in the 15th minute. Then Ruhaan stepped up the pace and overtook a couple of more cars to get into the podium zone and finished a creditable second.
“It was an amazing race, a great start from Fabienne getting up to p4 on the first lap. Then I had to really push in the second stint to get into the top 3 because we were trying to undercut the others. We weren’t as quick as we would have liked but we were always there, playing it smart in the races and fighting it out. So I’m pretty happy with the performance,” said Ruhaan Alva, who just returned from the World Motorsport Games a few days back.
Amir Sayed and Sohil Shah of Goa Aces, despite a 15-sec penalty came third. Yash Aradhya and Anshul Gandhi of Bangalore Speedsters came fourth to bag a valuable 24 points that pushed them to third in the championship table with 60 points. Only six of the 12 teams completed the Feature race which saw many incidents including safety car periods.
The first round in Hyderabad on Nov 20 was cancelled due to safety issues.
Provisional Results (Round 2):
Sprint Race:
1. Akhil Rabindra (Black Birds Hyderabad) 46:48.660;
2. Fabienne Wohlwend (Godspeed Kochi) 46:49.383;
3. Jon Lancaster (Chennai Turbo Riders) 46:49.963;
Fastest lap: Akhil Rabindra (BB Hyderabad) 1:32.108.
Feature Race;
1. Neel Jani/ Akhil Rabindra (BB Hyd) 36:55.401;
2. Ruhaan Alva/ Fabienne Wohlwend 37: 05.957;
3. Amir Sayed /Shohil Shah (Goa Aces) 37:23.507;
Fastest Lap: Neel Jani (BB Hyd) 1:31.274.
INDIAN RACING LEAGUE – Points Standings after Round 2 at MIC
# Team Name Car # Sprint Race 1 Sprint Race 2 Feature Race Total Points Team Total 1 Black Birds Hyderabad 9 25 25 50+50 150 168 Black Birds Hyderabad 10 6 12 DNF 18 2 GodSpeed Kochi 1 12 18 36+36 102 120 GodSpeed Kochi 2 18 DNF DNF 18 3 Bangalore Speedsters 3 10 10 16+16 52 100 Bangalore Speedsters 4 DNF DNF 24+24 48 4 Chennai Turbo Riders 5 8 DNF 20+20 56 67 Chennai Turbo Riders 6 4 15 DNF 19 5 Goa Aces 7 DNF DNF DNF 0 68 Goa Aces 8 DNF 8 30+30 68 6 Speed Demons Delhi 11 DNF DNF DNF 0 15 Speed Demons Delhi 12 15 DNF DNF 15 In Feature race both drivers get points. Note: Table updated on 1dec22
