Thaindian News

Coimbatore, June 19 (IANS) It was a day of the doubles as T.R. Radha Selvarajan (Super Saloons), Vishnu Prasad (Volkswagen Polo Cup), Ravikumar Deepak (Formula LGB Swift) and Bala Vijay (IJTC) dominated their respective categories in the first round of the JK Tyre National Racing Championship here Sunday.

Vishnu Prasad, the 17-year old from Chennai, who had won the first outing Saturday, came up with daring passes in the second run Sunday to move from fourth to first over 15 laps while Mumbai’s Mihir Dharkar came in second and the only female contestant, Alisha Abdullah (Chennai), took the third spot.

Alisha did extremely well starting from pole following the reverse grid formation and grimly hung on to her position, but all the while Vishnu and Mihir gained on her. The decisive moment came in the 12th lap when Vishnu took the inside line in the “S” section, nudged Alisha off the line to break clear. Mihir followed suit a lap later to grab the second spot.

Earlier, 52-year old Selvarajan (RAD Racing) showed why he is rated as among the best saloon car racing drivers in the country by achieving a grand double.

Selvarajan, returning to racing after a year’s break, had won the first race in the wet Saturday and he went on to finish on top in the second outing Sunday afternoon when the conditions were near-perfect.

He was involved in a close battle with 27-year old Vijaykumar Rajvirudhan (Prime Racing) who led initially before losing position in the tight Turn-2 where Selvarajan dived on the inside for a brilliant pass and then held on to win.

Rajvirudhan’s father, B Vijaykumar, came in third despite rear windshield breaking off on the start-finish straight in the closing stages of the race.

Meanwhile, 23-year old Ravikumar (Mars Racing) from Chennai dominated the Formula LGB Swift class. Deepak needed all his six-year racing experience to hold off Karthik Krishna (TVS Girling) in winning second race on the back of his success last evening.

The results:

Formula LGB Swift (Race 2 - 10 laps): Ravikumar Deepak (Mars Racing) 1 (12mins, 25.553secs); Karthik Krishna (TVS Girling) 2 (12:25.950) Sandeep Kumar A 3 (12:26.121).

Indian Junior Touring Cars (Stock) - Race 2 (10 laps): Bala Vijay (Moto-Rev India) 1 (13:33.810); Diljith Shaji (LCT Sigaram Sports) 2 (13:35.288); Jai Prashanth Venkat 3 (13:54.524).

Super Saloons (Race 2, 10 laps): TR Radha Selvarajan (RAD Racing) 1 (12:42.281); V Raj Virudhan (Prime Racing) 2 (12:43.027); B Vijaya Kumar (Prime Racing) 3 (12:47.386).

Volkswagen Polo Cup (Race 1, 15 laps): Vishnu Prasad (Chennai) 1 (19:22.711); Mihir Dharkar (Mumbai) 2 (19:25.122); Saif Mir (Delhi) 3 (19:29.668). Race 2: Vishnu Prasad 1 (19:37.992); Mihir Dharkar 2 (19:40.129); Alisha Abdullah (Chennai) 3 (19:44.578).