Coimbatore, Jan 16 (IANS) A unique venture, the first of its kind in India, got off to a flier here as some of country’s top racers warmed up for the 2010 season by participating in the Endurance Festival of Speed organised by the Meco Motor Sports.
The qualifying rounds were run Saturday in all the three categories - Go-karts, saloon cars and motorcycles. Barring the two-wheelers, the other categories have a two-driver team.

The two-day event that is being run without a title sponsor but on funds collected through entry fees and sale of racing tyres, has attracted the likes of Armaan Ebrahim (karts), former saloon car National champions Radha Selvaraj and B. Vijaykumar, and top riders from TVS Racing team.

Topping the time charts in the karting event were Kolhapur’s Parth Ghorpade and Samayak Shah followed by Ebrahim and Ashwin Sundar, both of whom are racing karts after a lapse of four years, and Nikhil Kashyap and Raj Bharath.

Among two-wheelers, TVS Racing’s T.K. Vishwanath qualified for the pole position ahead of S. Sharath Kumar of Ten10 Racing and Sriskandarajah in the 165cc Open class.

Explaining the concept, Meco Motor Sports’ Akbar Ebrahim, the first Indian to participate in an international Formula race way back in the 1990s, said: “I got together some top racers and we decided to run this event without a title sponsor. The event is designed to get the drivers and riders in racing trim for the new season. We hope to develop this property into something bigger in due course.”

The two-wheeler Endurance will last 90 minutes with mandatory stop for refueling. The cars would be engaged in a 180-minute contest with the two drivers taking turns at the wheel with mandatory stops for refueling and tyre change. The Karting event will be a 120-minute affair the drivers alternating every 20 minutes.

The results:

Two-wheelers: 165cc Open - 1. TK Vishwanath (TVS Racing) 1min, 20.859secs; 2. S Sarath Kumar (Ten10 Racing) 1:12.211; 3. Sriskandarajah 1:21.580. YBX Class: 1. D Dinesh Kumar (1:30.348); 2. K Prakash (1:31.119); 3. Hemant BK (1:38.184).

Rotax Max Karting: 1. Parth Ghorpade / Samyak Shah (39.573); 2. Ashwin Sundar / Armaan Ebrahim (39.607); 3. Raj Bharath / Nikhil Kashyap (39.798).

Saloon Cars: 1. C Rajaram / S Siva Kumar (Prime Racing) 2:34.764 (combined); 2. B Vijay Kumar / D Vidhya Prakash (Prime Racing) 2:35.330; 3. Radha Selvaraj / KE Kumar (Rad Racing) 2:40.800.

Rally Star Cup: 1. Vir Raina / Saif Mir (Chettinad Sporting) 2:45.443; 2. Pravin Kumar KR / Ajai Prasanth Venkat (Sigaram) 2:54.307; 3. Philippos Mathai / Phalguna Urs (Chettinad Sporting) 2:55.162.