Chennai, Sep 6 (Inditop.com) India’s Krishnan Rajini more than fulfilled a dream by finishing third in the second bike race of the SuperSports 600cc for his maiden podium position even as Thailand’s Chalermpol Polamai enjoyed a successful outing in the Petronas Asia Road Racing Championship, here Sunday.
The 29-year old Rajini, who was hoping for a top-five finish, did benefit from the retirement of Decha Kraisat of Thailand who crashed when running second behind Polamai. However, Rajini rode as well as he could and displayed impressive pace that was missing in the first race where he finished fifth.
The sizeable holiday crowd had plenty to cheer on the day and Rajini fittingly received a standing ovation for his first ever podium in an international race.
“I am extremely happy with my performance. I was targeting a top-five finish for the weekend, but I can hardly describe my feelings after achieving my first podium in this series,” said Rajini who sent the home supporters into a frenzy of celebrations.
Meanwhile, the Petronas Sprinta front-runners Kraisat and Palamoi were in a different league in both the races and dished out some exciting fare that would not be forgotten in a hurry.
While Kraisat let it rip in the first race to win it comfortably with Palamoi struggling with an over-heating engine and lack of traction, it was the reverse in the next outing.
Kraisat was comfortably ahead at the start, but Palamoi caught up. The crafty Thai bided his time before getting past Decha with a couple of laps left and stepped up the pace.
Entering the Bridge Complex chicane on the penultimate lap, Decha in his anxiety to regain the lead, carried too much speed into the corner and slid off to go out of contention.
Palamoi continued his run to win by the proverbial mile while Malaysian Md. Zamri Baba and Rajini who were lying a distant third and fourth respectively, moved up a spot.
The two podium finishes took Palamoi to the top of the championship standings with a tally of 165 points while Kraisat added just 25 to his kitty for a total of 143, Baba occupied the third spot with 116 and Rajini moved up to ninth overall with 38 points.
In the Underbone 115cc class, the competition was razor sharp with Mohd Affendi Rosli and his Malaysian comptratriot Md. Iskandar Raduan winning the first and second race, respectively.
Rosli, who overcame an overheating engine that pushed him from first to fourth after seven laps of the first race, came back strongly in the latter half of the run to edge past Indonesia’s Denny Triyugo in a thrilling finish while Malaysia’s Florianus Roy took the third spot.
In fact, less than a second separated the top four finishers and the story was much the same in the second race that saw Raduan winning narrowly after yet another tight battle.
The results pitchforked Rosli to the top of the championship leaderboard with a tally of 99 points after four rounds to replace Hadiwijaya (Indonesia, 61) who skipped the round while Raduan moved to the second spot (88), followed by Fitriyansyah Kete of Indonesia (78) who had a 13th and fourth place finishes Sunday.
The results:
Underbone 115cc (10 laps): Race 1 – Mohd Affendi Rosli (Malaysia, Suzuki Hanan Metro SCK Racing) 1 (20mins, 39.326secs); Denny Triyugo (Indonesia, Yamaha Petronas FDR Racing) 2 (20:39.685); Florianus Roy (Indonesia, U Mild U Bikers Racing) 3 (20:39.846). Indians: Karthik (TVS) 18 (31:22.515); Harry Sylvester (TVS) 19 (TVS) 22:08.916; TK Vishwanath (Did Not Finish — DNF).
Race 2 – Md Iskandar Raduan (Malaysia, Petronas Sprinta Raceline) 1 (20:38.718); Mod Affendi Rosli 2 (20:38.785); Hafizh Syahnin Abdullah (Petronas Sprinta Raceline) 3 (20:39.181). Indians: Karthik and Harry Sylvester (both DNF).
SuperSports 600cc (16 laps): Race 1 – Decha Kraisat (Thailand, Petronas Sprinta Yamaha) 1 (28:18.478); Chalermpol Polamai (Thailand, Petronas Sprinta Yamaha) 2 (28:24.365); Md Zamri Baba (Malaysia, Petronas Sprinta Yamaha) 3 (28:42.661). Indians: Krishnan Rajini (Yamaha, Red Rooster Racing) 1 (29:03.875); Vivek Pillai (Honda) 9 (Honda) 9 (28:24.605); Emmanuel Jebaraj (Ten10 Racing) DNF; Preetham Dev Moses (Red Rooster Racing) DNF; Alisha Abdullah (Blue Arrow Racing) Not Classified.
Race 2 – Polamai 1 (28:26.695); Baba 2 (28:48.584); Krishnan Rajini (Red Rooster Racing) 3 (29:00374). Other Indians: Vivek Pillai 7 (30:12.409); R Deepak 8 (30:11.964, 1 lap down); Emmnauel Jebaraj (DNF), Preetham Moses (DNF), Alisha Abdullah (not classified)
rounak