Chennai, Feb 14 (Inditop.com) On a day of chaotic scenes and exciting races, Ashwin Sundar completed a fine run in the Formula 1600 class by winning the championship in the MRF Challenge series, here Sunday.
While the 20-year-old from Chennai took the first 15-lap race quite comfortably, he had to fight his way in the second that he began in the sixth spot due to reverse grid. After moving up a couple of positions in the opening lap, Sundar slipped past the front runners and once ahead, pulled away for a commanding victory.
Another notable performance came from Indian national rally champion Gaurav Gill who shrugged off two frustrating weekends to deliver a podium behind Sundar in the second race.
Meanwhile, David Jones (Superbikes), won all the six races, and Srikandarajah (165cc, Group D) also completed a double in their respective two-wheeler classes, though the latter was pushed all the way.
Incidentally, the 20-year old Jones set a track record of one minute, 42.763 seconds improving on his last weekend’s 1:43.8 that in turn bettered the previous best of 1:45.720 by Thailand’s Decha Kraisat during the FIM event last September.
The Saloon Car race dished out some surprise results after championship leader Sailesh Bolisetti suffered ECU problems in the very first lap and lost track position, allowing Siddharth Kishore to win comfortably from R. Sriram and Nithvin S. Ravindran.
However, the cynosure this day was Tamil actor Ajith Kumar who presence on the Formula 1600 grid pulled in record crowds. But then, the script went awry in the first race when Ajith’s car got stuck in one gear and could not start the 15-lapper.
The situation grew tense as a section of spectators turned restive before Ajith decided to put in a few laps at slow speed just to placate his fans who subsequently jumped the barriers and invaded the paddock to get a closer look at their hero.
Police and security helped to keep the situation under control. Ajith, however, had no problems in the second race though he started from the back of the grid and finished seventh out of eight finishers.
The results:
Formula 1600 (15 laps): Race 1 – 1. Ashwin Sundar (NK Racing, 25 mins, 45.091 secs); .2. Chris Wootton (Australia, 25:47.591); 3. Parthiva Sureshwaren (25:53.954). Race 2 – 1. Ashwin Sundar (25:44.135); 2. Gaurav Gill (25:56.886); 3. Arjun Balu (25:59.985).
Superbikes (8 laps): International – 1. David Jones (13:58.634); 2. Gavin Hunt (14:03.178); 3. Roger Maher (14:29.894). Indian – A Satish Kumar (14:47.188); 2. M Gautham (15:03.230); 3. Alok Shashidar (15:15.539).
165cc (Group D, 7 laps) – 1. Sriskandarajah (15:31.487); 2. Shyam Shankar (15:31.524); 3. S Sarath Kumar (15:31.876). Group B: 1. S Murali (15:05.937); 2. K Umesh Babu (15:20.481); 3. S Rajkumar (15:31.144).
Underbones (5 laps) – 135cc: 1. Sumit Lucas Toppo (12:01.089); M Sudhakar (12:01.202); Sarath Kumar (12:01.435). 115cc: 1. S Padmanabhan (12:53.112); 2. Bharath Raj (12:53.393); Naveen Raj (12:53.464).
Touring Cars (8 laps) – Super Saloon (cc to weight): Siddharth Kishore (GT Tuners, 16:51.192); R Sriram (Rad Racing, 16:55.692); Nithvin Ravindran (GT Tuners, 17:02.227). Race Star Cup: 1. B Balavijay (Hi Rev Motors, 18:41.003); 2. Mohd Fahad S Kutty (Hi Rev Motors, 18:42.896); 3. Deepak Paul Chinnappa (18:43.165).
rounak