Chennai’s Ashwin Datta steals the show in JK Tyre FMSCI National Racing Championship

Chennai’s Ashwin Datta (Dark Don Racing) and Kottayam’s Amir Sayed (MSport) signed off with a double win each in the 23rd JK Tyre – FMSCI National Racing Championship at the Kari Motor Speedway here on Sunday.

Datta cashed in on the chances that came his way to seal the top position in two races of the national championship class for Formula LGB4 cars. But it wasn’t a great start to the day for the youngster from Chennai as the placings had changed, based on protests and official observation, for Saturday’s final race, which Datta won. But, the revised result saw him placed 12th and declared Sarosh as the eventual winner.

However, that did not deter Datta who drove clean to win an incident-free first race in the morning. He followed it up with yet another fighting win in the second race. He even looked good to complete a treble leading till penultimate lap in the final race of the day.

Vishnu Prasad and Raghul Rangasamy (from MSport) were breathing down his neck. It looked anybody’s game and, the pressure was beginning to show on the front runners. Vishnu tried to inch ahead on turn 6 and in the process came into contact with Datta’s car and, it was all over for the two. Raghul seized the opportunity to finish first followed by Sarosh and Sandeep.

“It was disappointing not to win the third after all the hard work,” said Datta.

Raghul was in no mood to celebrate the moment as his teammate (Vishnu) had injured his right wrist during the incident.

In the JK Tyre Novice Cup, Sayed did not put a foot wrong while winning both the races. It was his sixth win on the trot and clearly underlined his class. It was not just about raw speed but a combination of things such as understanding the lines, his approach to the corners that worked in his favour.

Mira Erda of MSport was declared the best woman performer of the weekend, while the best performer in the woman novice category went to Anushriya Gulati of Ahura Racing.

The results (provisional):

JKNRC Formula LGB4 (14 laps): Race 1: 1. Ashwin Datta (Dark Don Racing) 19:28.450; 2. Vishnu Prasad (MSport) 19:30.899; 3. A. Sandeep Kumar (Dark Don Racing) 19:34.378.

Race 2 (15 laps): 1. Ashwin Datta (Dark Don Racing) 21:30.683; 2.Raghul Rangasamy (MSport) 21:31.609; 3. Vishnu Prasad (MSport) 21:31.904.

Race 3 (15 laps): 1. Raghul Rangasamy (MSport) 19:45.015; 2. Sarosh Hataria (Ahura Racing) 19:53.200; 3. A. Sandeep Kumar (Momentum Motorsports) 19:53.487.

On Saturday (revised): 1. Sarosh Hataria (Ahura Racing) 22:14.932; 2.Arya Singh (Dark Don Racing) 22:15.018; 3. A. Sandeep Kumar (Dark Don Racing) 22:20.446.

JK Tyre Novice Cup: Race 1 (10 laps): 1. Amir Sayed (MSport)18:24.277; 2. Karthikeyan Chandrasekar (Avalanche Racing) 18:31.482; 3. Dhruv Gajjar (DTS Racing) 18:31.914.

Race 2 (10 laps): Amir Sayed (MSport) 14:54.496; 2. Dhruvin Gajjar (DTS Racing) 14:59.409; 3. Dhruv Tyagi (Momentum Motorsport) 15:01.302.