Pune’s Ibrahim impresses in second round of Indian Racing Championship
By Sanjay Jadhav
August 5, 2020
Pune’s Muhammad Ibrahim sparkled in Round 2 of the Mumbai Falcons Indian Racing Championship, in association with Volkswagen Motorsport India, stunning Amith Kutti of Chennai and winning both his Pro Class races.
Ibrahim, who is currently competing from Kuala Lumpur and famously ran in the top five of the World Rotax Karting Finals recently and was a runner-up in the Asian Rotax Championship too, stamped his authority right from the word go.
He bagged pole, with a lap-time of 1:47.778, ahead of Ooty’s Niranjan Kumar. Season 2 Champion Sai Prithvi was third while Kutti could manage only fourth on the grid, ahead of Ankit Tyagi.
As the lights went out for Race 1 at the famed Nurburgring Circuit, Ibrahim made an excellent start to hold on to his lead. Kutti, from fourth, made a daring lunge into Corner 1 to jump to second place. Ibrahim pulled away and cruised to victory ahead of Kutti and Prithvi. Raghav Budhiraja (Delhi) and Abdul Hadi (Thrissur) drove smartly to move up from 14th & 15th to complete the Top Five.
Race 2 saw carnage on the first corner after pole-sitter Viswas Vijayraj turned into Niranjan Kumar, causing over 8 cars to suffer damage, and deployment of the safety car. Ibrahim took full advantage of this to win ahead of Kutti and Chevlyn Fernandes (Mumbai). Sai Prithvi & Niranjan Kumar completed the top five.
Sirish Vissa, Head of Volkswagen Motorsport India said, “The series has been remarkable with strong performance from Muhammad Ibrahim and the racers leading on the point table. The fight for the first spot was most exciting and enthralling.”
He further added, “It is our conscious effort to provide a level playing field even virtually. The cut-throat competition witnessed throughout the championship is a testimony to that fact.”
For the second round in a row in the Junior Class, Sayee Saran (Chennai) started from pole. He made a good start to lead the race ahead of Ujjwal Belwarier (Bangalore) & Garvit Agrawal (Gurgaon). A thrilling three-car battle for the lead ensued for most of the race, before Saran lost the lead. Belwarier won ahead of Avinash Gupta (Kalimpong) and Agrawal.
Six-time World Guinness record holder and winner of 11 motorsport titles, Ronny Wechselberger was one of the guest racers. A technical issue saw him skip Race 1 and he moved up from twentieth on the grid to finish a creditable ninth in Race 2. Macau’s Frederico Joaquin finished ninth in Race 1.
“The Mumbai Falcons Indian Racing Championship got a tremendous boost with acclaimed kart-racer Muhammad Ibrahim taking part. He got the better of Amith Kutti and Sai Prithvi which shows his class,” Moid Tungekar, CEO of Mumbai Falcons, said.
“We are happy to see strong viewership growth of the live races on our IR eSports social media channels. In addition to our existing sponsors, Mumbai Falcons & Volkswagen Motorsport India, we welcome Gamer Connect on board,” Rayomand Banajee, the organiser and 8 time National Champion, said.
