By Anand Philar, IANS
Coimbatore : It was left to Sri Lankan drivers to provide all the excitement towards the fag end of the day as Nadera Jinasena, in a Mitsubishi Evo 7, powered his way to a splendid win in the GT Cars race in the MRF International Racing Challenge at the Kari Speedway, Saturday.
In a mix-and-match competition, the GT Cars were run along with Super 2000 machines driven by the two MRF stars, Gaurav Gill and Arjun Balu. However, the Sri Lankans enjoyed a distinct advantage as Jinasena led a 1-2-3 sweep with Sanjeev de Mel (Mitsubishi Evo 9) and Reyaz Farooq (Evo 8) following him home.
Farooq was fortunate to survive a contact with Aravinda Premadasa (Evo 8) as the two came together at Turn 1 and went into Turn 2 still in contact. Premadasa’s car suffered damage and he had to dive into pits for running repair, thus putting himself out of contention.
A little later in this 10-lap event, Farooq had to contend with an aggressive Gaurav Gill, the reigning National rally champion, who threw his Mitsubishi Cedia around in a bid to get past the Sri Lankan. He did manage to get past once, but Farooq did well to reclaim his position.
Meanwhile, former saloon car champion Radha Selvaraj, returning to track racing after a two-year break, dominated the 1400cc category with two victories. The Chennai-based veteran showed he had lost none of the edge that had marked him as a driver to reckon with on the domestic scene.
The other showcase event of the day was the Super Bikes (600cc and above) and that proved rather insipid as Dilip Rogger, India’s top rider and a regular on the Asian GP circuit, destroyed the six-bike field in a rather tame race that was run in mild drizzle.
To also be in the limelight was the lone lady driver, Navaz Sandhu (nee Bhathena) who moved from 10th on the grid to win the Super 1400cc race in a Maruti Baleno. Navaz, a former Rally champion, returned to competitive motor sport after a 14year break in August this year when the first round was held.
The results
Cars:
GT cars: Nadeera Jinasena 12:18.550; Sanjeeva Del Mel 12:21.527; Reyaz Farook 12:27.331.
Super 2000: Gaurav Gill (Team MRF) 12:33.719; Arjun Balu (Team MRF) 12:40.973.
Group N: 1. Vijaykumar B 14:11.667; Sujay S 14:24.943; Samarth Gowda 14: 32.399.
Super 1600: 1. Lohit Urs (Team MRF) 13:39.281; 2. Karandip Sandhu (Team MRF) 13:41.643; 3. Philippos Mathai (Team MRF) 14:08.510.
Star Cup (10 laps): 1. Mazdhayar Vatcha (Chettinad Sporting) 14: 34.308; 2. Deepak Paul Chinnappa 14: 35.190; 3. Byram Godrej (Chettinad Sporting) 14:36.221.
CC to Weight ratio (10 laps): 1. Navaz Sandhu (Team MRF) 13:54.064; 2. C. Rajaram ( Coimbatore) 13:54.621; 3. B. Vijaykumar (Coimbatore) 14:00.114.
Super 1400: 1. Radha Selvaraj 13:47.517; 2. Subash Chandra 13:59.471; 3. Amitrajit Ghosh 14:01.014 .
Indian Open (10 laps): 1. Radha Selvaraj 14:15.028; 2. Subash Chandra Bose (Rams Racing) 14:28.909 ; 3. Antony George 14:50.017.
Bikes
RD 350CC, 5 laps: 1. Sanjay 7:24.420s; 2. Adrian Johnson 7:29.783; 3. Harish Shivram 7:36.332.
Indian 2 stroke (5 laps): 1. Ganesh Prasad (Indus Racing) 6:49.402; 2. A. Satish Kumar 6:52.758; 3. Mukesh Raja (C2 Racing Team) 7: 08.934.
Indian 4 stroke (up to 160cc, 5 laps): 1. K. Rajini (TVS) 6:31.417; 2. Harry Sylvester (TVS) 6:31.417 ; 3. Arun Kumar 8: 03.029.
Indian 4stroke (upto 250 cc): 1. Vinoth Kannan (Chennai) 6:31.327; 2. K.S. Alok ( Bangalore) 7:17.092 ; 3. M. Sundarakesavan (Chennai) 7:22.312.
Super Bikes: 1. Dilip Rogger (Chennai) 10.46.999s; 2. Rohit Giri ( Bangalore) 11:01.320s; 3. Sreekumar Gopinandan (Bangalore) 11: 37.075.