By Anand Philar, IANS
Coimbatore : The second round of MRF International Racing Challenge drew to a fiery close Sunday in more ways than one at the Kari Speedway here.
Arjun Balu, in a Mitsubishi Lancer Cedia, had a miraculous escape as his car caught fire after he rear-ended Janaka Nishanta’s Subaru Impreza in the Super 2000-GT Cars race. The contact occurred early in the 10-lap race, but Balu continued to run. The engine subsequently caught fire from an oil leak. A fire tender was on hand to douse the flames.
Nadeera Jinasena of Sri Lanka in a Mitsubishi Evo 7 went on to win the race that, unlike Saturday, was uneventful but for Balu’s mishap and an off-track excursion by Gaurav Gill, also in a Cedia.
Gill too was fortunate as he ploughed into the sand at the end of the start-finish straight after he lost a gear, but corrected to get back on track.
Meanwhile, Navaz Sandhu, nicknamed Tarmac Queen, yet again underlined her status as one of the top drivers in the country despite being out of competition for 14 years due to marriage and motherhood.
She won two races Sunday like she did Saturday after battling hard with experienced racers like Radha Selvaraj, B. Vijaykumar and Subhash Chandra Bose, the oldest competitor at 58.
Displaying amazing car control and aggression, Navaz, despite starting mid-grid, powered her way to the front and then hung on grimly despite close attention.
Incidentally, her husband, Karandip Singh, making his track debut, won the Super 1600cc category with a brilliant drive in a Ford Fiesta in a race that produced wheel-to-wheel racing through the 10 laps.
The two-wheeler section was again dominated by Indian international Dilip Rogger on a Yamaha who clocked the fastest-ever lap time of one minute, 7.924 seconds around 2.1 km track, while winning the Super Bikes category.
An obviously elated Rogger said: “Perhaps, I would have gone faster with some competition, but then, I was not too happy with the bike today. Nevertheless, am happy to have clocked the fastest time on this lap.”
Results:
GT Class: Nadeera Jinasena 12:07.585; Reyaz Farook 12:16.556; Janaka Nishanta 12:23.857.
Super 2000: Gaurav Gill 12:36.247; Arjun Balu (9 laps) 11:29.799.
Super 1600: Karandip Sandhu 13:13.852; Lohith Urs 13:20.991; Arjun Rao Aroor 13:49.977.
Super 1400: Radha Selvaraj 13:41.200; Subhash Chandra 14:12.176; Curush Batha 14:17.335.
Indian Open: Navaz Sandhu 13:43.706; Radha Selvaraj 13:50.414; Subhash Chandra Bose 14:10.590.
CC to weight ratio: Navaz Sandhu 13:39.850; Vijaykumar B 14:00.225; Chetan Shivram 14:16.093.
Group N: Vijaykumar B 14:12.046; Amitrajit Ghosh 14:15.742; Anand Prasad; 14:28.819.
Star Cup: Mazdayar Vatcha 14:30.024; Deepak Paul Chinappa 14:37.329; Byram Godrej 14:38.700.
Super Bikes: Dilip Rogger 11:31.499 (best lap 1:07.924); Rohit Giri 12:34.081 (1:13.886); Sreekumar Gopinadan 12:43.731 (1:14.589).
RD-350: Sameer Venugopal 8:23.157; Christopher Johnson 1:24.253; Sanjay 1:23.671.
India 4 stroke upto 2500cc: Vinoth Kannan 1:16.645; Alok K. S 1:23.837; Sundakarkesavan M 1:12.599.
Indian 4 stroke upto 160cc: Rajini K 7:50.419; Karthick P 7:59.085; Harry Sylvester 7:59.418 (all TVS Racing).
Indian 2 stroke: Sudhakar M 8:11.360; Satish Kumar 8:23.749; Mukesh Raja 8:28.106.