Ishaan bags a double; Ruhaan leads despite a minor hiccup
By David Bodapati
Bengaluru, 30 October 2020: Reigning champion Ruhaan Alva of Bengaluru, continued his winning streak in Race 1 for a stunning ninth consecutive race and marched towards retaining his National Champion tag despite a reverse-grid hiccup in the second race, in the third round of the Meco Motorsports fmsci National Karting Championship X-30 races at Meco Kartopia here on Friday.
Another fun-loving Bangalore kid, Ishaan Madesh had the best outing today clinching a double in the Cadet section to keep his championship lead with 83 points to Sai Shiva’s 67. Eleven-year-old Ishaan was streets ahead as he left the field behind and won with a huge margin of over 13-seconds in Race 1 and went on clinch Race 2, too. Anshul Sai of Pune came second in Race 1 followed by Pune’s Sai Shiva Makesh, who took second in Race 2 ahead of Arafath Sheikh, also of Pune. Ishaan who had a DNF in the previous round did make amends and won both the races.
After topping the official practice session, in Race 1, Ruhaan brushed aside the challenge of Rohaan Madesh beating him by a convincing 3.2-second margin to take another first. Rishon Rajeev completed the podium, a fraction of a second behind, to make it an all-Bengaluru podium.
In Race 2, Ruhaan was well on course to clinch the issue but his streak of victories was broken in Race 2 due to an unforeseen incident. After the reverse-grid start, he patiently overtook one by one and got to the top and everything looked rosy as he took the lead. But in the last lap, the driver in 2nd place, tried an overambitious move into the fourth corner (C4) and locked-up, and smashed sideways straight into Ruhaan, taking both out in the process. Ruhaan, later managed to finish 6th and retrieved 3 useful points to still lead the Championship by 23 points. Ruhaan has 93 to Rohaan’s 70. But for the incident, he still showed his talent and kart control and driving skills to bag the `Fastest Laps’ in all the 10 races, till now in Rounds 1, 2 and 3. Six more Races, two in Round 3 and four in Round 4, will decide the title this weekend.
In the Senior Section, strong contender Suriya Varathan and defending champion Nirmal Umashankar split the two races. Suriya won the first race beating Nirmal Umashankar, who took a comfortable win in Race 2. Raaj Bakhru came third ahead of Shravanthika Lakshmi S of Coimbatore, who came fourth beating three more boys. Bala Prasath finished the podium in Race 2. Arjun Nair, who was second in the title race after two rounds, did not take part today.
Raaj Bakhru winning the third place in the Senior Class Race 1 has some significance. The 12th class student of Business Management from Mumbai is making his debut in National karting and taking a podium in the first race, and driving a kart only for the third time, is some achievement.
Results: Round 3 (Unofficial classification): Friday:
Seniors (15 laps): Race 1: 1. Suriya Varathan (Coimbatore) (14:29.774); 2. Nirmal Umashankar (Chennai) 14:30.541); 3. Raaj Bakhru (14:52.117); Race 2: 1. Nirmal Umashankar (14:31.502); 2. Suriya Varathan (14:32.963); 3. Bala Prasath (Coimbatore) (14:40.012).
Juniors (12 laps): Race 1: 1. Ruhaan Alva (Bengaluru) (11:47.773); 2. Rohaan Madesh (Bengaluru) (11:50.976); 3. Rishon Rajeev (Bengaluru) (11:51.216); Race 2: 1. Jaden Rahmat Pariat (Guwahati) (11:37.626); 2. Rohaan Madesh (11:38.446); 3. Shaurya Kapani (Mumbai) (11:38.595);
Cadet (10 laps): Race 1: 1. Ishaan Madesh (Bengaluru) (10:54.561) 2. Anshul Sai (Bengaluru) (11:07.963); 3. Sai Shiva Makesh (Pune) (11:15.020); Race 2: 1. Ishaan Madesh (10:28.977); 2. Sai Shiva Makesh (10:31.106); 3. Arafath Sheikh (Pune) (10:46.403);
Editor’s note: Updated Oct 31 at 9.30 am correcting typo Ruhaan’s lead to 23 points.
