Bengaluru, 24 Sept. 2017: Rayo Racing’s Aaroh Ravindra extended his championship lead by a mere 1 point at the end of Round 4 of the Meco FMSCI National Rotax Karting Championship. The Mumbai lad kept a cool head and finished both the pre – finals and finals in 2nd position.
Earlier in the weekend, it was Bangalore racer Nirmal Umashankar from M Sport Racing who bagged pole position with a time of 54.864 ahead of Manav Sharma of BPC Racing. Aaroh could only manage third.
Heat 1 and 2 saw Nirmal win ahead of Aaroh and Manav. This ensured that Nirmal started on Pole for the Pre-finals. As the green flag was waved, Nirmal got a good start and managed to block Aaroh, who in turn managed to block of Manav. The three racers fought throughout the 18 lap pre-final, but neither racer was able to make a move and the trio finished in the same order. The immensely close finish saw the top three cross the finish line within 0.7 seconds!
The 20 lap final looked as though it would finish in a similar fashion, when the top three started in the same order. The trio quickly pulled away from the rest of the pack and once again none of the racers seemed to be able to mount a challenge in spite of being within the same second. On lap 15, Aaroh made a move on Nirmal into the U bend. However, he was unsuccessful and immediately paid the price as Manav seized second from Aaroh. Soon, Manav made a move for the lead and succeeded in holding position. Aaroh once again made a move on Nirmal and this time was able to make it stick. He soon went after Manav, but was unable to make a move by the chequered flag. Manav hence won his first race of the season, while Aaroh’s second place meant it was the first time this season he has not won the final. Nirmal sealed the third spot, in another extremely close finish that saw the top three within a second. Aaroh’s charge in the last few laps also saw him bag the fastest lap of the race and increase his overall lead in the National Championship by an additional point.
The Junior Category too, witnessed close racing for the top 2 spots. Yash Aradhya of M Sport Racing started on pole in the final ahead of his team mates Sai Sanjay T and Shahan Ali Mohsin. A small mistake by Yash allowed his team mate to overtake and eventually it was Shahan who won ahead of Yash and Chirag Ghorpade from BPC Racing.
The Micro Max Category saw Yashas More start on pole and win the final ahead of his Birel Art team mates, Rishon MR and Arjun Rajiv.
“Although I was fast through the weekend, Nirmal seemed to be just a bit faster than me. Each and every race had all three of us finish extremely close. I wish I could have made my first move stick, in the finals, but second is not bad, although it would have been better to win. I must thank the team for the excellent setup that I had in the final and I am grateful to all my sponsors” said Aaroh after the race.
eom/press release
