Ruhaan Alva completes clean sweep in Novice class; Vishnu, Sohil win a race each
Coimbatore, 24 October 2021: Young Ruhaan Alva of Bengaluru made it a memorable day as he completed a clean sweep in the Novice Class winning the third and final race in the first round of the 24th JK Tyre FMSCI Indian National Racing Championship at the Kari Motor Speedway here on Sunday.
The talented Team MSport driver, steered his yellow #27 to another clinical finish and did it in style starting from 13th on the grid. After winning the two rounds on the opening day of the season on Saturday in the Novice Class, the Bengaluru teenager changed his gear-box and suffered a 5-place grid penalty and along with the first-eight reverse grid, made him start on P13. Undaunted, the calm and lanky Ruhaan, overtook one by one and drove a fantastic race to claim another seemingly improbable victory.
He came out triumphant posting 30 out of 30 points and is leading the 4-round Championship table in his Class.
Behind him Chetan Surineni, who started on P5 had a consistent race as he made up a few places and defended his place even as another karting graduate Jaden R Pariat, was actually the ‘Driver of the Day’. Having started among the back benchers at P17, he exhibited good driving skills and made up postions one-by-one to get on to the top and took the final place on the podium for a well-deserved third place.
Meanwhile, in the Senior section, former champion and mentor Vishnu Prasad from Chennai and experienced youngster Sohil Shah of Bengaluru, also from MSport, won a race each in the premier LGB Formula 4 class.
A quick get-away from the lights saw, Vishnu Prasad take the lead from P3 as he was adept at his reflex timings won the first race, and after dilly dallying midway through with his ward, Amir Sayed of Ahura Racing. Amir, the Novice Cup 2020 champion graduated to F4 this season.
The experienced Vishnu, winner of several titles year after year, managed to break free towards the end for a place atop the podium. “I think we got a lucky break in the beginning when everyone else was fighting,” said the 28-year-old, who mentored Amir last season.
“Amir is doing really well and I am very happy for him. The guys are fighting it out in the middle with their teachers and are coming up the ranks,” explained Vishnu. Sohil Shash wh got a 10-second penalty finished 10th. But, Sohil came back strongly to take the chequered flag in the second race ahead of Vishnu.
Earlier, Anish Damodara Shetty of Hubli won the Royal Enfield Continental GT Cup’s second race too.
The results (provisional): FLGB4:
Race 1: Vishnu Prasad (MSport) 22:45.828; 2. Amir Sayed (Ahura Racing) 22:49.736; 3. Chirag Ghorpade (Momentum Motorsports) 22:53.650.
Race 2: 1. Sohil Shah 19:01.088; 2. Vishnu Prasad 19:02.222; 3. A. Sandeep Kumar 19:03.875.
Novice Cup: 1. Ruhaan Alva (MSport) 21:48.110; 2. Chetan Surineni (Quest Motorsports) 21:48.714; 3. Jaden R. Pariat (MSport) 21:48.985.
Royal Enfield Continental GT Cup: 1. Anish Damodara Shetty (Hubli) 13:57.731; 2. Allwin Xavier (Thrissur) 14:06.374; 3. Anfal Akdhar (Thrissur) 14:08.009.
Saturday results (revised): FLGB4: 1. Arya Singh (Dark Don Racing) 23:27.088; 2. Raghul Rangaswamy (MSport) 23:29.179; 3. Mohamed Ryan (MSport) 23:29.308.
