Ruhaan Alva, Ishaan Madesh, Suriya Varathan extend lead at the top: X30 Karting Nationals

By David Bodapati

Bengaluru, 31 October 2020: Fourteen-year-old Bengaluru talent Ruhaan Alva of MSport continued to hog the limelight dominating the proceedings and left the field to fight behind him in the Junior section as he won all the four races with `Fastest Laps’ to boot, in the Meco Motorsports fmsci National Karting Championship X30 class at the 1.240-km Meco Kartopia Circuit near Bagalur on Saturday.

Cadet karter, Ishaan Madesh, the reigning champion in Cadet Section, excelled once again with three wins but received a jolt in the first race of Round 4, where Sai Shiva Makesh of Pune, spoiled his party, taking a convincing win.

Senior Class table leader, Suriya Varathan, a 12th class student of Vivekalaya Prakriya in Coimbatore, bagged 30 points including for two victories, in the four races held today, to extend his lead to 117 points over defending champ Nirmal Umashankar (94) but it was Bengaluru’s Junior Rishon Rajeev, who shifted his performance a notch up, with a double whammy, winning both the races held on Saturday afternoon in Round 4. Suriya, the MSport racer, who also took part in the Asian X30 races before the pandemic stopped it, is coached by former National Champion Vishnu Prasad.

In the Junior Section, Ruhaan started P6 in the tricky Race 2 of Round 4, which saw a Reverse Grid for the first six finishers of Race 1. It is the fourth and last race of the day, and Ruhaan bid his time, and with five laps to go, he adeptly overtook his only challenger and compatriot Rohaan Madesh after C2, but Rohaan took back the lead immediately. However, Ruhaan wasted no time and made the move stick after C3, and never looked back winning by over 30-metres at the flag with Mumbai’s Shaurya Kapani taking the final place on the podium.

Earlier in the morning, Ruhaan Alva won both the races of Round 3 with ease. But after taking one more second place in the first race of the day behind Ruhaan, Rohaan Madesh dropped points as he could finish only 8th among 9 racers with Rishon Rajeev, who came 3rd in the first race, taking the second place on the podium followed by Abhay Kumar, also of Bengaluru in Race 4. Another Bengaluru racer, Akshat Mishra completed the podium in the first race of Round 4, behind the two leaders, and Shaurya Kapani of Mumbai replaced him on the podium in the next race. Ruhaan leads the table with 133 points followed by Rohaan Madesh (92) in second and Guwahati racer Jaden Rahman Pariat, who had an off-day today, is third with 56 points, at the end of Saturday.

In the Cadet Section, defending champion Ishaan Madesh, the 11-year old Vidya Shilp  student of Class 6, won both the races in the morning with relative ease making a clean sweep of Round 3, to earn 20 points to the 20 he earned on Friday, but faltered on Saturday afternoon, with a determined Sai Shiva Makesh of Bishop School, Pune taking a well-deserved win in the first race of Round 4. Nikhilesh Raju of Bengaluru came third.

In the last race, Sai Shiva, who made his debut only last year finishing overall third in the Cadet championship, posted another podium with Ishaan taking the win, and kept himself at a striking distance, in the title battle, with two more races tomorrow and the final Round of four races, remaining in November. Another local racer, Anshul Sai came third in the last race. Ishaan Madesh leads the championship with 120 points to Sai Shiva’s 98 and Anshul Sai is in third spot garnering 63.

Friday Tid-Bit: Raj Bakhru won the third place in the Senior Class Race 1 on Friday. 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. You can read Friday’s report here!

Results (Unofficial classification): Saturday:

Round 3: Seniors (15 laps): Race 3: 1. Suriya Varathan (Coimbatore) (14:51.695); 2. Bala Prasath (Coimbatore) (14:52.227); 3. Nirmal Umashankar (Chennai) 14:54.801); 4. Bala Prasath (14:55.310). Race 4: 1. Suriya Varathan (14:27.571); 2. Bala Prasath (14:30.016); 3. Nirmal Umashankar (14:37.791).

Round 4: Seniors (15 laps): Race 1: 1.Rishon Rajeev (Bengaluru) (14:46.500); 2. Nirmal Umashankar (14:47.784); 3. Suriya Varathan (14:48.144); Race 2: 1: Rishon Rajeev (14:35.855); 2. Nirmal Umashankar (14:39.676); 3. Bala Prasath (14:42.259); 4. Ameya Bafna (14:44.915); 5. Suriya Varathan (14:46.647).

Round 3: Juniors (12 laps): Race 3: 1. Ruhaan Alva (Bengaluru) (11:30.682); 2. Rohaan Madesh (Bengaluru) (11:32.915); 3. Rishon Rajeev (Bengaluru) (11:34.564); Race 4: 1. Ruhaan Alva (11:26.358);  2. Rishon Rajeev (11:35.143); 3. Abhay Kumar (Bengaluru) (11:37.869);

Round 4: Juniors (12 laps): Race 1: 1. Ruhaan Alva (Bengaluru) (10:30.995); 2. Rohaan Madesh (Bengaluru) (10:34.536); 3. Akshat Mishra (Bengaluru) (10:42.042); Race 2: 1. Ruhaan Alva (11:21.993); 2. Rohaan Madesh (11:23.804); 3. Shaurya Kapani (Mumbai) (11:27.682).

Round 3: Cadet (10 laps): Race 3: 1. Ishaan Madesh (Bengaluru) (10:54.561); 2. Anshul Sai (Bengaluru) (11:07.963); 3. Sai Shiva Makesh (Pune) (11:15.020); Race 4: 1. Ishaan Madesh (10:28.977); 2. Sai Shiva Makesh (10:31.106); 3. Arafath Sheikh (Pune) (10:46.403); 8. Rohaan Madesh

Round 4: Cadet (10 laps) Race 1: 1.Sai Shiva Makesh (Pune) (10:39.560); 2. Ishaan Madesh (Bengaluru) (10:40.861); 3. Nikhilesh Raju (Bengaluru) (10:58.513); Race 2: 1. Ishaan Madesh (11:05.255); 2. Sai Shiva Makesh (11:05.521); 3. Anshul Sai (Bengaluru) (11:12.547).

(Editor’s note: Corrected typos and updated on Nov 1 at 9.25am)