Sohil Shah aces the field for maiden win in Indian Racing League
Coimbatore, 16 Nov 2024: Championship contenders Goa Aces JA Racing received a massive boost when Sohil Shah destroyed a high-quality field and delivered a hat-trick of pole position, race win and best lap, in the Round 5 of the Indian Racing League at the Kari Motor Speedway here on Saturday.
It was 23-year-old Shah’s first win in the Indian Racing League which is promoted by the Racing Promotions private limited. He did it in style beating the likes of veterans Neel Jani of Black Birds Hyderabad and Alvaro Parente of Speed Demons Delhi, who came in second and third respectively. However, Parente was docked a five-second penalty for a “infringement”and was pushed to P4 with Jon Lancaster of Chennai Turbo Riders moving upa spot to P3.
The winning margin of 17.156 seconds underlined the dominating performance by the Bengalurean that came on the back of several podium finishes this season.
With the sun out and track almost fully dry following rains earlier in the day, it was Shah who roared away from the rolling start and with every lap increased his lead over Jaani, Lancaster and Parente who got involved in a close battle.
In the latter half of the race, Lancaster slowed down with an engine issue, giving up his P3 spot to Parente. Up the road, Shah kept increasing the lead, followed by Jaani and Parente and the trio finished in that order while Lancaster came in fourth, but subsequently moved up to third as the Portuguese driver was penalized for an infringement.
Behind the front-runners, Shah’s team-mate Shahan Ali Mohsin finished an impressive fifth after starting from P12 to bring more cheer to Goa Aces JA Racing team. However, Shahan dropped to seventh following a 20-second penalty for a “infringement”.
“I am very happy with this win today after several podium finishes. It was a good race and am pleased with my performance as the grid had top drivers like Jaani, Parente and Lancaster,” said Shah.
The two-day Indian Racing Festival, sponsored by Kingfisher Soda, JK Tyres, Mobil 1 and Megha Engineering & Infrastructure Limited.
Formula 4 Indian Championship
South African Aqil Alibhai (Black Birds Hyderabad) came up with yet another brilliant drive on a drying Kari Motor Speedway track to post his sixth overall and fifth win in a row to consolidate his spot on top of the leaderboard in the FIA-certified Formula 4 Indian Championship.
Finishing in P2 was his closest rival,Ruhaan Alva (SrachiRarh Royal Bengal Tigers) who wasted a pole-position start while Canadian Hady Noah Mimassi(Chennai Turbo Riders) completed the podium while also winning the Rookie award besides clocking the best lap of the race.
At the start, Alva made a poor getaway and left the door open at Turn-1 for Alibhai to forge ahead. Thereafter, the South African maintained his lead, literally tiptoeing past the water patches and later the back markers. Behind him Alva settled in second place unable to come close to making a move on Alibhai while Mimassicouldn’t make much headawayand had to be content with P3.
Reflecting on his performance today, Alibhai said: “I am happy to win today. I had a good start but had to be careful due to the water on the track. Towards the end, others were catching up, but I managed to maintain my lead and want to maintain the momentum tomorrow and win the championship.”
27thJK Tyre-FMSCI National Racing Championship
Starting from P2 on the grid, Bengaluru’s Tijil Rao (Dark Don Racing) pulled off yet another win to move closer to the championship title in the 27th JK Tyre-FMSCI National Racing Championship on Saturday at the Kari Motor Speedway.
In a close LGB Formula 4 race, Tijil held off a strong challenge from Chennai’s Saran Vikram Tmars (Momentum Motorsports) while Rookie Dhruvh Goswami (MSPORT) from Bengaluru finished third.Meanwhile, as many as seven drivers failed to finish the incident-filled race.
Royal Enfield Continental GT Cup
Championship leader Navaneeth Kumar S from Puducherry consolidated his position on the points table with one win and a P2 finish in the Royal Enfield Continental GT Cup. His arch-rival, Rohan R from Coimbatore matched the performance to remain in title contention.
Meanwhile, Bengaluru’s Yogesh P also notched a double in the Amateurs category to seal the championship in this class.
The results (Provisional):
Indian Racing League (Race-1, Driver-A) 25 mins+1 lap:1. Sohil Shah (India, Goa Aces JA Racing) (26mins, 34.598secs);2. Neel Jani (Switzerland, Black Birds Hyderabad) (26:51.754);3.Jon Lancaster (UK, Chennai Turbo Riders) (26:54.848).Best Lap:Sohil Shah (01:03.088).
Formula 4 Indian Open (Race-1, 25mins+1 lap):1. Aqil Alibhai (South Africa, Black Birds Hyderabad) (26:14.474);2. Ruhan Alva (India, ShrachiRarh Royal Bengal Tigers) (26:15.614);3. Hady Noah Mimassi (Canada, Chennai Turbo Riders) (26:17.254).Best Lap:Mimassi(01:10.638).
JK Tyre-FMSCI National Racing Championship:
LGB Formula 4 (Race-1, 15 laps):1. Tijil Rao (Bengaluru, Dark Don Racing) (22:02.750);2. Saran Vikram Tmars (Chennai, Momentum Motorsports) (23:03.725);3.Dhruvh Goswami (Bengaluru, MSPORT) (23:04.504).Rookie: 1. Dhruvh Goswami (23:04.504); 2. Abhay Mohan (Bengaluru, 23:06.147); 3. Neythan McPherson (Pune, Momentum Motorsports) (23:08.494).
Royal Enfield Continental GT Cup (Race-1, 9 laps) – Professionals: 1.Rohan R (Coimbatore) (11:44.984);2. Navaneeth Kumar S (Puducherry) (11:45.320);3. Anish Shetty (Bengaluru) (11:45.470).Amateurs:1. Yogesh P (Bengaluru) (12:16.480); 2. Johring Warisa (Umrangso) (12:16.891); Johnson Saldanha (Mangaluru) (12:22.450).
Race-2 (6 laps) – Professionals:1. Navaneeth Kumar S (07:48.397);2.Anish Shetty (07:50.894);3. Rohan R (07:51.227).Amateurs:1. Yogesh P (Bengaluru) (08:08.594); 2. Johring Warisa (08:10.664); 3. Johnson Saldanha (08:21.798).
