Saishiva unbeaten in MRF F2000, Bhuvan excelsTriple delight for Viswas, Kaveen

A clutch of teenagers lit up the first round of the MRF Indian National Racing Challenge 4W – 2006 which concluded at the Madras International Circuit.

Eighteen-year-old Saishiva Sankaran from Pune completed a hat-trick of wins in the MRF Formula 2000 while Visakhapatnam’s Bhuvan Bonu, only 16, won both the races on the final day in the MRF Formula 1600, Kaveen Diyyan Rajapaksa from Sri Lanka, also 16, achieved a triple crown in the Junior category of the Formula LGB 1300 class.

At the other end of the spectrum, a trio of seasoned campaigners Ritesh Rai in Indian Super Touring Cars, Diljith TS in Super Stock and in Polo Cup Pratik Sonawane remained unbeaten in both their respective races, highlighting their experience and undoubted pace to leave the rest of the grid chasing their shadows.

MRF Formula 2000:

In spite of a poor start by Pune's Saishiva Sankaran but made ground to win from seemingly hopeless positions by showcasing his grit and pace while winning all the three races.. Coincidentally, he conceded but regained the lead from Navi  Mumbai's Aditya Patnaik on all three occasions.  Pole-sitter Saishiva, winner of the F1600 title last year, had a poor start in race1, and was running second behind Patnaik with two of the 10 laps to go when they ran into a backmarker.  Aditya lost precious tenths of a second negotiating the backmarker and Saishiva closed the gap. Aditya lost more time when he again ran into a backmarker on the last lap. Saishiva needed no second invitation as he passed Aditya for a win. Aditya had to be content with second place, ahead of Pune’s Swarnav Das.

In race2, Saishiva with over 2sec lead on Patnaik was the winner, while Krishay Gutte from Mumbai finished behind Patnaik in third. The final race of the round saw Saishiva once again finishing on top, this ocassion with over 5sec lead on Patnaik, with further 5sec deficit Swarnav finished third.

MRF F1600:

In the F1600 class that was run concurrently with the F2000, Gyan too was in P2 for much of the race, trailing Bhuvan Bonu from Visakhapatnam with Bengaluru’s Priyanka Vijay in P3. Towards close, Bhuvan suffered from a drop in power which saw both Gyan and Priyanka pass him while the Vizag driver finished third.

Bonu displayed exemplary composure to survive some tough moments while winning both the final day races. He finished on top In race2 as Mumbai's Evan Shrawan finished second. In the final race of the day Bhuvan was followed by Gyan Satish from Chennai in second and Shivansh Bejoy from New Delhi finished third.

Formula LGB 1300 Open class:

In contrast, Nellore’s Viswas Vijayaraj was in a league of his own as he led a podium sweep for DTS Racing in race1. Vijayaraj had no challengers once he snatched the lead at Turn-1 and then gradually increased the lead for a commanding win, a race that turned out to be processional once the grid settled down after initial jostling. Vijayaraj was followed home by his DTS Racing team-mates Vinith Kumar from Tirupur and Liron Jaden Samuels from Tirunelveli finished third.

Viswas started Race-2 in P8 on the reverse grid but was in the front bunch by the end of the first lap and then moved to the front to notch a win, followed by Vinith in second and Liron finished in third.. Later, in Race-3, he scored a lights-to-flag win after starting from pole, by finishing ahead of the second finisher Liron and Vinith in third.

Junior Formula LGB 1300:

Srilankan Kaveen Diyyan Rajapaksa from Momentum Motorsports with over 18sec margin was the winner of race1 followed by Bengalurian Abhijit Vadavalli in second,  Agra's Yash Vikram Singh from Delta Speeds with about .200th of a second difference was third.

Race2, Kaveen was followed by Abhijit in second with just over 2sec difference and Sri Lankan Aadam Junaid from Momentum Motorsports  completed the podium with over 3sec difference. It was a third straight win for Kaveen, Bengalurian Shatveer Shetty from Meco Racing with 6sec deficit was second and Yash with further 8sec difference was third in race3.

Kaveen Diyyan Rajapaksa also enjoyed a fruitful weekend by winning all three races. “I loved every moment here. Back in Sri Lanka, we do not get such big grids. So, it was fun to be competing with so many drivers. I am very happy that I won all three races in the Junior category,” said Kaveen who a fortnight back had won a Formula 1300 race in a Sri Lankan competition.

Indian Super Touring Cars:

Earlier, former National champion Arjun Narendran from Coimbatore, driving an Arka Motorsports-prepared Volkswagen Polo, and returning to active racing after several years, expectedly qualified for pole position in the Indian Super Touring Cars class, with a hot lap of 01 minute, 49.033 seconds. Starting in race1 behind him will be the trio of Buzzing Hornet Motorsports drivers, Ritesh Rai from Chennai, Aman Nagdev from Noida and Jeet Jhabakh from Hyderabad.

Ritesh, though, was trifle lucky when his arch-rival Arjun Narendran spun and retired when in the lead in the first race and could not start Race-2 as the necessary repairs to his car could not be completed on time.

Ritesh won the race1 very comfortabally with a lead of over 13sec, as the second finisher Aman managed to keep Jeet behind him in third with further 8sec difference. The results remained the same as well in race2.

Super Stock:

Veteran Diljith TS from Thrissur led a 1-2-3 sweep of the top three qualifying spots for DTS Racing, clocking a best lap of 02:02.678. It was a clean sweep for DTS Racing as Diljith finished on top, while Deepa S John from Thiruvananthapuram finished second and Thrissur's Lal Kattikulam Bharathan completed the podium sweep. In race2 Diljith was followed by Lal in second and Deepa finished third.

Volkswagen Polo Cup:

Mumbai’s Neel Shah was the quickest in qualifying session with a best lap of 01:55.377, followed by his Buzzing Hornet Motorsports team-mates Pratik Sonawane (Mumbai), Hitrath Bhat (Ahmedabad), Sidharth Desai (Mumbai) and Dushyant Nagesh (Bengaluru).

Pratik won the race1 as Neel finished in second and Hitarth finished third. In race2, it was Pratik was the winner, Neel followed him in second and Balaji Raju from Chennai finished third.