Shreyas Hareesh from Bengaluru and Kolhapur’s Jinendra Kiran Sangave qualified to represent India in the FIM MiniGP World Series Finals to be held in November in Valencia, Spain.
Shreyas with 220 points and Jinendra with 213 points finished first and second respectively while Nandana Mahendran from Chennai with 153 points finished third in the FIM MiniGP World Series India 2022 which concluded at the Meco Kartopia. In the World Finals, the pair will compete with toppers of respective National series held in 15 countries.
Jinendra went into the fourth round with 16 points lead over Shreyas and was looking very comfortable but not safe to seal the top slot, as he had to fight it out with a equally strong Shreyas, but was unable to capitalise on it, as Shreyas won both the races of the day and reduced the lead to 11 points. Thus the qualifying boiled down to the final phase of the round.
With 11 points advantage Jinendra had to just stay ahead of Shreyas in both the races of the final round, Jinendra was at his best to win the race one and further consolidated his dominant stand. The thrill to watch both the competitors to fight till the finish never lasted long as Jinendra had to give way in race two due to engine issues. Shreyas was the race leader and had to just finish to qualify. Both the riders Jinendra and Shreyas race in the domestic TVS One Make Championship.
The five-round, 10-race India series, organised by RMS Motorsport with support from Meco Motorsports, saw Jinendra, 13, dominate initially by winning five races in a row. However, 12-year old Shreyas staged a remarkable comeback by topping four of the next five races, including a double in Round-4 on Saturday to finish on top of the Series points table with 220 points. Jinendra, who barely survived a difficult final weekend, finished with 213 points, well ahead of third-placed Nandanan Mahendran of Chennai (153).
Among the four girls who took part in the Series, Bengaluru’s Nithila Das finished fifth overall in the points standings with 106 while Rakshitha Dave from Chennai was seventh (94). The other two girls, both from Bengaluru, Aleena Mansur Sheikh and Anastya Pol, participated only in Round-1, garnering 18 points apiece.
The results (all 15 laps):
Round-4: Race-1: 1. Shreyas Hareesh (Bengaluru) (16mins, 08.090secs); 2. Jinendra Kiran Sangave (Kolhapur) (16:40.592); 3. Rakshith S Dave (Chennai) (16:46.509). Race-2: Shreyas Hareesh (16:05.533); Jinendra Sangave (16:06.095); 3. Nandanan Mahendran (Chennai) (16:37.833).
Round-5: Race-1: Jinendra Kiran Sangave (16:07.381); 2. Shreyas Hareesh (16:07.958); 3. Nandanan Mahendran (16:20.406). Race-2: 1. Shreyas Hareesh (16:14.237); 2. Nandanan Mahendran (16:25.629); 3. Rakshith Dave (Chennai) (16:41.085).