Coimbatore: The Chennai duo of Raghul Rangasamy and Vishnu Prasad brought the opening round of the 22nd JK Tyre FMSCI National Racing Championship to life, splitting dramatic victories in the FLGB-4 category on an action-packed Day 2 here on Sunday.
The day began with Raghul stealing the thunder but ended with Vishnu streaking to his second last-lap win to spice up the competition. It made for a perfect weekend for their team, MSport, though.
The three podium finishes, including his win on Saturday, handed Vishnu the championship lead with a grand total of 28 points.
All this came along with a lot of post-race drama, with Vishnu first being dislodged from the top before being reinstated again after a series of protests.
The JK Tyre Novice Cup too also witnessed some heated off-the-track action. Bengalurus Chirag Ghorpade (Momentum Motorsports) sailed past the chequered flag for the third consecutive time, only to discover that he had made a jump start.
He was penalised by 10 seconds that saw him slide all the way down to the eighth position.
Mohamed Ryan (MSports; Chennai), who had finished second after him, was declared the winner while Aaroh Ravindra (Momentum; Mumbai) moved up one step to take the second position.
The change hurt Chirag badly, taking away the overall championship lead from him and yielding it to Aaroh. The Suzuki Gixxer Cup was a repeat of Day 1, with Bangalores Syed Muzammil Ali scoring an encore, but this time with over 5 seconds to spare.
Punes Tanay Gaikwad (14:25.458) and Sidharth Sajan (14:27.480) held on to their podium places, in almost identical fashion.
The JK Tyre Redbull Road to Rookies saw Ikshan Shanbag of Satara underlining his potential with his second straight win. Prashanth R (Chennai) and Aryan Gurav (Pune) took the other two places on the podium.
A new category for women was also introduced, celebrating the best racer in the LGB-4 bunch where Vadodaras Mira Erda (MSport) grabbed the honours by finishing ahead of all the women in each of the races.
Ahura Racings duo of Megaa KS and Diana Pundole took the first and second runners up trophies in this round.
