Motorsports: Saran marks comeback with win

Chennai - The third round of the 15th JK Tyre-FMSCI National Racing Championship got off to a hectic start with results of two of the three races that were run here Saturday confirmed only on review by the stewards while Saran Vikram (Mars Racing) marked his comeback after a two-year break with a fine win in the LGB Formula 4 class.

Arjun Balu (Tiger Sport Racing), who won the Indian Touring Car race, was docked 20 seconds penalty for jump start and was placed second behind Vijaykumar Rajvirdhan (Prime Racing) while veteran Narayanaswamy Leelakrishnan (Big Foots Racing) came in third.

However, the result was confirmed only after the stewards investigated an incident involving Rajvirdhan and Leelakrishnan on the entry into the Bridge Complex where the duo made contact. Leelakrishnan, running second at that time, spun and lost position.

Earlier, Saran Vikram comfortably won the LGB Formula 4 race from Ashwin Sundar (Dark Don Racing) and Karthik Krishna (WSRF) in a race that was red-flagged and re-started after the first lap.

Subsequently, the stewards looked into and rejected Sundar’s verbal complaint that he was overtaken by Vikram and Krishna under yellow flags and then upheld the result.

“In the first place, the red flag was totally unnecessary since the two cars that had gone off the track were not on racing line and posed no threat to others,” a furious Sundar charged at the post-race media conference.

Sundar also alleged that a lap after re-start, there was a strong reason for a red flag, but was overlooked by race control as the car that had spun lay in a dangerous position on exit of one of the corners.

“The situation definitely demanded a red flag, but we were shown a yellow flag for one lap and then green while the car that spun was left on the track,” said Sundar who was leading when the race was stopped.

Reacting to the charges, Clerk-of-the-Course Farhan Vohra said: “The red flag decision was taken on the basis of reports we received from the Marshals at that corner and also the views of the Safety Car driver M.R. Dastur who himself is an experienced racer.

“In the interests of safety, I decided to red flag the race. As regards the incident on re-start, we felt that the car that was stranded on the track posed no threat to others. Again, this decision was based on the reports we got from the Marshals at that spot.”

“Unfortunately, we do not have all the facilities to monitor the entire track and we have to go by what our Marshals tell us, but this is something we are looking into,” said Vohra.

Later, Mumbai‘s Fahad Kutty (Team Game Over) snatched a dramatic win over S. Narendran (IPL Powerpak) in the Indian Junior Touring Cars race that started in heavy showers and ended on a drying track while Diljith Shaji (Eram Group SC) completed the podium finishes.

It was Kutty’s fourth win of the season while championship leader, Feroze Khan, after a poor start, ran head-on into a stranded Jai Prashanth Venkat’s car that had spun on the exit of Turn-2.

The results:

LGB Formula 4 (10 laps): Saran Vikram (Mars Racicng) 1 (20mins, 03.725secs); Ashwin Sundar (Dark Don Racing) 2 (20:12.678); Karthik Krishna (WSRF) 3 (20:17.177).

Indian Touring Cars (10 laps): Vijaykumar Rajvirdhan (Prime Racing) 1 (20:09.588); Arjun Balu (Tiger Sport) 2 (20:12.563); N Leelakrishnan (Big Foots Racing) 3 (20:18.095).

Indian Junior Touring Cars (10 laps): Fahad Kutty (Team Game Over) 1 (26:08.935); S Narendran (IPL Powerpak) 2 (26:10.033); Diljith Shaji (Eram Group Sports Club) 3 (26:14.065).