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Greater Noida, Nov 8 (IANS) Abkhil Rabindra finally got his act together to beat some of the best Indian drivers to take the chequered flag in Race 1 of Round 3 of the 17th JK Tyre Racing Championship at the Buddh International Circuit here Saturday. The Bangalore driver, who had to settle for minor placing in the last round at Coimbatore in July, drove confidently to beat Mumbai's Rahil Noorani by 1.507 seconds, completing the race in 23 minutes and 47.075 seconds. Noorani was home in 23:48.582 while Ananth Shanmugam finished third in 23:49.981.
The win helped Rabindra to close the gap on Vishnu Prasad in the overall drivers' standings of the FB02 class for Team Euro International cars.
In the qualifying race earlier, Rabindra had clocked 2.10.871 to take the pole while Vishnu was second clocking 2.11.377 and Noorani third (2.11.565).
In the race though, Vishnu slipped as luck did not favour him.
"It was a good race. Got a good lap in qualifying which put me in P1 which was half a second less than Vishnu's. In the first two laps it was difficult and Vishnu was next to me and I went in with a defensive set of mind but in the end I pulled through and eventually got a difference of around 20-30 metres till the end," said Rabindra.
"On the second last lap, Vishnu went into pits as he had a jump-start and it got me a bit of freedom. I want to finish ahead of him in both the races tomorrow and that's my plan. I am very happy with the performance of my car as it has been consistent throughout."
Guest drivers Armaan Ebrahim and Aditya Patel drove along with the young drivers to motivate them but failed to finish due to a technical hitch.
Kolhapur driver Chittesh Mandody of Meco Racing won Race 1 of Formula LGB 4 beating Dark Don's T.S. Diljith to open his account. Diljith, however, got his due when he won Race 2 leaving Mandody to settle for runners-up position but this made the drivers' championship interesting.
"It was a good race. I had a good fight with Chittesh with him coming first in one and me coming in the next one. It was a good fight with him as we are very close friends. His car got good pace in the corners and mine was a bit slower in corners because of the handling," said Diljith.
"In the first race both of us ran wide in the corners as both forgot to brake as we braked very late. But happy that I finished second. In the second race, I was defending a lot and thankfully it helped. I have a plan for Sunday's race which is to work on my handling in my corner so that I can go faster in the corners."
Round 3 results:
JK Racing India Series FB02 (Race 1): 1. Akhil Rabindra (Bangalore) 23:47.075; 2. Rahil Noorani (Mumbai) 23:48.582; 3. Ananth Shanmugam 23:49.981; 4. Krishnaraj Mahadik (Mumbai) 23:51.456; 5. Vishnu Prasad (Chennai) 23:56.090.
Formula LGB 4 (Race 1): 1. Chittesh Mandody (Meco Racing) 19:59.030; 2. Diljith T.S. (Dark Don) 19:59.207; 3. Vishnu Prasad (Meco Racing) 20:05.190; 4. Ameya Bafna (Rayo Racing) 20:06.689; 5. Nayan Chatterjee (Rayo Racing) 20:06.960.
Formula LGB 4 (Race 2): 1. Diljith T.S. (Dark Don) 19:52.345, 2. Chittesh Mandody (Meco Racing) 19:54.469, 3. Raghul Rangaswamy (Meco Racing) 20:04.298, 4. Sudarsana Rao Karwa (Dark Don) 20:07.767, 5. Vishnu Prasad (Meco Racing) 20:10.970.
VW Polo R Cup (Race 1): 1. Lee Keshav (New Delhi) 20:03.892; 2. Gosia Rdest (Poland) 20:09.054; 3. Karthik Tharani (Chennai) 20:11.588; 4. Dylan Pereira (Poland) 20:13.634; 5. Anindith Reddy Konda (Hyderabad) 20:16:209.
