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The first race of the Euro JK 18 Cup ensured a thrilling inaugural to the final round of the 21st JK Tyres FMSCI National Racing Championship. It is still unclear who will walk home with the cup after the weekend as the top three drivers remain huddled together with the intensity of the competition remaining as high as ever.
Keeping an eye on extending his strong run from round 3, Karthik Tharani started on pole for the first race of Saturday. The gap between the two Chennai racers, Karthik and Ashwin Datta, was six points in the standings after the conclusion of the previous round in Coimbatore.
The fight for the championship victory became even closer after the no.16 driver went on to clinch an important win. Starting ahead of the rest of the group, Karthik was quick to pull away from everyone. Despite his position coming under threat from Nayan, Tharani managed to cross the finish line almost half a second ahead of Chatterjee to showcase the rich vein of form that he is in.
Datta finished fifth and Brayan Perera filled out the podium behind the top two. Arya Singh began the race in second place but after being passed by Nayan and Brayan, finished fourth. Yash Aradhya and Nirmal Uma Shankar, however, retired after completing six and seven laps, respectively.
During the second race of the day, a reverse grid was used for the top six and Manav Sharma was positioned first on the grid, with Ashwin Datta in second. However, the duo was awarded a ten second penalty for a jump start.
Nayan and Karthik slotted fifth and sixth, respectively, and made full use of the race to prove exactly why they’re on top of the drivers’ standings. Nayan put in fastest lap after fastest lap to catch up to the drivers ahead of him and quickly overtook the whole field one by one to inherit the lead.
Tharani was continuously battling for much needed points, and even when the number 16 driver lost a spot to Nayan after initially passing him, he strived to achieve the maximum that he could. Karthik ended the race in a respectable third place to jump to the top of the table with 82 points.
Arya was another racer who had a strong race, as the driver from West Bengal moved up spots from third to lead the grid at one point. It was only during the later stages that Nayan caught up to Arya and snatched P1 from the 17-year-old.
However, it was not an equally exciting race for Mira Erda, Parth Ghorpade and Nirmal Uma Shankar, as they soon found themselves out of contention with retirements.
Karthik Tharani’s newly acquired first place in the competition remains precarious as Nayan Chaterjee and Ashwin Datta lurk close behind, waiting to grab onto any opportunities for securing themselves the Euro JK trophy after four rounds of close fought racing.
