Double delight for Rohaan Madesh, Shiv Neel at National Karting Championship

Coimbatore, July 14 (IANS) Bengaluru's Rohaan Madesh (Peregrine Racing) came up with a brilliant drive to top the Senior Max category in the first round of the MECO-FMSCI National Karting Championship Rotax Max Classes at the CoASTT circuit here.

Also topping their respective classes were a trio of MSPORT team drivers, Chennai’s Eshanth Vengatesan in the Junior Max, Rivaan Dev Preetam, also from Chennai, in the Mini Max and Shiv Neel from Coimbatore who notched a double by winning the Pre-Finals and Finals races in the Micro Max.

Rohaan Madesh’s skills were put to acid test in the Finals as he stoutly defended his P1 spot despite close attention from Mumbai’s Aahil Mecklai (Rayo Racing) who had to settle for second place ahead of Bengalurean Rishon Rajeev (Birel Art India). Having also won the Pre-Finals earlier, Rohaan, thus, completed a fine double. Incidentally, the Senior Max attracted Asia’s biggest grid of 34 drivers.

Meanwhile, Eshanth Vengatesan benefitted after front-runners Pune’s Arafath Sheikh (Crest Motorsports) and Rayo Racing’s Kiaan Shah from Mumbai, who had earlier won the Pre-Finals, collided midway through the 14-lap Junior Max Finals.

Vengatesan capitalised on the incident to move from P3 to P1 and went on to clinch victory ahead of Sheikh while Bengaluru’s Rishik Rohit Reddy (MSPORT) delivered a stunning third place after starting the race from 16th on the grid, but subsequently received a five-second “bumper” penalty which pushed him to fourth while elevating Bengaluru’s Thimmaiah Yohan (Peregrine Racing) to third.

Rivaan Dev Preetam made amends for his disappointing Pre-Final performance to snatch a fine win in the Mini Max Finals after jumping into the lead in the very first lap. Rivaan, who had finished third in the Pre-Final race earlier today, never looked back for a comfortable victory while behind him Faridabad’s Yatharth Gaur (Leapfrog Racing), winner of the Pre-Finals race, finished second, ahead of Mumbai’s Hamza Balasinorwala (Crest Motorsports).

Earlier, in the Pre-Finals, Yatharth Gaur pulled off a fine win over favourite Rivaan Dev Preetham who couldn’t defend his pole position and yielded to pressure after leading till the 11th lap, to eventually finish third. Hamza Balasinorwala also moved past Rivaan to finish second.

Local lad Shiv Neel, off to a cracker of a start, comfortably won the Micro Max Finals from the Bengaluru duo and Peregrine Racing team-mates, Zidaan Arshaan Anees and Shiv Thummala who survived a close mid-grid battle. Shiv Neel completed a double, having won the incident-filled Pre-Finals that was reduced to nine laps with the race winner, Shiv Thummala copping a 12-second penalty for exceeding track limits.

--IANS

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