JK Tyre National Racing: Ruhaan, Tijil steal the thunder
The Hindu
Ruhaan Alva and Tijil Rao of Dark Don Racing won the premier Formula LGB4 and JK Tyre National Racing Championship respectively, while Neythan McPherson and Joel Joseph shared a race win each in the JK Tyre Novice Cup. Abhishek Vasudev and Sarvesh Balappa won the JK Tyre RE Continental GT Cup and JK Tyre presents 250 Cup respectively.
Ruhaan Alva of MSport has always been a fearless and feisty competitor. The Bengaluru youngster displayed it again with a stunning win in the premier Formula LGB4 class. So did Tijil Rao of Dark Don Racing in the second race of the 26th JK Tyre National Racing Championship at the Kari Motor Speedway circuit here on Sunday.
It was a grand double for Tijil as he had won a race the other day as well. But the opener turned out to be an edge-of-the-seat thriller as Ruhaan and Arya Singh (Dark Don Racing) fought all the way to the flag. In fact, the latter was in full control but the former took him by surprise with his gutsy drive.
The 21-year-old from Bengaluru further pressed the pedal, and Arya worked as much to close the door on him. But Ruhaan, a smart driver as he is, found a bit of space, moved in quickly and finished ahead of Arya.
“It was super close and super fun but he was super quick. I made a few mistakes but he drove really well,” said Arya, after the race.
Neythan McPherson (Momentum Motorsports) and Joel Joseph shared a race win each in the JK Tyre Novice Cup.
The results (provisional, final day):
Asian Games champion Avinash Sable opened his season in the 3000m steeple chase with a silver in the Portland Track Festival, a World Athletics Continental Tour bronze event, in Oregon on Saturday. He clocked 8:21.85s. Asian champion Parul Chaudhary took the bronze in the women’s 3000m steeple chase in a season-best 9:31.38s. Former Asian bronze medallist Sanjivani Jadhav struck gold in the women’s 10,000m in 32:22.77s, a time which was a second off her personal best, while Seema was sixth in 32:55.91s.