National Racing C’ship: Ruhaan, Arya, Tijil rule day 1 in LGB Formula 4 class

Championship leader Ruhaan Alva (MSport), Arya Singh and Tijil Rao from Dark Don Racing shared a race win each on an eventful day in the final round of the 26th FMSCI National Racing Championship at the Kari Motor Speedway here on Saturday.

It has never been this close between the top three in the LGB Formula 4, the premier class of the championship. All the three races went down to the wire. With just a few points separating them, they knew it was now or never and gave their all for one more time.

Bengaluru’s Ruhaan started with a fighting win over Tijil of Dark Don Racing in the opening race. It did boost his confidence and further his points tally going into the second race. The former took advantage of starting on pole and raced to a quick lead. He was in control for over four laps but quite soon found Arya and Tijil breathing down his neck. The duo even managed to go up front.

It was wheel-to-wheel racing between the three from there. Even as Arya and Tijil were fighting right up in front for some time, Ruhaan made a clever move in the first corner of the 11th lap to take the lead yet again only to surrender it soon.

The duo maintained a steady pace to finish one-two for Dark Don, while Ruhaan had to rest content for the third spot on the podium.

In the last race of the day, Ruhaan was quick off the blocks. So did Tijil and T.S. Diljith of Dark Don Racing. The battle royal had the spectators on the edge of their seats but Tijil held his nerve to finish on top.

The JK Tyre Novice Cup was as close as the LGB Formula 4 class. Neythan McPherson of Momentum Motorsport edged out teammate and championship leader Arjun S. Nair in the first race. But Arjun, a fighter that he is, shot back to win the second race in style and further strengthened his chances of clinching the championship crown

with a tally of 62 points.

Anish Shetty underlined his class in the JK Tyre Presents RE Continental GT Cup with a well-deserved double win.

The results (provisional):

LGB Formula 4: Race 1: Ruhaan Alva (MSport) 19:48.550, 2. Tijil Rao (Dark Don Racing) 1:16.555, 3. T.S. Diljith (Dark Don Racing) 1:16.875.

Race 2: 1. Arya Singh (Dark Don Racing) 20:55.669, 2. Tijil Rao 20:56.711, 3. Ru+haan Alva 20:56.738.

Race 3: 1. Tijil Rao 20:32.887, 2. Ruhaan Alva 20:33.254, 3. T.S. Diljith 20:34.282.

JK Tyre Presents RE Continental GT Cup: Race 1: 1. Jagadeesh Nagaraj (Bengaluru) 6:05.395, 2. Anish Shetty (Bengaluru) 6:06.322, 3. Vignesh Goud (Hyderabad) 6:07.141.

Race 2: 1. Anish Shetty 12:55.273, 2. P.M. Soorya (Chennai) 13:00.965, 3. Abhishek Vasudev (Bengaluru) 13:00.965.

Race 3: 1. Anish Shetty 12:57.123, 2. Jagadeesh Nagaraj 12:59.901, 3. Rajkumar (Coimbatore) 13:00.209.

JK Tyre Novice Cup: Race 1: 1. Neythan McPherson (Momentum Motorsport) 14:39.144, 2. Arjun S. Nair (Momentum Motorsport) 14:39.459, 3. Jigar Muni (Momentum Motorsport) 14:42.854.

Race 2: 1. Arjun S. Nair13:57.412, 2. M. Abhay (MSport) 13:57.615, 3. Joel Joseph (DTS Racing) 13:57.909.

(IANS)