CHENNAI: On a day of drama, twists and turns, veteran Jon Lancaster from Leeds, England, and 17-year-old Jaden Rahaman Pariat from Shillong took the honours in the Indian Racing League and Formula 4 Indian Championship races, respectively in the Round-1 of the Indian Racing Festival held at the Madras International Circuit, here on Saturday.
At the other end of the spectrum, the Hyderabad Blackbirds team had a wretched afternoon. First, Hugh Barter retired when looking set for an easy win in the F4 Indian Championship race, handing P1 to Pariat (Bangalore Speedsters). And then another Hyderabad Blackbirds driver, Neel Jani, the Swiss ace, too packed up when within sight of a victory, to gift it to Lancaster (Chennai Turbo Riders).
Thriller victory for Bala
Coimbatore’s Bala Prasath scored a thrilling win in the Formula LGB4 class of the JK Tyre-FMSCI National Racing Championship which saw the top three finishers separated by less than a second.The race saw Bala surviving a strong challenge from MSPORT pair of Abhay Mohan and Raghul Rangasamy while pole-sitter, Dark Don Racing’s Viswas Vijayaraj from Nellore, came in a distant 16th.