It was expected to be a showdown between Chennai stars Vishnu Prasad and defending champion Raghul Rangasamy. But, Sohil Shah, a young boy from Bengaluru, took everybody by surprise winning the premier FLGB4 opening race in the second round of the JK Tyre – FMSCI National racing championship at the Kari Motor Speedway here on Saturday.
The race went down to the wire with Vishnu, starting at P4, moving ahead of privateers Manav Dougall and Akshay Kapoor from Delhi by the first corner. But, even before he could hang on to it, Kerala’s T.S. Diljith of Dark Don Racing had made a clever move to jump into the lead. He fought hard from there, but Sohil and Vishnu (both MSport) kept breathing down his neck. Diljith found it so hot that after fighting it out for over seven laps finally surrendered the lead to Vishnu.
Sohil, who was watching all the action from behind, waited for the right opportunity to sneak in. He found it quite soon and, it was no turning back from there. Even as the 18-year-old was whistling his way merrily in the front, Diljith and Vishnu went neck and neck all the way to finish second and third respectively.
Read: Aishwarya Pissay talks life on the fast lane
“My major mistake used to be the race starts and me not keeping a cool head. But, this time around, I analysed the situation and put in a bit more to win the race. Luckily for me, I enjoyed a good pace and that helped me pull past the rest with ease,” said Sohil.
The race was delayed for over two hours due to technical safety regulations but it was worth the wait such was the excitement that it generated.
In the JK Tyre Suzuki Gixxer Cup, Pune’s Tanay Gaikwad converted his pole position to a comfortable victory, while the Novice Cup saw Mumbai’s Aaroh Ravindra winning the first race and yielding the second to Mohamed Ryan (Chennai), when the reverse grid came into play.
In the first-ever JK Tyre College Cup, David Ryan (Chennai) proved his class winning both the races of the day.
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