JK Tyre Racing C’ship: Diljith, Raghul post second-round wins

T. S. Diljith and Raghul Rangasamy had a race win each in the FLGB4 class.

Raghul Rangasamy (99) challenged the best of the bunch in the second race for the FLGB4 cars at the Kari Motor Speedway on Sunday. Photo: Special Arrangement.

T. S. Diljith (Dark Don Racing) and Raghul Rangasamy (MSport) stole the show with a race win each in the FLGB4 class in the second round of the JK Tyre – FMSCI National racing championship here on Sunday.

Diljith had been having a bit of fun with his friends earlier in the day, but when the race began, he turned on the heat. He went on to show the crowd that he had the skill to beat the best. Starting at P7, as the reverse grid came into play, the ambitious driver from Kerala knew his big threat would come from defending champion Raghul, who started at P5.

Read | Sohil Shah wins Premier FLGB4 opening race

But Raghul got stuck in the front and Diljith took the chequered flag. Raghul knew his effort to increase the pace came in slightly late and settled for the second spot.

Exciting race

But Raghul shot back to win the second race that was exciting all the way through, right from the outset. The big boys from MSport and Dark Don challenged each other. But it was Vishnu Prasad (MSport) who scored over the rest in the first half of the race. He was in command but, as luck would have it, the safety car came in midway through and destroyed his chances of being on top of the podium.

Raghul sensed a chance and quickly found a yawning gap to take the lead. It did surprise Vishnu and Sohil, who worked very hard on the front.

Vishnu was not one to give away it too easily. He went an extra mile but Raghul defended well at the home stretch to take the flag. Just 0.027 seconds separated the two racers.

They racers were quite pleased to have fought a good race, but Vishnu was disappointed. “It’s difficult to digest but I enjoyed the fight. I started sixth and am quite happy finishing second. It could have been better but it is what it is,” he said.

• Formula LGB4 — Race 2: T. S. Diljith (Dark Don Racing) 18:14.76; 2. Raghul Rangasamy (MSport); 3. A. Sandeep Kumar (Dark Don). Race 3: 1. Raghul 20:29.90; 2. Vishnu Prasad (MSport); 3. Sohil Shah (MSport).
• Suzuki Gixxer Cup — Race 3: 1. Tanay Gaikwad (Pune) 14:18.57; 2. Syed Muzammil Ali (Bengaluru); 3. Shazan Khan (Bengaluru).
• JK Tyre Novice Cup — Race 3: 1. Aaroh Ravindra (Mumbai) 18:19.30; 2. Chirag Ghorpade (Bengaluru); 3. Mohamed Ryan (Chennai).
• JK Tyre Redbull Road to Rookies — Race 3: 1. Ikshan Shanbag (Satara)14:56.42; 2. Aditi Krishnan (Bengaluru); 3. Aryan Gurav (Pune).
• JK Tyre College Cup — Race 3: 1. S. Sai Prithvi (Chennai) 10:20.80; 2. David Ryan (Chennai); 3. Chetan Surineni (Bengaluru).