Chennai - On a weekend when graying veterans held sway, Radha Selvarajan and his RAD Racing team-mate Narayanaswamy Leelakrishnan hogged the limelight in the third round of the 14th JK Tyre National Racing Championship.
The 52-year old Selvarajan, who had finished second behind young Vijayakumar Rajvirudhan (Prime Racing) in the first race of the Super Saloon class Saturday, went one better in the second outing to pull off his third win of the season and move to the top spot in the championship standings Sunday.
Rajvirudhan, after leading for three laps, packed up due to mechanical problems as Selvarajan went in front and stayed there.
However, it was the other veteran, 46-year old Leelakrishnan, returning to racing after a 17-year break, who caught the eye with two second place finishes over the weekend without even a test run.
"I was a bit lucky to win today as I lost the third gear in the very first lap. I don’t know how I managed to stay in front as Leela was catching up with me,” said Selvarajan.
Leelakrishnan, the six times National Rally champion, admitted that he could have got past Selvarajan but for a “silly mistake” at turn-4 where he spun, but managed to keep his car on track.
“It’s been fun getting back to racing after all these years. It feels good to finish so high up the order despite not having tested my car and getting into qualifying on Saturday without any track time.
“Today, perhaps, I could have moved past Radha, but I was a bit over-ambitious going into turn-4 where I tried to slip on the inside, but spun. May be, for the next round, my car will be quicker after some testing and changes,” said Leelakrishnan.
Meanwhile, TVS Girling delivered a 1-2-3 finish in the Formula LGB Class with Karthik Krishna, S.Narendran and Sandeep Kumar occupying the podium after Saturday’s winner, Ameya Walavalkar (Mars Racing), lying third, spun off four laps from the end while attempting to gain a place.
Incidentally, Walavalkar, who clocked the fastest lap of the race, got sandwiched between the Girling cars and his desperate move to get on the inside of Narendran on the start-finish straight led to the spin that put him out of the race.
Krishna said his first win of the season was possible because of Narendran who kept Walavalkar in check. “With Narendran holding Ameya, it made my job easier and I am happy to have scored my first win in this class,” said Krishna who started second on the grid behind Narendran, but moved past the pole-sitter going into the first corner.
Earlier, B.Balavijay (Moto-Rev India) completed a double in the Indian Junior Touring Car class by edging out Diljith Shaji (LCT Sigaram Sports) and put his championship campaign back on track after being stripped off 50 points in the previous round at Coimbatore due to a technical violation.
The Volkswagen Polo R Cup single-make series produced mixed results. Chennai teenager and championship leader Vishnu Prasad won the first race, but he was black-flagged following an incident in the second that Goa’s Avdumber Hede won, his first in the championship.
The results:
Formula LGB Swift (10 laps): Karthik Krishna (TVS Girling) 1 (20mins, 05.416secs); S Narendran (TVS Girling) 2 (20:05.867); Sandeep Kumar (TVS Girling) 3 (20:13.800).
Touring Car - Super Saloon (10 laps): TR Radha Selvarajan (RAD Racing) 1 (18:41.421); Narayanaswamy Leelakrishnan (RAD Racing) 2 (18:41.818); Siddharth Kishore (Performance Racing) 3 (18:46.818).
Indian Junior Touring Car (10 laps): B Balavijay (Moto-Rev India) 1 (21:55.172); Diljith Shaji (LCT Sigaram Sports) 2 (21:55.452); Feroz Khan (Performance Racing) 3 (22:08.780).
Polo R Cup - Race 1 (10 laps): Vishnu Prasad (Chennai) 1 (22:36.484); Ajay Kini (Bangalore) 2 (22:39.012); Rahil Noorani (Mumbai) 3 (22:41.046). Race 2 (10 laps): Avdumber Hede (Goa) 1 (20:51.568); Prateek Dalal (New Delhi) 2 (20:57.537); Oshan Kothadiya (Pune) 3 (20:58.048).
Championship standings after 3 rounds:
Formula LGB Swift: 1. Deepak Ravikumar 110 points; 2. Karthik Krishna 80; 3. Ameya Walawalkar and S Narendran 75 each.
Super Saloon: 1. TR Radha Selvarajan 111 points, 2. Vijayakumar Rajvirudhan 88, 3. B Vijayakumar 80.
Indian Junior Touring Cars: 1. Diljith Shaji 122 points; 2. B Balavijay 100; 3. Jai Prashanth Venkat 80.
Polo R Cup: 1. Vishnu Prasad 140 points, 2. Oshan Kothadiya and Avdumber Hede 109 each; 4. Rahil Noorani 104.
Today : Sunday - May 27, 2012, 12:30pm (GMT+5.5)
