National Racing: Datta signs off round one with double win

Chennai's Ashwin Datta (Dark Don Racing) and Kottayam's Amir Sayed (MSport) signed off with a double win each in the 23rd JK Tyre - FMSCI National Racing Championship at the Kari Motor Speedway here on Sunday.

Datta cashed in on the chances that came his way to seal the top position in two races of the national championship class for Formula LGB4 cars. His day got off to a disappointing start, however, with his win in Saturday's final race corrected to a 12th place finish based on protests and official observation. Sarosh Hataria (Ahura Racing) was declared as the eventual winner.

However, that did not deter Datta who drove clean to win an incident-free first race in the morning. He followed it up with yet another fighting win in the second race. He even looked good to complete a treble, leading till penultimate lap in the final race of the day.

Vishnu Prasad and Raghul Rangasamy (from MSport) were breathing down his neck. It looked anybody's game and, the pressure was beginning to show on the front runners. Prasad tried to inch ahead on turn 6 and in the process, came in contact with Datta's car, thus ending the race for the two. Rangaswamy took P1 and saw himself through to the finish line followed by Hataria and Sandeep Kumar (Dark Don Racing).

"It was disappointing not to win the third after all the hard work," said Datta.

Raghul was in no mood to celebrate the moment as teammate Prasad had injured his right wrist during the incident.

In the JK Tyre Novice Cup, Sayed did not put a foot wrong while winning both the races. It was his sixth win on the trot and clearly underlined his class. It was not just about raw speed but a combination of things such as understanding the lines, his approach to the corners that worked in his favour.

Mira Erda of MSport was declared the best woman performer of the weekend, while the best performer in the woman novice category went to Anushriya Gulati of Ahura Racing.

The results (provisional):

JKNRC Formula LGB4 (14 laps): Race 1: 1. Ashwin Datta (Dark Don Racing) 19:28.450; 2. Vishnu Prasad (MSport) 19:30.899; 3. A. Sandeep Kumar (Dark Don Racing) 19:34.378.

Race 2 (15 laps): 1. Ashwin Datta (Dark Don Racing) 21:30.683; 2.Raghul Rangasamy (MSport) 21:31.609; 3. Vishnu Prasad (MSport) 21:31.904.

Race 3 (15 laps): 1. Raghul Rangasamy (MSport) 19:45.015; 2. Sarosh Hataria (Ahura Racing) 19:53.200; 3. A. Sandeep Kumar (Momentum Motorsports) 19:53.487.

On Saturday (revised): 1. Sarosh Hataria (Ahura Racing) 22:14.932; 2.Arya Singh (Dark Don Racing) 22:15.018; 3. A. Sandeep Kumar (Dark Don Racing) 22:20.446.

JK Tyre Novice Cup: Race 1 (10 laps): 1. Amir Sayed (MSport)18:24.277; 2. Karthikeyan Chandrasekar (Avalanche Racing) 18:31.482; 3. Dhruv Gajjar (DTS Racing) 18:31.914.

Race 2 (10 laps): Amir Sayed (MSport) 14:54.496; 2. Dhruvin Gajjar (DTS Racing) 14:59.409; 3. Dhruv Tyagi (Momentum Motorsport) 15:01.302.