Sarath top among bikers in Sports Endurance festival
By IANSSunday, January 17, 2010
COIMBATORE - S. Sarath Kumar of Ten10 Racing held off a stiff challenge from TV Racing riders T.K. Viswanath and Harry Sylvester to win the inaugural Meco Motor Sport Endurace Festival of Speed event at the Kari Speedway track here Sunday.
In a close fight that went down to the wire, Sarath staged a remarkable recovery after trailing early leader Viswanath and then weathered some serious attention by the experienced Sriskandarajah to take the chequered flag.
Sriskandarajah, however, was docked a 30-second penalty for blocking and weaving at the fag end of the race when the 41-year old seemed to suffer from an attack of cramps. After the Stewards decision, Sriskandarajah slid to sixth position while Viswanth and Sylvester were elevated by one position.
In the Saloon car Endurance race, experience stood out as 56-year old B Vijay Kumar with partner D Vidya Prakash (64) took the honours in the 1600cc category ahead of two other veterans and Prime Racing team-mates C. Rajaram and S. Sivakumar by just 14 seconds at the end of the three-hour run.
Two local youngsters Arjun Karivardhan and Raj Virdhan topped in the 1300cc class while Praveen Kumar and Jai Prashanth Venkat came in first in the Rally Star Cup category.
The results:
Saloons (cc to weight) - 3 hours: 1600cc: 1. B Vijay Kumar / D Vidya Prakash (Prime Racing) 130 laps (2hrs, 50mins, 48.816secs); 2. C Rajaram / Sivakumar (Prime Racing) 130 laps (2:51:03.314); 3. Nitvin SR / Joseph George (GT Tuners) 112 laps (2:51:30.900). 1300cc: Arjun Karivardhan / Raj Virdhan (Prime Racing) 129 laps (2:51:35.301). Rally Star Cup: 1. Praveen Kumar KR / A Jai Prasanth Venkat (GT Tuners) 112 laps (2:50:47.452); 2. S Pranava Chendor / S Ravi Venkatesh (Chettinad Sporting) 111 laps (2:50:39.937); 3. Pramod Raman / V Venu Ramesh (Chettinad Sporting) 102 laps (2:51:09.633).
Two-wheelers (90 minutes): 1. S Sarath Kumar (Ten10 Racing) 66 laps (1:30:28.942); 2. TK Viswanath (TVS Racing) 66 laps (1:30:37.750); 3. Harry Sylvester (TVS Racing) 66 laps (1:30:37.761).
