Clean sweep by TVS Girling in National Racing

COIMBATORE - TVS Girling drivers swept the board with a 1-2-3 finish in the first race of the Formula LGB Swift class in the third round of the JK Tyre National Racing Championship, here Saturday.

Pole-sitter S. Narendran led the TVS Girling pack from start to finish while behind him, team-mates Ameya Walavalkar and Saif Munir were involved in a tight battle that saw them exchanging places.

Ultimately, Walavalkar came out in front of Saif to hand his team a clean sweep of the podium positions.

In the showpiece Formula Rolon race, Saran Vikram of Mars Racing held off Sarosh Hataria (Meco Motor Sports) in a contest that could have gone the other way over a few more laps. Both experienced gear box problems through the 15 laps, but Hataria caught the eye by posting the fastest lap.

Behind the leaders, Amaron Pro Racing’s Vishnu Prasad and Nikhil Kashyap fought a tense battle, but were way behind on pace of the front-runners.

Prasad finally clinched the third spot after getting past Kashyap in a daring move at the “S” by diving on the inside.

The Super Saloons race dished out some excitement with veteran D Vidyaprakash of Prime Racing emerging a clear winner ahead of championship leader Sailesh Bolisetti (RAD Racing) who was docked five places on the grid because of an engine change.

Bolisetti had qualified on pole position, but was shifted to mid-grid due to the penalty and had to endure some testing times, including contacts with other cars before ending up second.

Meanwhile, Vidyaprakash gave a lesson in race driving with clean lines through the corners, lap after lap, and staying well clear of the curbs. So much so, he had plenty to spare at the finish even as Bolisetti made a desperate climb through the grid for second spot in front of G Siddharth Kishore (Performance Racing).

The results:

Formula LGB Swift (Race 1 - 15 laps): S Narendran (TVS Girling) 1 (18mins, 32.233secs); Ameya Walavalkar (TVS Girling) 2 (18:38.363); Saif Mir (TVS Girling) 3 (18:40.242).

Formula Rolon (Race 1 - 15 laps): Saran Vikram (Mars Racing) 1 (17:42.759); Sarosh Hataria (Meco Motor Sports) 2 (17:43.562); Vishnu Prasad (Amaron Pro Racing) 3 (18:09.557).

Super Saloons (Race 1 - 15 laps): D Vidyaprakash (Prime Racing) 1 (19:32.863); Sailesh Bolisetti (RAD Racing) 2 (19:42.395); G Siddharth Kishore (Performance Racing) 3 (19:46.186).