King registers stunning win in MRF championships

CHENNAI - Jordan King (Team Sidvin), the 16-year old from England, underlined his mettle with a stunning win in the third race of the Formula 1600 class that brought the curtain down on the first round of the 2011 MRF Championship on an incident-filled Sunday here.

The victory was a sweet compensation for King who had a disastrous start to his campaign on Saturday when he was docked a 20-second penalty and a subsequent exclusion due to a technical infringement following the post-race scrutiny of his car.

Also excluded from the first race were Salhil Shelar and Vikash Anand, again due to a “technical infringement”. The revised results promoted Ashwin Sundar to first, Ameya Walavalkar to second and Jukka Honkawori to third.

In the second race run this morning, King trailed Sundar who opened up a comfortable gap following a strong start. However, in the third race for which the grid was revsered, both King and Sundar trailed Walavalkar for three laps before the English lad moved in front.

In the next lap, Sundar and Walavalkar were involved in a collision. The incident saw Walavaklar going off the track and losing position. After the race, the Stewards, following an inquiry, slapped a 30-second penalty on Sundar who thus forfeited his second place and dropped to seventh.

Later, Race Director Farhan Vohra said Sundar had not intimated the Stewards on his intent to appeal within one hour of the decision as per regulations and as such, the revised results were final.

I was very cautious this morning after my jump start last evening. So, I dropped back, but in the evening (third race), I had a good start and then took the lead in the third lap. I then put my head down, said King.

In the Super Saloons (touring cars) class, Siddharth Kishore (Performance Racing) achieved a double by winning the second race from his arch-rival Radha Selvaraj who was involved in two incidents with the eventual third place finisher Sivaramakrishnan.

Selvaraj and Sivaramakrishnan, both experienced drivers, made contact twice even as Kishore, running in front, opened up a commanding lead. Selvaraj blamed Sivaramakrishnan for blocking while the latter said he was forced off the track.

In contrast, Krishnan Rajini of Red Rooster Racing was in a league of his own as he destroyed the opposition to win both the Superbike races by huge margins.

In fact, both the Superbikes races flopped with Rajini facing no worthwhile opposition that was over four seconds off his pace. He spared 15 seconds to Sumit Lucas Topo in the first race and won the second by 30 seconds ahead of Vivek Pillai.

The results:

MRF Formula 1600 (Race 2 - 15 laps): Ashwin Sundar (Gulf Oil) 1 (25mins, 51.192secs); Jordan King (Sidvin) 2 (25:55.209); Karthik Shankar (TSI Racing) 3 (26:06.793). Race 3 (15 laps): Jordan King 1 (25:45.578); Karthik Shankar 2 (25:59.439); Jukka Honkawori 3 (26:07.742).

Super Bikes (600cc) Race 1 (10 laps): Krishnan Rajini (Red Rooster Racing) 1 (18:08.835); Sumit Lucas Topo (Preethi Racing) 2 (18:23.056); Prithvi M 3 (19:22.940). Race 2 (10 laps): Rajini 1 (18:09.923); Vivek Pillai (Preethi Racing) 2 (18:39.405); R Deepak (Preethi Racing) 3 (19:05.596).

Group D (165cc) Race 2 (7 laps): Arunagiri Prabhu (Moto-Rev India) 1 (15:30.401); Naveen Raj 2 (15:34.125); D Dinesh Kumar (Moto-Rev India) 3 (15:40.491).

Touring Cars - Super Saloons (Race 2 - 10 laps): Siddharth Kishore (Performance Racing) 1 (20:39.296); Radha Selvaraj (RAD Racing) 2 (21:07.120); Sivaramakrishnan (Performance Racing) 3 (21:10.772). Indian Junior Touring Cars (Race 2 - 10 laps): B Balavijay (Moto-Rev India) 1 (22:42.612); Diljith (Sigaram Sports) 2 (22:45.335); Feroze Khan (Haute Car Zone Racing) 3 (22:48.092).