JK Tyre Racing Championship: Opening round concludes in Coimbatore

The opening round of the 18th edition of the annual JK Tyre Racing Championship concluded at Coimbatore's Kari Motor Speedway here today with Akhil Rabindra and Vishnu Prasad both scoring two wins out of the three races in the JK Racing India Series and LGB Formula 4 classes, respectively. Sailesh Bolisetti and Karminder Singh shared the spoils in the two races of the new Volkswagen Vento Cup.

JK RACING INDIA SERIES

Racing in this year's UK-based BRDC Formula 4 Championship - where he currently lies 11th out of 23 drivers after 12 of the season's 24 races - seemed to pay off for 19-year-old Akhil Rabindra who kept the defending JKRIS champion Vishnu Prasad at bay for all but one of the three races in the series' opening round. Rabindra was stripped of his victory on the road in the second JKRIS race after being given a ten second post-race penalty for a jump start.

Rabindra responded to the setback by coming from sixth place on the starting grid to win the final race of the series.

Also among the 12-car field of the JKRIS was 14-year-old Kush Maini, younger brother of Arjun who is currently racing in the FIA European Formula 3 Championship. He finished fourth and fifth in the two races on Sunday after a sixth place finish on Saturday.

As per an agreement between JK Tyre and their partners Volkswagen Motorsport India, the champion of last year's Polo R Cup Karthik Tharani was placed in the JKRIS. Tharani managed an eighth place finish in all three races.

2015 JK Racing Series India Series Rd. 1 Results

Race 1 (15 laps)
Akhil Rabindra 17min. 24.324sec.
Dhruv Mohite +0.357sec.
Vishnu Prasad +0.883sec.

Race 2 (15 laps)
Vishnu Prasad 16min. 41.467sec.
Ananth Shanmugam +3.293sec.
Akhil Rabindra +5.164sec.

Race 3 (15 laps)
Akhil Rabindra 16min. 49.329sec.
Vishnu Prasad +0.828sec.
Constantino Peroni +2.166sec.

JK TYRE VOLKSWAGEN VENTO CUP

Volkswagen Motorsport India opened a new chapter in its presence in the country as the new-for-2015 Vento Cup held its opening two races of the season.

The discontinued Polo Cup's 2010 champion Sailesh Bolisetti returned to racing after a self-imposed hiatus to win the first race before being thrown amid the fighting midfield pack in the second race due to the reverse grid rules that are applied in the series.

New Delhi's Karminder Singh rose from sixth place on the second race's starting grid to run away at the front to win with ease from Anindith Reddy Konda.

2015 Volkswagen Vento Cup Rd. 1 Results

Race 1 (15 laps)
Sailesh Bolisetti
Anindith Reddy Konda
Karminder Singh

Race 2 (15 laps)
Karminder Singh 17min. 54.468sec.
Anindith Reddy Konda +1.434sec.
Sahil Gahuri +13.327sec.

FORMULA LGB 4

What is supposed to be the first step for India's aspiring four-wheel circuit racers once they are done with karting has been a subject of some debate. There are those that appreciate the modus operandi of a relatively affordable single seat car being given to teams that then run them, modify them on a race weekend within permissible regulations and even go scouting for their own drivers. However, that appreciation is tempered by not only the decidedly odd look of the car, but also by its overall build quality that leads to reliability issues as well as broken bodywork in collisions.

Many of those collisions could even be a result of the oddly made head restraints that seem to do more to obscure a driver's peripheral vision rather than prevent their heads from being thrown to hard to the sides in the case of an impact.

A heavily reworked version of the car is in the works, courtesy of B. Vijaykumar, who designed the current car. The new Formula LGB 4 will, however, retain the Maruti-Suzuki Esteem engine that has been doing duty since 2004 but a new gearbox is expected as well as a different engine layout.

Vishnu Prasad won two of the three races of the opening round for Meco Racing on Saturday while Sudharshana Rao Karwal led a 1-2-3 finish for Dark Don Racing in the third and final race on Sunday with Chittesh Mandody and New Delhi's Rohit Khanna, who scored his second podium of the weekend after doing so in the opening race.

2015 LGB FORMULA 4 Rd. 1 Results

Race 1 (15 laps)
Vishnu Prasad 19min. 32.3sec.
Ajay Kini +5.144sec.
Rohit Khanna +6.047sec.

Race 2 (15 laps)
Vishnu Prasad 21min. 20.133sec.
Rahul Rangasamy +0.345sec.
Karthik Shankar +0.947sec.

Race 3 (15 laps)
Sudharshan Rao Karwal 24min. 08.966sec.
Chittesh Mandody +0.364sec.
Rohit Khanna +1.375sec.