The Euro JK 17 battle gets intense

A DNF in one of the races for Vishnu Prasad is just the opportunity for his rivals to catch up on the points table.

Racing is an unpredictable sport. While the participants put in their 100 percent, one wrong move can change the course of the championship. And there are endless examples of the same. The most recent and controversial one is Valentino Rossi’s knee nudge to Marc Marquez in the 2015 Malaysian motorcycle Grand Prix. Irrespective of guilty party, such instances, crashes, DNFs all affect the championship dearly, something that Vishnu Prasad must be feeling after Round 2 of the Euro JK 17 Series. What happened to him in the first race of the weekend is somewhat reminiscent of the Formula 1 2001 Spanish Grand Prix.
 
After taking a clean sweep in Round 1, Prasad seemed to be in good nick for the second round as well. The Chennai-lad took pole for Race 1 and was in a strong position to continue his winning streak. Lady luck however wasn’t in his favour as his car’s engine stalled on the penultimate lap forcing him to retire from the race. His retirement handed over the victory to Nayan Chatterjee, while Ricky Capo and Anindith Reddy took second and third respectively. 

Fortunately for Prasad, his car was ready in time for the second race of the weekend. The DNF in Race 1, however, meant that he would have to start the Race 2 from the pits. Despite that, with his experience and understanding of the circuit, he took the last step on the podium. In Race 3 and 4 on Sunday, Prasad secured a win and another third place respectively. 

As a standalone weekend, most might consider that Prasad had a good run in Round 2 as well. But the championship table tells a different story. With all four victories in Round 1, Prasad was leading the table 13 points ahead of second placed Anindith Reddy. But with Prasad’s DNF in Race 1, and some impressive drives by Anindith results in just one point separating the two. While Prasad still leads the championship with 64 points on the board, he now has Reddy breathing down his neck and at 54 points Nayan Chatterjee is not far behind either. While the competitiveness and uncertainty is no doubt extremely stressful for the drivers and their teams, this is what makes the sport exciting. Now, the long wait for Round 3…