Young Feroze Khan retained his crown in Indian Junior Touring Cars category with three wins that put him beyond reach of other contenders with a round to spare in the MMSC-FMSCI National Racing Championship here Sunday.
The Chennai-based Feroze Khan came out on top in both the outings in the IJTC category Sunday following his win in the first race Saturday to effectively seal the championship with a tally of 216 points after four rounds and with eight wins from 10 starts.
Meanwhile, veteran Narayanaswamy Leelakrishnan also completed a clean sweep in the Indian Touring Cars catetory to extend his lead in the championship standings as he led his Big Foots Racing team to a 1-2-3 finish in both the outings Sunday.
Leelakrishnan, who had won the first race Saturday, went on to dominate both the outings Sunday though he had to work hard to keep his team-mates Ramnarayan and Arjun Narendran at bay while championship contender Arjun Balu (Tiger Sports) in a Volkswagen Vento again came away with two fifth place finishes.
In the premier MRF Formula 1600 category, Japanese Yudai Jinkawa won the first race while championship leader Ashwin Sundar topped in the second, but both were pushed all the way.
Jinkawa, starting from pole position, saw the 15-year old Tarun Reddy get a jump on him at the start before the Safety Car was employed following a collision between Arjun Narendran and Advait Deodhar, both of whom retired.
Reddy maintained his lead until the last lap when Jinkawa made a brilliant move on him to get into the lead and hold his position while Vikash Anand finished third after passing Sundar.
In the second race that was marred by collisions, safety car and a re-start after a red flag situation, Reddy yet again moved to the front passing Sundar who, however, regained the lead with the duo nearly colliding.
Reddy, in an attempt to re-pass Sundar, spun off the track at the end of the straight to bring out the Safety Car. However, the race was soon red-flagged when the second Japanese driver Kizuki Hirota slammed into the back of Narendran on the start-finish straight after failing see the Safety Car board.
On re-start, Sundar made a clean getaway to win the race from Vikash Anand and Deodhar to extend his championship lead.
In the LGB Formula 4 category, S Narendran (Wallace Sports), winner of the first race Saturday, swept both the outings Sunday to consolidate his championship lead as did Deepak Chinappa in the Formula Swift class with two wins out of three over the weekend.
The results:
LGB Formula 4: S Narendran (Wallace Sports) 1; Jigar Muni (Kari Sports) 2; Sudanand D Rajan (Kari Sports) 3. Formula Swift: Deepak Chinappa (MM Racing) 1; Raghul Ramaswamy (Anish Racing) 2; Prashanth K (Wallace Sports) 3.
Indian Touring Cars (Race 1): Narayanaswamy Leelakrishnan (Big Foots Racing) 1; V Ramnarayan (Big Foots Racing) 2; Arjun Narendran (Big Foots Racing) 3. Race 2: Leelakrishnan1; Ramnarayan 2; Narendran 3.
IJTC (Race 1): Feroze Khan 1; VJ Senthil (Big Foots Racing) 2; Charen Chandran (Mega Racing) 3. Race 2: Feroze Khan 1; Biren Pitawala (Team N1) 2; Senthil 3.
MRF Formula 1600 (Race 1): Yudai Jinkawa 1; Tarun Reddy 2; Vikash Anand 3. Race 2: Ashwin Sundar 1; Vikash Anand 2; Advait Deodhar 3.
