Senior Max racer Ricky Donison and Micro Max star Shahan Ali grabbed pole positions for Sunday's pre-finals in the fourth and penultimate round of the 13th JK Tyre FMSCI National Rotax Max Championship here at the Mohite Racing Academy today.
The Junior Max category saw championship leader Manav Sharma suffer a major setback, unable to start in either of the two heats with a kart problem. That allowed Chirag Ghorpade of Bangalore take pole position for Sunday, winning both his heats on Saturday.
Donison of BPC Racing, the championship leader with 252 points, won both his heats on an action-packed day. The Bangalore lad did the fastest lap of the day in the qualifying round by clocking 51.750 seconds to underline his form and mental fortitude. He built a huge lead in the first heat in the second lap itself and went on to win the race with an impressive timing of 13:08.349 minutes.
In the second Heat too, he jumped ahead of the pack quickly and won it in 12:56.490 minutes.
Local lad Dhruv Mohite (Mohite's Racing; third with 243 points) gave his fans a lot to cheer by claiming P2, by finishing second in the first heat and third in the second heat.
His effort was even more commendable as he started in the fifth position in H1 and clawed his way up steadily, taking down three determined racers in his wake. He clocked a remarkable 52.553 seconds in the tenth lap and finished the race in 13:17.138 minutes to show his familiarity with the track where he has been racing since he was a kid.
The second heat, however, saw Nayan Chatterjee of Mumbai (Meco; fifth with 229 points) outwitting Dhruv and claiming the second place. That was enough to give him P3 for Sunday. Vishnu Prasad of Chennai (Meco) took P4 while another Kolhapur racer, Krishnaraaj Mahadik taking the sixth place in the grid.
In the Junior Max category, Chirag of BPC Racing proved to be the surprise package of the day. Currently trailing at fifth place in the championship race with 231 points, he grabbed the pole position for the first heat, doing a the fastest lap in the qualifying round. That was enough to put him ahead of the pack in, both, Heat 1 and Heat 2.
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