cars Super Saloon  
Leela Krishnan leading Rajvirdhan in the rain Rajvirdhan on his way to winning his title in Race 1

Super Saloon (ITC) - JKNRC Round 6, Chennai MMRT Circuit (Short Loop)
V Rajvirdhan (Prime Racing) of Coimbatore claimed the drivers' championship in the Super Saloons, premier Indian Touring Cars class with a race to spare.

Race 1 (Saturday)
Raj seals the title with an incredible win

Rajvirdhan, who started from third on the grid, blazed the start as he passed last year's champion Sidharth Kishore (Performance Racing) at the first corner, but had to concede at the next turn. He then played the waiting game for a couple of laps before he made another move and went on to take the chequered flag along with the title. Leela came in 2nd ahead of Siddharth in 3rd.

Race 2 (Sunday - Reverse Grid) :
Leela wins an exciting action packed race on the last lap after starting from the back in the restart
The race had Radha Selvarajan on pole with Rajvirdhan, Siddharth and Leela behind him. The race start was delayed due to oil on the main straight and the track's foot soldiers managed to rectify it. As soon as the race was about to begin the rain started to pour and it was declared a wet race. At the lights everyone made clean start and it was Siddharth who got into the lead in C1 but Leela had other plans.

Veteran Leela gained the lead in the next few corners and started to build a cushion over Rajvirdhan even as the rain started to pour down heavily. Just after couple of laps the race was red flagged due to an incident on the track. But the leaders Leela and Rajvirdhan missed the flag due to low visibility and crossed the line without noticing the marshal but they slowed down instantly on crossing the marshal but continued to do the lap inorder to prevent sudden collisions from behind.

The second bunch of cars were also caught by surprise but they managed to stop as they saw the leaders slow down and had to be reshuffled in place according to their positions in the race as they were all out of position. The leaders joined back and tried to get into their slots at the front but they were penalized by the stewards for ignoring the red flag. Leela did protest to the COC for lack of visibility as other drivers joined too but the decision wasn't changed. Leela and Raj had to start from the back of the field as B.D.Raj Kumar started on pole. Meanwhile Siddharth retired with a blown engine and TR Radha Selvaraj settled back in the pits too.

Restart : Leela fights from behind to win an action packed race at the final corner

Novice driver B.D.Raj Kumar jumped into the lead from pole and was holding off strong challenge from Bala Vijay. Bala even managed to get past Raj Kumar but Raj got back. At the tail end Leela and the newly crowned champion Rajvirdhan were gobbling up all cars ahead of them lap after lap and it looked like both were with a vengeance and soon they were behind the leaders Raj Kumar and Bala Vijay. On the last lap Raj Kumar and Bala were battling close together for the lead and Leela was just behind waiting for a chance. At the final corner Bala tried to get ahead of Raj Kumar and both had an off track moment which worked to the favor of Leela Krishan, who sneaked into the lead to take the chequered flag ahead of RajKumar, Bala Vijay and Rajvrdhan at the very last moment. A victory that was thrilling to the last minute and showed the mettle of Leela Krishan who fought all the way from the back to win in wet conditions and is also supposed to be his last race for him for the near future as he announced he may not continue racing next season due to business commitments.

The stewards announced a combined result of both parts of the race and Raj Virdhan was given 2nd place ahead of Raj Kumar.




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