Sarosh Hataria steals show on Day 1 of JK Tyre-FMSCI National Racing Championship 2012 - Round 2

~Arjun Balu and Fahad Kutty take top spot in Indian Touring Cars and Indian Junior Touring Cars class respectively~

Coimbatore, July 28, 2012: Delhi's Sarosh Hataria stole the limelight with a stupendous performance following a 'safety car presence on track' midway the 15-lap race in the newly introduced LGB Formula 4 event in the second round of the 15th JK Tyre-MSCI National Racing Championship at the Kari Motor Speedway track at Chettipalayam near here.

Sarosh (WSRF Tiger Sports), who started fourth on pole and separated by just half a second to pole leader Ashwin Sundar, exhibited his class to push himself on top ahead of Bangalore's Sudharshan Rao (Rayo Racing) in the penultimate lap to lift the title. Chennai's S. Narendran (WSRF Tiger Sports) finished third.

All three podium finishers explained the worthiness and reliability of the Formula 4, which made its debut today, while Sarosh dedicated his title to his father who died in April this year with emotions overtaking his feelings. It was a creditable podium finish for Sudharsan who has come back to the track after a one year break and for Narendran as he started sixth and finished third.

Predictably, everyone including the drivers and competitors in other three events were looking forward to the Formula 4 race. Going by the timings returned by the top five drivers in the qualifying event, there were indications of a tough race coming.

Pole starter in the LGB Formula 4 race Ashwin Sundar had a good start. At the end of third lap, Ashwin was leading the race with about four lengths to second placed Sudharshan Rao. In fact, these two and young and promising racers were looking to be shuffling their positions being so close to each other. However, an ambitious Sudharshan kept trying to take over Ashwin at the first turn but was forced to lose time being at the outer lane to Ashwin and this helped Vishnu to push himself to second spot.

With the 'yellow flag' prompting the safety car to come in on track and once the race re-started, it put Ashwin, Vishnu and Sudarshan close to each other. Then the drama of exhibiting racing skills took over between the two and it was daisy situation as either one of them would make a contact sometime.

On way to their tenth lap, leader Ashwin was challenged by Vishnu and they were next to each other at the turn but entering the apex, they made contact and both went off the track. Here, Sudharshan and S. Narendran sneaked in to top two spots followed by Sarosh Hataria. Once Sarosh made headway he never looked back before taking the chequered flag. Vishnu Prasad, who missed winning the title due to an incident, returned the best lap timing of 1:14.072 seconds, which came in the sixth lap.

In the spectator friendly Indian Touring Cars event, Coimbatore's Arjun Balu, who is recovering from a bout of jaundice proved his mettle in great measure finishing first, almost six seconds ahead of well experienced Radha Selvarajan and V. Rajvirdhan. Excited at winning the first ever race for team Tiger Sports, Arjun said, "It was a clean race despite the challenges and I am looking forward to challenges like these through the season".

In the qualifying races for the JK Tyre Volkswagen Polo R Cup, Mumbai youngster Ameya Walavalkar clinched pole with the quickest timing of 1:14.692 seconds followed by Chennai's A. Sandeep Kumar, Avdumber Hede (Goa) and Rahil Noorani (Mumbai).

In the Indian Junior Touring Cars event, Fahad Kutty of Mumbai exhibited superb skills to win the race with total timing of 00:20.248 seconds. Chennai prodigy Feroze Khan and Emmanuel Clarke (Ooty) finished second and third respectively.

The races on Sunday, 29th July 2012 will commence at 9:30 am. Two races will be held in the JK Tyre Volkswagen Polo R Cup while one race each will be held in the LGB Formula 4, Indian and Indian Junior Touring Cars class.

Results:
LGB Formula 4: 1. Sarosh Hataria (WSRF-Tiger Sports - 00:20.05.655 seconds), 2. Sudharshan Rao (Rayo Racing - 00:20.05.725 seconds) and 3. S. Narendran (WSRF-Tiger Sports - 00:20.05.951 seconds)

Indian Touring Cars: 1. Arjun Balu (Tiger Sports - 00:18.55.036 seconds), 2. Radha Selvarajan (RAD Racing - 00:19.01.065 seconds) and 3. V.Rajvirdhan (Prime Racing - 00:19.07.772 seconds)

Indian Junior Touring Cars: 1. Fahad Kutty (Game Over - 00:20:31.248 seconds), 2. S. Feroze Khan (00:20:33.181 seconds) and 3. Emmanuel Clarke (00:20.33.401 seconds)