New Delhi, Nov. 17: Chennai’s Karthik Tharani and Mumbai’s Nayan Chatterjee won a race apiece on Day 1 of the Grand Finale of the 21st JK Tyre FMSCI National Racing Championship, throwing open the Euro JK 2018 here at the BIC on Saturday.

The other stalwarts from Chennai, Vishnu Prasad in the LGB 4 and Joseph Mathew in the Suzuki Gixxer Cup, enjoyed a mixed day but still managed to hang on their leads.

Vishnu won one race and finished fourth in the second to amass 76 points, to be six points clear of the field. Joseph, on the other hand, lost the first race of his season, but was still comfortably placed on 60 points.

The International Asia Cup of Road Race that was run in tandem with the Suzuki Gixxer Cup saw India A’s Karthik Mateti making his mark, winning the race ahead of his Asian counterparts. Sri Lanka’s Hansika Abeysinghe claimed the second place while Australia’s Max Stauffer took the third.

Karthik began the weekend on a positive note, grabbing the pole position in the Euro JK on Friday evening. He made the most of his early advantage to win Race 1 in 20:36.010 gruelling minutes.

Nayan, who started from P3, put up an aggressive run, even recording the fastest lap time of 2:02:671 in the ninth. He attacked Karthik but just couldn’t find a way past him.

Ashwin Datta, who came into the finale as championship leader, began from P5 after a poor qualifying session. He couldn’t make up ground in the race either, finishing fifth and allowing Karthik and Nayan to catch up on him.

Read more: Karthik, Nayan throw open Euro Championship on Day 1 of JKRNC Grand Finale

Dubai, November 17: Five races and four winners accurately reflected the highly competitive grid of MRF Challenge as Belgium’s 20-year old Max Defourny achieved a splendid double while Andreas Estner (Germany) and Patrick Pasma (Finland) won the previous two races of the day at the Dubai Autodrome here on Saturday. 

For Defourny, the Round-1 of the MRF Challenge proved memorable as he won Race 1 and 5 apart from podium positions in the other three races. Defourny finished the Round 1 with 106 points, ahead of Great Britain's Jamie Chadwick (78) and Singapore's Danial Frost (70), winner of Race 2 yesterday. The MRF Challenge heads to Bahrain (Dec 6-8) for the next round before moving to Chennai (Feb 8-10) for the championship finale.

Defourny could have done even better, but he messed up his pole-position start in Race-3 where he lost track position by Turn-1 itself in the very first lap, but recovered to finish third. “I think, I could have done better and won a couple of more races. I made a few mistakes, but more important was that I picked up points at the start of the championship. My win in Race 5 was far more satisfying than that in Race 1. I won more comfortably and on tyres that I had used in the previous four races,” said Defourny.

Read more: MRF Challenge :   Grand double for Max Defourny; wins for Andreas Estner, Patrick Pasma

Dubai, November 15: Jamie Chadwick, the only female driver on the 12-car grid, put the marker down for the first round of the MRF Challenge championship by topping both the Free Practice sessions at the Dubai Autodrome, here on Thursday.

Chadwick, 20, from Bath, England, came out on top in the two, 30-minute practice sessions, clocking a best of one minute, 59.218 in the first outing and 01:59.774 in the next around the 5.390 Kms circuit as she made her debut in the MRF Challenge on a high. She survived a tough battle with Czech Republic’s 16-year old Petr Ptaceck who was second fastest in both the sessions, clocking 01:59.581 (FP1)and 01:59.918 (FP2).

Chadwick, who created history in 2015 when she became the first female and youngest winner of the British GT Championship, and Ptacek exchanged fastest laps in the closing minutes of FP-2. However, Chadwick went quicker on last flying lap to top the time charts. Less than a second separated the top eight drivers.

“I learnt a lot today – new circuit, new car. I am happy with the way we ended up today in these conditions and I look forward to the races,” said Chadwick.

Read more: Jamie Chadwick sets the pace in MRF Challenge

Read more: Surya Varathan wins JK Novice Cup Chennai’s Ashwin, Vishnu hang on to lead in JK Tyre FMSCI...

Coimbatore, October 13: On a day of great thrills and a handful of crashes, Ashwin Datta made the most of his good fortune to hang on to his Euro JK 2018 lead in the 21^st JK Tyre FMSCI National Racing Championship here on Saturday.

Joseph Mathew too continued his stunning run in the Suzuki Gixxer Cup, winning his fifth straight race to widen his Championship lead further. The LGB Formula 4, however, saw a mini upset, with Delhi’s Rohit Khanna (Dark Don Racing) pulling off a stunning victory.

Mumbai’s Nayan Chatterjee started the day on a high note in the Euro JK 2018, claiming the pole position in a tight qualifying session. He turned out to be just 0.316 seconds faster than the field but looked set to give Ashwin a mighty fight.

But he was a tad slow off the mark in Race 1, and Karthik Tharani shot past him before the first turn itself. As if that was not enough, Nayan and Tharani got caught in a tangle midway through the race, forcing both of them off the tarmac.

Tharani managed to recover but Nayan failed to finish, losing valuable points. Ashwin Datta took advantage of the situation to streak ahead into the lead. He began from P3 but came into his own soon, clocking the fastest lap time of 1:01.422.

Read more: Rohit wins LGB-4, Joseph continues to lead in Gixxer Cup