VW Ventos cut above rest as Tharani scores double

COIMBATORE: Overcast conditions and rain forecast threatened to impede Sunday racing, but the gamble of Team Volkswagen Motorsports to go with wet tyres paid off as the Pune-based factory team scored maiden 1-2-3 finish on its debut in the premium Indian Touring Cars class in the second round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Car Racing Championship at the Kari Motor Speedway here.

Starting on the reverse grid after losing to teammate Dhruv Mohite in Race 1 on Saturday, Karthik Tharani steered turbo-charged VW Vento to a dream finish, first in the Race 2 before completing a grand double later in the day.

The VW Motorsport factory team enjoyed a highly-successful weekend—a clear thumbs up the engineers at the Chakan-based facility having created Race Vento entirely in India after incorporating specifications and demands of the Indian track conditions.

As rains were predicted, the schedule was advance to stay clear and complete the races and all went on the track with wet tyres only to run the race on bone dry course that did challenge the wits of some of the seasoned drivers who struggled with the wearing rubber.

Midway through a few cars had to be yellow flagged and once black flag too came out to force a car to pull out and in the Race 3 of ITC safety car was deployed making it all the more intriguing when VW Motorsports’ Ishaan Dodhiwala overshot into the gravel soon after the first corner following the long straight.

The two ITC races highlighted the proceedings with close contests. Having finished second behind team-mate and Kolhapur-based Dhruv Mohite, Tharani led a 1-2-3 finish for VW Motorsport in Race 2 and followed it up with a thrilling win in Race 3 in the afternoon, ahead of Dhruv and Arjun Balu of Race Concepts. Dhruv finished second in both the races on Sunday.

Nonetheless it was glorious weekend for VW Motorsports as they won all the three races and the Ameo Cup One-Make series too dished out a double winner with Hyderabad’s Jeet Jabhakh making it to the top of the podium twice.

While the podium finishers hogged the limelight, it was 77-year old D Vidyaprakash who stole the hearts with stirring drives that saw him finish fourth in both the ITC races.

He tried his best to defend the third spot in Race 2 until late in the last lap against the 29-year-old Ishaan, who passed him in the Mickey Mouse corner, earning high praise for clean racing.

RESULTS:
(All 10 laps unless mentioned):
Indian Touring Cars:
Race 2: 1. Karthik Tharani (VW Motorsports) 11mins, 55.229secs; 2. Dhruv Mohite (VW Motorsports) 11:55.572; 3. Ishaan Dodhiwala (VW Motorsports) 12:06.826.
Race 3: 1. Karthik Tharani (VW Motorsports) 15:31.576; 2. Dhruv Mohite (VW Motorsports) 15:31.717; 3. Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) 15:32.087.
Volkswagen Ameo Class:
Race 2 (Overall): 1. Avik Anwar (Bangladesh) 11:58.554; 2. Aiman Sadat (Bangladesh) 11:58.841; 3. Anmol Singh Sahil (Delhi) 11:59.304.
Pro: 1. Anwar; 2. Sahil; 3. Siddharth Mehdiratta (Lucknow) 12:00.233.
Junior: 1. Sadat; 2. Viraj Jairaj Jhala (Nashik) 12:05.775; 3. Chetan Surineni (Bengaluru) 12:24.817.
Race 3 (Overall and Pro): 1. Jeet Jhabakh (Hyderabad) 11:58.422; 2. Anmol Singh Sahil (Delhi) 12:00.219; 3. Pratik Sonawane (Pune) 12:02.872.
Junior: 1. Aiman Sadat (Bangladesh) 12:09.235; 2. Kaushik Mohan Raja 12:10.360; Viraj Jairaj Jhala (Nashik) 12:18.809.
Super Stock (Race 2): 1. RP Rajarajan (Performance Racing) 13:05.322; 2. R Rajashekar (Race Concepts) 13:05.926; 3. Prateek Benya (Race Concepts) 13:06.209.
Formula LGB 1300:
Race 1: 1. Sohil Shah (M Sport) 10:43.682; 2. Ashwin Datta (Momentum Motor Sports) 10:50.180; 3. Kunal Maini (M Sport) 10:56.683.
Race 2: 1. Viswas Vijayaraj (DTS Racing) 14:16.398; 2. Ashwin Datta (Momentum Motor Sports) 14:16.661; 3. Sohil Shah (M Sport) 14:16.770.
Race 3: 1. Sohil Shah (M Sport) 11:56.907; 2. Ashwin Datta (Momentum Motor Sports) 11:59.205; 3. Chirag Ghorpade (Momentum Motor Sports) 12:07.927.