Tharani grabs first win; Kruger strong as ever

Prashanth Tharani won the first race of the weekend after a flawless drive from pole position at the Kari Motor Speedway near Coimbatore. Following him closely for the entire race,Jeffrey Kruger held on to his position from start to finish. Rahil Noorani fought gamely after qualifying in fifth,dropping to sixth and then eventually storming home to finish third. The Vento Support Race which ran for the first time,saw Shrivatsa Sinha clinching top honours.

Pole-setter Prashanth Tharani drove a very controlled race and seemed to be quite comfortable maintaining his pace. Jeffrey Kruger kept putting pressure on Tharani but the latter managed to keep his cool and handled the situation well. Noorani didn’t have the perfect qualifying session and he started fifth. However,even the aggressive Angad Singh Mathroo didn’t deter Noorani as he clinched third place.

In the second race,Jeffrey Kruger of South Africa took top honours followed by Tharani. Yatin Magu finished third,clinching his first ever podium in the Polo R Cup. Incidentally,Rahil Noorani had crossed the finish line in first place,but was he was found guilty of a ‘jump start’ by the race stewards and handed a 20 second penalty,which pegged him back to seventh place.

The two drivers from Pune,Tanmay Ugale and Gaurav Mehta,also had decent outings at the Kari Motor Speedway. In the first race,Mehta finished in 10th place while Ugale finished 12th. In the second race,Mehta put in a very aggressive drive which allowed him to claim a very creditable sixth place and lay a strong claim for the junior title.

(The writer’s trip was sponsored by Volkswagen Motorsport )