Radha revs ahead

CHENNAI, April 26: It was literally Demolition Derby' Indian style at the Irungattukottai track, near here on Sunday afternoon. The boys an...

CHENNAI, April 26: It was literally Demolition Derby8217; Indian style at the Irungattukottai track, near here on Sunday afternoon. The boys and their machines took a beating from the men, but came away wiser as the first round of the five-leg JK Tyre National Road Racing Championship concluded on a successful note.

Though the entries were niggardly in both Group N8217; unmodified Esteem and FISSME Formula Indian Single Seater Maruti Engine categories, excitement was not at a premium. Radha Selvaraj, a virtual beginner, dominated the Esteems by winning both the five-lap races, while young JD Madan and Gurunath Meiyappan took the honours in the FISSME section.

A few youngsters, notably Parthiva Suresh and Gaurav Dalal, in Esteems E and JD Madan in the FISSME category, stood out, but none of them were spared the lesson in track racing which cannot be without a few bumps and tactics which flirted with unfair driving.

But for two seasoned campaigners, Harish Samthani E and Uday Eswaran FISSME, theoutings were far from satisfactory. Samthani had problems with his revolutions per minute RPMs which was decidedly lesser than the cars in front, and to add to it, his left rear tyre burst open at the fag end of the first round of five laps.

Uday, on his part, wasted a pole position start as he was slow off the mark in the first round which he did not finish on account of a collision that damaged the front suspension, and pulled out of the second round.

Parthiva and Dalal had excellent drives, though it would be a while yet before they make it to the big league. Dalal had his chances in the second round when he jumped from third position to lead three of the five laps before being elbowed out by Radha Selvaraj and swiftly passed by Parthiva and Samthani.

For a first-timer, Radha Selvaraj drove extremely well and underlined his talent which seems to have surfaced at a rather late age as he is well into his 30s.

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The event attracted 10 entries in each class and Chairman of the meet, Manoj Dalal hopedthat the response would be better in the next four Championship rounds later this year.

RESULTS

Group N8217; Esteem 1st round: Radha Selvaraj 12 mins, 12.013 secs 1; Parthiva Suresh 12:21.825 2; Gaurav Dalal 12:23.469 3. Unseeded: Radha Selvaraj 1, Dalal 2, Sanjay Chhabria 3. 2nd round: Radha Selvaraj 12:21.521 1; Parthiva Suresh 12:23.407 2; Harish Samthani 12:23.629 3. Unseeded: Radha Selvaraj 1, Sanjay Chhabria 2.

FISSME 1st round: JD Madan 11:02.528 1; Gurunath Meiyappan 11:09.678 2; Arun Murugappan 11:11.50 3. Unseeded: Madan 1, Sriram 2, Parthiva Suresh 3. 2nd round: Meiyappan 11:03.416 1; Murugappan 11:03.995 2; Kamlesh Patel 11:14.188 3. Unseeded: Sriram 1.