Vishnu, Chirag dazzle on day one -Syed Muzammil unstoppable in the Gixxer Cup

COIMBATORE : Chennai's Vishnu Prasad and young Chirag Ghorpade  stole the show on the opening day, winning in contrasting styles in the first round of  the 22nd JK Tyre FMSCI National racing championship  here on Saturday.

The revamped opening round saw 27 young guns  line up for the first time to have a shot at the Novice  Cup. And, Bengaluru's Chirag (Momentum Motor-sports) clinched the pole at  the start of the day and went  on to win the first race.

The 14-year-old timed 13:37.912s to beat the aggressive field by 0.338s, leaving  his team mate Aaroh Ravindra and Mohamed Ryan  (MSport) fighting for the other two places on the  podium.

He exhibited speed and skill to wrest the second race  as well.

However, all eyes were on the Formula LGB4 which  had seven national champions in the fray. It was a  three-way fight between  Vishnu (MSport), Rohit  Khanna (Dark Don Racing)  and Ashwin (Dark Don  Racing).

Ashwin shot into the lead, going past MSport's Sohil  Shah who began on pole at  the first opportunity. He  hung on to it all the way to  the final lap but the safety  car that had come out a couple of laps earlier hurt his  flow as Vishnu and Rohit  stepped up the heat to overtake him for the top two positions.

Syed Muzammil Ali was the other lad from Bengaluru who was unstoppable in the Gixxer Cup. He topped  the practice rounds, grabbed  the pole in the qualifiers and  later finished on top in the race.

The results (provisional):

JK Tyre Novice Cup: Race 1: 1.Chirag Ghorpade (Momentum Motorsports); 2. Aaroh Ravin-dra (Momentum Motorsports); 3. Mohamed Ryan (MSport). 

JK Tyre Novice Cup: Race 2: 1.Chirag; 2.Aaroh; 3.Parikshit Dardhalli (DTS Racing) 

JK Tyre Suzuki Gixxer Cup: Race 1: 1.Syed MuzammilAli; 2.Tanay Gaikwad; 3.Amul  Angadi.

Formula LGB4: Race 1: 1.Vishnu Prasad (MSport); 2.Rohit Khanna (Dark Don Racing); 3.Ashwin Datta (Dark Don Racing).