JK Tyre NRC Round 3 Wraps Up With Unrelenting Action Throughout The Weekend

The third round of JK Tyre National Racing Championship (NRC), which was held at Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore, just wrapped up. There were nine races in this round, spread across classes. Four took place on Saturday, while the remaining five happened on Sunday. The championship titles were up for grabs across three classes – Euro JK 16, LGB Formula 4 and Touring Car. Here's how the weekend panned out for racers in each class:

Euro 16 Class

The Euro 16 class had two races on Saturday and two on Sunday. In all four races, two guys who stood out were Anindith Reddy and Ananth Shanmugam. The only change was that while Mohammed Nalwalla was in contention for top spot on Saturday, Sunday saw Karthik Tharanio challenge Anindith and Ananth for victory. Saturday's races saw Anindith Reddy finish first, followed by Ananth Shanmugam at second position and Mohammed Nalwalla on the third. The championship leader Nayan Chatterjee finished fourth and saw his lead over Anindith Reddy shrink to just four points.

On Sunday, it was Karthik Tharani who started the first race from the pole position, followed by Ajay Kini, Nayan Chatterjee and Mohammed Nalwalla on the starting grid. In a classic battle for top three spots, both Anindith Reddy and Ananth Shanmugam came from behind and tried to challenge Karthik for the victory. It was then a battle for the second spot between Anindith and Ananth. After some stints of overtaking by each racer, it was Anindith taking the second spot with Ananth securing the third spot on the podium.

Determined to not settle for second, Anindith started from second position on the grid, following Karthik. He started putting the pressure on Karthik from turn 1 itself and once he was in the lead, he just pulled away from the rest of the racers. Karthik tried to catch Anindith and as a result, was going way faster than others. However, he could not catch Anindith throughout the race. The real battle was for the third spot, which Ananth defended for 12 laps straight. In the end, he ended round three on podium by securing third spot in the last race. Overall, Ananth now leads the championship, followed by Anindith.

LGB Formula 4

Three races were held for this class – one on Saturday and two on Sunday. Arguably the most action-filled races happened in this class. On the first day, it was Vishnu Anand and Raghul Rangaswamy who battled for the first spot. The finish was so close that first and second finishers were separated by three-hundredths of a second. Vishnu and Raghul finished first and second, respectively and the third position went to Rohit Khanna who finished over five seconds later.

On Sunday, Rohit gunned for the top spot and was locked up in a three-way battle with Vishnu and Raghul for the victory. With the three swapping positions throughout the race, it was unclear as to who would finish first. However, Vishnu got the best of the battle and was able to finish first, followed by Rohit at second and Raghul at third.

Raghul did not take the third position of the last race pretty well and was seemingly determined for the next race. So, from the start of the second race on Sunday, he went on attack mode against Vishnu looking for a victory. However, after several position changes, Raghul still was not able to topple Vishnu from the first position and had to settle with a second place finish. Third position went to Rohit who had to fend off competition from Saran Vikram and did so successfully.

Touring Car

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This class had one of the most memorable races in recent memory. In the first race on Saturday, race leader Deepak Paul Chinappa fell back several places after running out of track and almost crashing into the wall. He did not give up and fought back to finish second. The victory went to Ashish Ramaswamy with Vijay Kumar bagging the third spot. The Sunday race saw Ashish Ramaswamy secure yet another victory with Radha Selverajan securing second and Deepak Paul Chinappa securing the third sport on the podium.

An eventful weekend finally came to an end with a performance from renowned stunt driver Terry Grant which had the attendees at the edge of their seat. With the penultimate round of National Racing Championship now over, the action now heads to Buddh International Circuit for the fourth and the final round. Stay tuned for more stories from the third round of National Racing Championship.