Arjun Balu Powers To Victory In Touring Cars Race

Indian National Car Racing Championship:  Veteran Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) scripted a master class as he shrugged off fading light and a drying track following afternoon showers to win the only race of the day in the third round of the Indian National Car Racing Championship at the Madras International Circuit, here on Saturday.

The eight-lap race for the touring cars witnessed some drama even before it commenced. Pole-sitter and Balu’s team-mate Gurunath Meiyappan, the championship leader in the Indian Touring Cars category, retired with a turbo issue on the outlap itself and could not take the start.

Balu, the 48-year-old multiple champion from Coimbatore, who had qualified P3, made a great start and overtook Ritesh Rai, the private entrant from Chennai, by Turn-2 in the opening lap and never looked back.

His vast experience was in evidence as he tip-toed past the water puddles around the track with a near-flawless drive and had something to spare at the finish. While Rai came in second, Mumbai’s Biren Pitawalla (N1 Racing) completed the podium.

Behind the ITC cars on the combined grid, Deepak Ravikumar led a podium sweep for Performance Racing, in the Indian Junior Touring Cars class with Akkineni Anand Prasad and Srinivas Teja following him home.

Mumbai’s Zahan Commissariat drove well to take the honours in the Super Stock category to snap a six-race win spree of TS Diljith (DTS Racing) who finished second ahead of Jarshan Anand (DB Motorsport).

The afternoon showers delayed the start of the post-lunch session with three races scheduled. In view of the track conditions, the officials decided to run just the touring cars race while postponing the other two – Formula 2000/1600 and the Saloon to tomorrow.

During the pre-lunch session, Bengaluru’s Aditya Swaminathan, in his debut single-seater season, grabbed the pole position in the Formula 2000 category.

Another Bengalurean, Chetan Surineni, topped the charts in the Formula 1600 qualifying session.

Pune’s Diana Pundole, a mother of two, qualified for pole position in the Saloon category as did Nellore’s Viswas Vijayaraj (DTS Racing) in the Formula LGB 1300 class.