Prasad clinches win in photo finish at JK championship

 MSport managed a one-two finish on Day 2 of the JK Tyre FMSCI National Racing Championship with Vishnu Prasad pipping teammate Raghul Rangaswamy by 0.068 seconds.

The two drivers were nose and nose in the final stretch and it was Prasad who managed to stay on top. He thus managed a double win in the first round at Coimbatore's Kari Motor Speedway.

It was a fascinating battle at the top of the grid for most of the race with Rangaswamy and Prasad repeatedly exchanging pole position. Rangaswamy appeared to have gathered significant breathing space in the seventh lap but a multi car crash helped Prasad regain lost ground to set up the photo finish.

Interestingly though, the 25-year-old was initially stripped of his win for pushing a driver off the track. This was later repealed and Prasad was reinstated as the champion.

The Suzuki Gixxer Cup was a repeat of Day 1, with Bangalore's Syed Muzammil Ali scoring an encore, but this time with over 5 seconds to spare. Pune's Tanay Gaikwad (14:25.458) and Sidharth Sajan (14:27.480) held on to their podium places, in almost identical fashion.

Mohammad Ryan of MSports won the Novice Cup thanks to Momentum Motorsports' Chirag Ghorpade, who had finished first, being imposed with a 10-second penalty for a jump start. The race was marred by a number of crashes and failures with half the grid eventually retiring.

PROVISIONAL RESULTS AFTER ROUND 1:

LGB Formula 4 (Race 2): 1. Raghul Rangasamy (MSport) 18:28.329; 2. Vishnu Prasad (MSport) 18:31.673; 3. Sandeep Kumar A (Dark Don) 18:32.848

LGB Formula 4 (Race 3): 1. Vishnu Prasad (MSports) 20:02.742; 2. Raghul Rangasamy (MSport) 20:02.810; 3. Ashwin Datta (Dark Don Racing) 20:05.316;

JK Tyre Novice Cup (Race 3): 1. Mohamed Ryan (MSports) 23:44.056; 2. Aaroh Ravindra (Momentum Motorsports) 23:47.212; 3. Mihir Avalakki (Birel Art) 23:47.330

JK Tyre Suzuki Gixxer Cup: 1. Syed Muzammil Ali 14:19.609; 2. Tanay Gaikwad 14:25.458; 3. Sidharth Sajan 14:27.480

JK Tyre Redbull Road to Rookies : 1. Ikshan Shanbag; 2. Prashanth R 3. Aryan Gurav 14:35.073

JK Tyre Women's Category (LGB Formula 4) : 1. Mira Erda (MSport); 2. Mega K.S (Ahura Racing); 3. Diana Pundole (Ahura Racing) IANS