Nayan wins wet-to-dry race in Kolhapur; double blow for favourite Donison

KOLHAPUR: Mumbai’s Nayan Chatterjee won Sunday's fourth and penultimate round of the 13th JK Tyre FMSCI National Rotax Max Championship on the tracks of Mohite Racing Academy after pole-sitter Ricky Donison suffered a double blow that saw him surrender his leadership position.
The race began with Wet tires due to track conditions following heavy rains in the morning.
This is Nayan's 1st win on the tracks familiar to the 18-year-old. Incidentally the Mumbai racer learned the basics of driving here in Kolhapur when he picked up the sport in 2012.
Championship leader Donison of BPC Racing, who had won all three earlier rounds, failed to come to terms with the wet and slippery conditions on the track and lost his edge in the Senior Max category. He zipped into the pit lane in the scrutiny bay as he felt that he had a problem with his kart.
He came back a few minutes later to re-join the race but by then his transponder was removed, deeming him DNF (did not finish) on technical grounds. It meant that he had to be content with 38 points in the final that saw him slip to the second position with 324 overall points.
Chennai’s Vishnu Prasad jumped into the lead in the battle for the championship by finishing third in the pre-final and fourth in the final. He has a nominal 4-point lead now with 328 points, going into the final round.
In an exciting penultimate round race Mumbai’s Nayan of Meco Racing started from the sixth place, and drove aggressively to come into contention in the opening lap itself. By the fifth, he took a handy lead and didn’t give any other driver the opportunity to catch him.
In an exclusive chat with TOI an elated Nayan said, “I put in a lot of effort to secure this win after struggling in the initial heats. The wet track helped level the playing field and that was definitely a factor. The team did a really good job and helped me take this podium. Nick (Jansz) came all the way from Malaysia for it. I would like to thank my team for the work they put in.”
The local Kolhapur fans had something to cheer as Dhruv Mohite grabbed the lead. But he couldn’t handle the heat generated by Nayan and slowly fell behind, and eventually pulled out in the 12th lap. But the crowds still had reason to celebrate as another local boy Chittesh Mandody surprised all by coming from behind to finish second. Akash Gowda of Meco finished a commendable third, having started from the pit lane.
Interestingly, the Junior Max and Micro Max categories too saw the current leaders, Manav Sharma and Shahan Ali, suffer defeats but that didn’t affect their positions on the championship table.
In Junior Max, Manav of Peregrine Racing only managed to finish sixth after struggling with technical problems with his kart all through the weekend. But that was enough to keep him ahead of the pack with 334 points. Yash Aradhya of Meco won the round to climb one place up to second position with 328 points.
Chirag Ghorpade of BPC had a great weekend, winning the two heats and pre-final. But he fell behind in the race that mattered and finished second. He is now in the fourth place in the championship race with 317 points.
In Micro Max, Shahan Ali looked unbeatable till the rains came down. The 12-year-old from Agra preferred not to take any undue risk and couldn’t do anything as Arjun Nair (Meco Racing) sneaked past him in the opening lap itself. Shahan waited for Arjun to make a mistake but that didn’t happen; he made a late charge, even clocking the quickest timing in the last and 15th lap but Arjun held on to his nerve and warded him off. Bangalore’s Arjun is now just 28 points behind the leader.
RESULTS
SENIOR MAX (Final-20 laps): 1. Nayan Chatterjee, Mumbai (20:34.842); 2. Chittesh Mandody, Kolhapur (20:40,493); Akash Gowda, 20:45.403). Pre-final: 1. Ricky Donison, Bangalore (13:20.373); 2. Dhruv Mohite, Kolhapur (13:22.885); 3. Jonathan Kuriakose, Mumbai (13:23.918)
JUNIOR MAX (Final-18 laps): 1. Yash Aradhya, Bangalore (18:52.000); 2. Chirag Ghorpade, Bangalore (19:09.584); 3. Paul Francis, Bangalore (19:14.258). Pre final (15 laps): 1. Chirag Ghorpade, Bangalore (13:20.373); 2. Yash Aradhya, Bangalore (13:22.885); 3. Jonathan Kuriakose, Mumbai (13:23.918)
MICRO MAX (Final-15 laps): 1. Arjun Nair, Bangalore (16:23.165); 2. Shahan Ali Mohsin, Agra (16:27.692); 3. Yeasash More, Bangalore (16:28.345). Pre-final (12 laps): 1. Shahan Ali Mohsin 11:55.795); 2. Kunal Vinod, Bangalore (12:02.361); 3. Arjun Nair (12:02.361)