Indian Racing Festival: Maiden IRL win for Mohammed Ryan as Chennai Turbo Riders bag double

Chennai, Sep 15 (IANS) On an exciting day for Chennai Turbo Riders, Mohammed Ryan led from pole to finish for a maiden win in the Indian Racing League (IRL) while delivering a double for the team as the exciting third round of the Indian Racing Festival came to an end at the Madras International Circuit (MIC) on Sunday. The 22-year-old Ryan’s win came on the back of team-mate Jon Lancaster’s success in Race-1 of the Indian Racing League on Saturday.

The 2019 Rotax Karting champion Ryan, racing on the home circuit, had a brilliant start and put in consistently fast laps for his first win in the IRL which triggered celebrations in the Chennai Turbo Riders.

While Ryan disappeared into the distance at the start, Sohil Shah (Goa Aces JA Racing) moved aggressively past Jaden Pariat (Bangalore Speedsters) going into Turn-1. Pariat then dropped one more spot when teammate Rishon Rajeev got a jump on him later in the opening lap. The top three then maintained their track positions without much ado, while behind them others scrapped for points.

An elated Ryan said: “I had a good start and kept my focus to put some consistent laps. I am happy that my team, Chennai Turbo Riders won both the IRL races this weekend and picked up some big points.”

Formula 4 Indian Championship

On a busy day in the Formula 4 Indian Championship, three races produced three different winners in Ruhaan Alva (Shrachi Rarh Bengal Tigers), Veer Sheth (Ahmedabad Apex Racers), who moved up from P2 to P1 after racer winner Jaden Pariat (Bangalore Speedsters) was handed a 20-second penalty, and South African Aqil Alibhai (Black Birds Hyderabad).

In the day’s first race, Alva was in a league of his once he moved to the front in the very first lap and was simply unstoppable. As the race progressed, Australian teenager Isaac Demellweek (Chennai Turbo Riders), Alibhai, Pariat, and pole-sitter Aiva Anagnostiadis (Goa Aces JA Racing), the 2021 Australian female karting champion, settled into formation behind Alva until the Safety Car came into play in the 15th minute which bunched up the grid.

On resumption with close to two minutes and one lap left, Alibhai and Pariat jumped to P2 and P3 behind Alva who continued serenely to victory while also being credited with the fastest lap of the race.

In the next race, it was Jaden Pariat all the way after surviving contact with Alibhai while trying to regain his track position. The incident pushed Alibhai to P16 but he finished P4 eventually.

Pariat was docked a post-race 20-second penalty “for causing avoidable collision” and it dropped him to eighth in the final standings. Consequently, Veer Sheth, Ruhaan Alva and Abhay Mohan (Bangalore Speedsters) all moved up a spot to finish first, second and third, respectively.

In the final race, Alibhai built a winning lead after moving from P3 to P1 before Turn-1 in the very first lap and enjoyed a trouble-free run to spare nearly 19 seconds to second-placed Divy Nandan (Ahmedabad Apex Racers) and Ruhaan Alva who did well to hold off an aggressive Pariat in the latter half of the race.

Round 4 of the Indian Racing Festival will be held on October 19-20 at the Kari Motor Speedway, Coimbatore.

Bengaluru’s Tijil Rao led a podium sweep for the Dark Don Racing team as he came up with a brilliant drive starting from P5 for his third win in six starts this season.

Finishing behind him were team-mates Viswas Vijayaraj from Nellore and Coimbatore’s Bala Prasath. Despite losing the front nose cone of his car, Bala Prasath gave a fine exhibition of defensive driving to hold off rookie and Bengaluru teenager Dhruv Goswami (MSPORT) over the last three of the 10-lap race.

Goswami started from P12 on the grid and aided by some daring overtakes, all but managed to secure a podium spot in the overall standings, though he topped the Rookie category, way ahead of Monith Kumaran (Ahura Racing) and Abhinav Reddy (Avalanche Racing).

The weekend results put Tijil Rao on top of the overall leaderboard while Goswami also moved up the championship standings in the Rookie category.

The results (Provisional):

Indian Racing League: Race-2 (B Driver) (25 minutes + 1 Lap): 1. Mohammed Ryan (India, Chennai Turbo Riders) (26mins, 57.602secs); 2. Sohil Shah (India, Goa Aces JA Racing) (26:59.183); 3. Rishon Rajeev (India, Bangalore Speedsters) (27:14.841).

Formula 4 Indian (25mins + 1 Lap): Race-2: 1. Ruhaan Alva (India, Shrachi Rarh Bengal Tigers) (28:16.720); 2. Aqil Alibhai (South Africa, Black Birds Hyderabad) (28:17.475); 3. Jaden Pariat (India, Bangalore Speedsters) (28:18.697).

Race-3: 1. Veer Sheth (India, Ahmedabad Apex Racers) (27:41.457); 2. Ruhaan Alva (India, Shrachi Rarh Bengal Tigers) (27:41.622); 3. Abhay Mohan (India, Bangalore Speedsters) (27:43.916).

Race-4: 1. Aqil Alibhai (South Africa, Black Birds Hyderabad) (27:31.329); 2. Divy Nandan (India, Ahmedabad Apex Racers) (27:50.567); 3. Ruhaan Alva (India, Bengal Tigers) (27:51.089).

JK Tyre-FMSCI Indian National Racing Championship:

Formula LGB 4: Race-3 (10 Laps): 1. Tijil Rao (Bengaluru, Dark Don Racing) (19:42.876); 2. Viswas Vijayaraj (Nellore, Dark Don Racing) (19:44.762); 3. Bala Prasath (Coimbatore, Dark Don Racing) (19:52.697).

Rookie: 1. Dhruvh Goswami (Bengaluru, MSPORT) (19:52.770); 2. Monith Kumaran (Chennai, Ahura Racing) (19:59.569); 3. K Abhinav Reddy (Hyderabad, Avalanche Racing) (20:05.030).

–IANS

bsk/