Rayo Racing’s Aaroh Ravindra Built Up On His Championship Advantage By A Single Point As BPC Racing’s Manav Sharma Won The 4th Round Of The MECO FMSCI National Rotax Karting Championship.
Previously, M Sport Racing’s in form driver, Nirmal Umashankar snatched pole position from BPC Racing’s Manav Sharma. Nirmal recorded a stellar time of 54.684 seconds while Rayo Racing’s Aaroh, the championship leader, achieved third place.
Polesitter Nirmal Umashankar enjoyed two victories in the first two heats, with Aaroh and Manav following him. As a result, Nirmal started the pre-finals with the position advantage as he lined up in first place. The race saw some fantastic defensive driving with the trio finishing as they started; Nirmal in first, Aaroh second and Manav third. Incredibly, the gap between the three drivers at the finish was a slender 0.7 seconds!
The top three started in the same order for the 20 lap finals and soon after the green flag dropped, they drove into the sunset, with none of the other drivers anywhere close to catching them.
On lap 15, Aaroh tried an ambitious move on race leader Nirmal at the hairpin but the championship leader was unable to get past and he paid the price for the attempt as Manav reacted quickly to capture second place from him. Manav was gaining momentum as he overtook Nirmal for the lead soon after he made the pass for second place, leaving Aaroh and Nirmal to battle it out once again. This time, Nirmal was unsuccessful to defend his position and so, Aaroh passed him for second place. Soon, Aaroh and Nirmal were on the heels on race leader Manav but the latter defended his position well to win his first finals of the season, albeit with the margin between the three drivers once again being under a second.
This was the first time in the entire season that Aaroh hadn’t won in the finals but he took the fastest lap of the race as a consolation prize and as a result, he increased his lead in the championship by one point at the end of Round 4.
“Although I was fast through the weekend, Nirmal seemed to be just a bit faster than me. Each and every race had all three of us finish extremely close. I wish I could have made my first move stick, in the finals, but second is not bad, although it would have been better to win. I must thank the team for the excellent setup that I had in the final and I am grateful to all my sponsors” – Aaroh Ravindra on the weekend