Grand double for Ameya Walavalkar

Coimbatore: Favourite Ameya Walavalkar of Mumbai found his winning ways to grab a worthy double-win in

the Formula Swift category event of the 14th JK Tyre National Road Racing championship at the Kari Motor Speedway on Sunday. Mumbai`s Rahil Noorani grabbed the limelight winning the first race of the Volkswagen Polo Cup, while Vishnu Prasad, who won both the races in the first leg last month, claimed honours in the second race today before a good holiday crowd. In Super Saloon cars category, industrialist and veteran driver B Vijayakumar made good use of a swift start ahead of Radha Selvaran to win the event, while Chennai`s Baja Vijay, who finished first in the IJTC Cup events yesterday and today was stripped off points in both races held on Saturday and Sunday by Stewards for "technical infringement". This helped drivers who finished second, third and fourth yesterday and today to finish on podium in that order in two races held in the second leg. Kerala`s Dilith T Shaji (LCT Singaram), S Narendran (IPL Power Pak) and Jai Prashanth Venkat (LCT Singaram) were declared top three winners. The lone Formula event held on the reverse grid rule or top four positions on pole saw a stiff fight. Drivers swapped the leader spot for almost each lap of the ten-lapper with 21 cars in the fray. Ameya, starting at fifth, moved up a spot and tried his best to pass others, but failed. TVS Girling`s Karthik Krishna led the field from second to seventh lap. Ameya with a better powered car got to the left of slipstreaming cars in front and attacked from an outer line. Winner of the first race on Saturday, Ameya got past Wallace Sports Goutham Parekh in the eighth lap and then held on to win the race by fractions of seconds from Goutham Parekh, who finished runner-up. Karthik Krishna settled for third spot. Deepak Ravi Kumar,who won both races in the first round last month and finished runner-up yesterday, gradually made up from sixth on grid to finish fourth for 10 points to lead the table with 80 points. Karthik Krishna has tallied 51 to be in second spot, while Ameya is on 50 with two wins for third place In Super Saloon event, T R Radha Sevlarajan is leading the points table with 86 followed by Rajvirudhan (63) and B Vijay Kumar (60 pts). PTI