National Racing Championship: Arya Singh of Dark Don Racing completed a grand double winning both the blue riband LGB Formula 4 races, on the opening day of round 2 of National Racing Championship 2023, here on Saturday.Arya began the day on an imperious note winning the opening race. Starting from P3, the Kolkata racer quickly exerted his dominance and sneaked into the lead in the first lap itself while overtaking his senior teammate T.S. Diljith. But Diljith kept up the pressure and got the lead back in the next lap only to hand it back to Arya.
However, with the safety car out in the fourth lap, it was expected the one behind the leader would make up lost ground and press hard to narrow the gap. But, Arya drove with guile and precision to keep his nose ahead.
Diljith kept the pace but could not find a way past and eventually had to rest content with the second spot. Championship leader Tijil Rao of Dark Don Racing looked good to secure a third-place finish but his joy was short-lived as Ruhaan Alva of MSport took him by surprise in the final corner for a place on the podium.
The second race turned out to be an anti-climax; it was a safety car finish due to a collision in the penultimate lap. It was Diljith who was at his fiery best and led the pack till the eighth lap before the safety car came out for the first time. The introduction of the safety cut short his momentum and Arya took his chance to shoot into the lead.
Diljith just could not recover after the safety car incident and despite giving his all he could not overtake Arya. And with just over a lap remaining, the safety car came out again which slowed down the pace helping Arya register his second win of the day.
Diljith finished behind him, while Ruhaan Alva of MSport overtook Tijil and others in front of him before the yellow flag was waved to finish third.
In the Novice Cup, it was Arjun S Nair of Momentum Motorsports who once again proved to be the best as he dominated from pole position to the top of the podium. The Bengaluru driver who is currently atop the leaderboard started from where he left in the opening round and hardly put a pedal wrong in the race and deservedly took the honours.
However, it was the fight for second and third place that intrigued everyone. Joel Joseph of DTS Racing and Jamie Jamshed Shaw of Momentum lit up the day with their skills behind the wheel.
While they were not quite in the reckoning for the initial few laps, they took advantage of the safety car in the fourth lap and dished out a performance to remember. Both were engaged in a fierce battle and kept the pressure on each other changing positions.
However, it was Joel of Bengaluru who kept his composure and took the second position ahead of Mumbai Jamie in a photo finish.
Md Samuel Zubair stole the show in the Continental GT Cup as he zoomed past the elite professionals to win his first podium in the championship. It was not an ideal start for the riders as an incident in the first corner of the opening lap slowed everyone down and they put forth their skills to the ultimate as they had to avoid running into the heap and stay in contention.
Zubair, who began on P4 started patiently and avoided taking any risks. It was only in the fourth lap after a slight hesitation from Bengaluru’s Jagadeesh Nagaraj on the home straight, he zoomed into the lead and finished off in style. Jagadeesh took the second position, while his citymate Abhishek Vasudev finished third.
