Donison, Manav, Shahan triumph at karting tourney

Kolhapur, Sep 25: The curtains came down on the 13th JK Tyre-FMSCI National Rotax Max Karting Championship at the Mohite Racing Academy here on Sunday, with favourites Ricky Donison, Manav Sharma and Shahan Ali winning their respective categories in commanding fashion.

Donison, who has been virtually invincible for three seasons now, defended his Senior Max title in style to make it a hat-trick of titles.

When he lined up for the finals in front of a packed, in-the-mood-to-holiday crowds, however, he knew that it could be a touch and go affair. He was on pole once again but he was still on 358 points, one point behind championship leader Vishnu Prasad. He was aware that even a minor error or a hint of nerves could easily upset his winning streak.

That didn't affect him even a whit though. Donison (BPC Racing) streaked ahead of the field in the first lap itself and clocked the fastest lap in the fifth at 51.717 seconds; he steadily increased the gap thereafter to win the 20-lap race with a solid five seconds to spare. He finished the season with 413 points, leaving the rest to fight for the crumbs.

Mumbai's Nayan Chatterjee, Vishnu Prasad (both Meco Racing) and Dhruv Mohite (Mohite's Racing) were locked in a fierce battle behind him, overtaking each other in virtually every lap. Just when it seemed like it would go all the way to the wire, it imploded for Vishnu and Dhruv, as the former forced the latter off the track, unwittingly taking both of them out of contention for the second place.

Nayan took advantage of the mishap to grab the runner-up position in the fifth and final round. But that was good enough for only a third-place finish in the championship with 397 points. Vishnu finished fourth to emerge the overall vice-champion with 408 points.

Shahan Ali of Meco Racing was equally unstoppable in the Micro Max category. The Asian champion underlined his prodigious talent by comfortably winning the championship for the third time in succession. He collected 86 points on Sunday, finishing first in the pre-final and second in the final, for an aggregate of 434 points.

That was a clear 25 points ahead of second-placed Ruhaan Alva of Birel Art, who came up with a stunning last race to take the final round. But Agra's hero Shahan had already put the championship beyond everybody's reach by winning the pre-final in the morning and piling up a sizeable lead. 

In the Junior Max category, Faridabad's Manav Sharma (BPC Racing) timed his move to perfection, winning both the pre-finals and finals on Sunday to pocket the title. Starting just six points ahead of the field, he knew that he couldn't afford to make the mistakes that he has been wont to. He didn't. He finished with 423 points, comfortably ahead of Yash Aradhya (Meco) who ran out of luck on the day that mattered.

Yash was penalised 10 places in the morning round to finish last while in the afternoon he had to settle for the fourth place. Chirag Ghorpade (BPC) who started the day on pole and looked like the youngster to beat on Saturday could only manage 82 points on Sunday for a total of 399 points, good enough for the third place in the championship.