Chennai, July 25 (IANS): Sudanand Daniel of Anish Racing team brought into play all his experience and rode his luck to win the Formula LGB1300 race in the fourth round of the Indian National Racing Championship at the Madras Motor Race Track (MMRT) here on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Karthik Tharani Singh pulled off a near perfect lap at the fag end of the qualifying session to pip Arjun Narendran to the pole position in the MRF F1600 category.
Tharani, the championship leader ahead of Goutham Parekh by just one point, enjoyed a fruitful morning when he topped the time charts during free practice and carried the form into qualifying session.
Daniel, starting third on the grid, was involved in a close fight with championship leader Mohit Aryan as the two exchanged places at the front of the pack after pole-sitter Prashanth failed to start the race due to a gear box problem.
Aryan, with Daniel hot on his heels, seemed to hold position until he spun with about three laps of the 10 left. Daniel needed no second invitation and forged ahead to score a comfortable win while Aryan finished third behind Chetan Korada of Wallace Sports.
"It was a good race. Mohit (Aryan) and I were on the same pace, but I kept up the pressure and when he spun entering the Bridge Complex section, I moved ahead," said Daniel, who is an airline pilot by profession.
Siddharth Sundaram (Red Rooster Racing), an automobile student from Coimbatore, and Varun Anekar of Race Concepts, came up trumps in the Indian Junior Touring Cars and Super Stock classes, respectively, after surviving early battles that saw several cars coming into contact with one another up and down the grid.
Arjun Narendran of Red Rooster Racing, put in a fine lap to grab the pole position in the Indian Touring Cars class ahead of teammate Ashish Ramaswamy and veteran B. Vijayakumar (Prime Racing).
The results (provisional):
Formula LGB1300 (10 laps): Sudanand Daniel (Anish Racing) 1 (19:43.654); Chetan Korada (Wallace Sports) 2 (19:52.244); Mohit Aryan (Anish Racing) 3 (19:57.597).
Indian Junior Touring Cars (10 laps): Sidharth Sundaram (Red Rooster Racing) 1 (20:46.598); Keith D'Souza (Unimek Racing) 2 (21:01.410); Anant Pithawalla (Team N1) 3 (21:04.337).
Super Stock (10 laps): Varun Anekar (Race Concepts) 1 (21:54.627); Sudanand Daniel (Performance Racing) 2 (21:59.438); Imran Majid (Team Game Over) 3 (22:20.077).
Qualifying: MRF F1600: Karthik Tharani Singh (Chennai) 1 (1:42.850); Arjun Narendran (Coimbatore) 2 (1:43.695); Goutham Parekh (Chennai) 3 (1:43.870).
Indian Touring Cars: Arjun Narendran (Red Rooster Racing) 1 (01:52.597); Ashish Ramaswamy (Red Rooster Racing) 2 (01:54.859); B Vijayakumar (Prime Racing) 3 (01:55.200).