Mangalore: Young Riders Steal the Show at Gulf Dirt Track National Championship
Brijesh Garodi
Pics: Dayanand Kukkaje
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore
With Inputs from Media Release
Mangalore, Mar 18: Screeching tyres and thumping machines ruled the day at Gulf Dirt Track National Championship-2012, inaugurated by Jagannath, ACP, Mangalore city police on Sunday March 18.
Bijoy, general manager, Gulf Oil, Shrikant Karani, chairman, Sportscraft and Sudhir B K, president, Mangalore Motorsports Association were present. The event was flagged off at 10 am as per schedule.
A number of riders participated in this national-level sports event with their specially modified machines.
Naresh V S was the surprise package in the first round held at the Fisheries College ground.The Bangalore rider was undoubtedly the best in the 14-race event.
Astride a Yamaha RX 135 he won four races – two of the Private Expert Class, one in the Indian Expert Class and also the local class, to steal the limelight from the TVS Racing team, whose riders won most of the other classes.
Naresh extracted the maximum from his well-prepared machine to first take the honours in the second race of the Indian Expert Class morotcycles 260cc 2 & 4 stroke, beating back a stiff challenge from Harith Noah (TVS Apache) and S Madhu (Yamaha).
That set the ball rolling for his supremacy in the races to follow. Next he won both the races in the Private Expert Class, leaving Suhail Ahmed and Shahbaz Khan in second and third places respectively in the first race, and Syed Hidyathulla and Shahbaz Khan behind in that order in the next. As expected TVS riders cornered the glory in the Foreign Motorcycles class, with Pramod Joshua best in the first race, finishing ahead of R Natraj and Harith Noha in the first race.Noha, though, won the second race, relegating the seasoned Natraj and Adnan Ahmed to second and third place respectively.
Results
Dirt track racing is all about riding at high speed on a specially-laid out winding track, which is mostly slushy and gravel-laden. The rider has to negotiate serpentine bends while doing several laps and is timed to the hundredth of a second.
The seasoned riders, as expected, turned in a scintillating display, but it was heartening to watch the local talent and some first timers, like Rajendra R E of Shimoga, who came up with a fine display in one of the races in the Novice class. Astride a Yamaha, he did well around the hairpin bends particularly to place ahead of Bangalore’s Anthony Benedict and C S Anandkumar, both riding Yamaha RX 135. R Sajeesh, riding, Yamaha RX 135, emerged best in the Mangalore class, motorcycles upto 165cc . He was always under pressure as he went around the specially-laid out serpentine course, but to his credit he did well to overcome a strong challenge from Dean Mascarenhas and Mohd Nabeel who finished second and third respectively in the category.
With top class riding and excitement galore, this popular Gulf Oil Corporation-sponsored event was applauded not only by the participants, but also spectators.
“Great riding. I really enjoyed the event. It was good to see for the first time riders and their bikes racing on a track,” said a spectator. He was also surprised how the event was run so smoothly. There were 14 races and all started on time.