2016 JK Racing Championship: Ananth Shanmugam scores double win in the Euro JK 16 category

The second round of the 19th JK Tyre Racing Championship got underway today at the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore.  The races in the Euro JK 16, LGB Formula 4 and the JK Touring Car categories were pretty action packed and closely fought.

Race One of the Euro JK 16 was full of drama, right from the beginning to the end. Nayan Chatterjee qualified on pole with Ananth  Shanmugam in P2 and arch rival Ricky Donison in P3.  As the lights went off, Nayan Chatterjee was caught napping as Ananth swept past him to take the lead. Anandith Reddy, too managed to get past Nayan,  however, he had to concede the position since he made a jump start. Ananth made the most of Nayan's  mistake and managed to build a comfortable gap to Nayan.  As the race progressed, Nayan came under pressure from Karthik Tharani who eventually managed to overtake him, and pushing Nayan to P3.

Race Two was quite intense too, with Ricky Donison trying to make the most after a dismal Race One performance.  However, he was pushing too hard and lost control of the car a few laps into the race. The car spun out which resulted in a safety car period. As the race resumed Donison joined the field and managed to complete the race. Ananth,  meanwhile, was in a class of his own and he won the race along with setting the fastest lap of the race at 1min 874sec. Karthik and Nayan finished second and third respectively.

In the LGB Formula 4 races,  Meco Racing's Vishnu Prasad drove brilliantly to clinch victory and make it to the top step of the podium. He was nursing an injury but that did not seem to slow him down at all. As the lights went out, he set off in pursuit of pole sitter Ashwin Sundar. The duo were engaged in an intense battle but Vishnu's talent and skill saw him get past Ashwin soon. From then on Vishnu controlled the pace right until the chequered flag. Ashwin, who races for Dark Don Racing, had other problems to deal  with. His team-mate, and championship leader, Rohit Khanna was hot on his heels and even managed to past  Ashwin at one point. Ashwin, however, kept his nerve and reclaimed P2 with  a few laps or go. Rohit Khanna kept piling the pressure but he did not expect Raghul Rangaswamy to make a last minute attempt at getting past him, thus pushing him to P4.

The Touring Car race was won by Ashish Ramaswamy. The team Red Rooster Racing driver was pretty much unchallenged and led the Race from start to finish. M. Sivaramakrishnan finished second followed by Radha Selvarajan in third.
The racing action will continue on Sunday with two races in the Euro JK 16 and LGB Formula 4 categories and one race in the JK Touring Car category.
Results
LGB 4: 1. Vishnu Prasad; 2. Ashwin Sundar; 3. Raghul Rangasamy
JK Touring Cars: 1. Ashish Ramaswamy; 2. M Sivaramakrishnan; 3. Radha Selvarajan

Euro JK 16:
Race 1: 1. Ananth Shanmugam; 2. Karthik Tharani; 3. Nayan Chatterjee
Race 2: 1. Ananth Shanmugam; 2. Karthik Tharani; 3. Nayan Chatterjee