Viji, Feroze, Duez share honours at Indian Touring Car Championship

COIMBATORE:Amidst high drama and a spate of incidents veteran racing driver B Vijaykumar cantered home in the second race of the Indian Touring Car Championship at the Kari Speedway near here on Sunday. With Viji, the owner of the Kari track winning the second race and M.Sivaramakrishnan having won the first, the senior touring car class has already come alive
The Polo Cup first round honours were shared as Avdumber Hede of Goa and Diego Duez of Mexico winning the first and second races respectively.
The second race of ITCC started dramatically with six cars crashing out in the first lap itself. The incident was triggered off by D Vidyaprakash's accident following which the others crashed into his car and piled up on the track. Two more crashes followed before the next lap and soon it became an eleven-driver field. Vijayakumar was still not in the lead as veteran Chennai driver Radha Selvarajan took over and led for almost six laps before the engine of his car failed. After that it was Viji all the way.
Vijayakumar put his victory in perspective when he said the race gave him a good chance to assess his ability at the start. "The number of re-starts gave me a chance to asess my starting capabilities," he said after the race. "It was a procession and I was worried about the fuel in the tank. i saved it up for the last few laps."
Vijaykumar (Prime Racing, Coimbatore) won in 19:16.391 while B Balavijay of Motorev India, Chennai finished second in 19:36.639. Former national rally champion N Leelakrishnan of Big Foot, Coimbatore came third in 19:38.756.
The drama that the senior class witnessed passed on to the junior category as well, but, of course, after the senior race was over. The drama unfolded after the scrutiny which found that Fahad Kutty of Mumbai of Team Game Over, had modified his carbeurettor setting against the rule. Fahad Kutty had just won the second race too after his first race triumph on Saturday. Fahad was excluded and S Feroze Khan of Chennai, son of veteran saloon car driver, Ayub Khan, took the first place. With a second place in the first race and a first in the second Feroze has taken early lead in the competition in the junior category. Feroze finished in 20:43:084, Diljith of Eram Group, Thrissur came second in 20;44.347 and S Sreeram of Mega Racing, Coimbatore was third in 20:24.209.
Fahad had mentioned at the press conference (when he just finished the race and was declared the winner) that he had worked overtime on Saturday night and Sunday morning to make improvements in the car setup. "I got the advantage in the topins and I made a lot of changes," he said. But all his effort went in vain. Feroze Khan admitted that he was under constant pressure from Fahad but the Chennai lad had a surprise waiting for him two hours later when he was promoted as the winner.
Diego Duez, the Mexican driver making his debut in India, rallied after an ordinary finish in the first race in the morning to come first in the second race in the afternoon.Duez, who finished in 19:17.543, said he was extremely happy with his experience of driving in India. "I am thrilled with the result. I drove aggressively and was very harsh on the tyres," he said after the race. "The track is great and the car felt amazing" he said.
Alisha Abdulla, the only lady driver in the competition, said she was confident that she would do well. "I have been confident with my pace and lap times. I have a great team pushing me all the way," she remarked.Duez had a seven-second lead over Alisha in the end.
Earlier, Avdumber Hede won the first race in the morning ahead of Mihir Dharkar (Mumbai) and A Sandeep Kumar of Chennai.