Chennai, Aug 22 (IANS) Saishiva Sankaran from Pune and Chennai’s S. Gyan scored last-gasp victories in the Formula 2000 and Formula 1600 classes, respectively, to provide a thrilling start to the first round of the Indian National Racing Challenge 4W – 2026 at the Madras International Circuit in Chennai on Saturday.

In contrast, Nellore’s Viswas Vijayaraj was in a league of his own as he led a podium sweep for DTS Racing in the Formula LGB 1300 race while Sri Lankan Kaveen Diyyan Rajapaksa (Momentum Motorsports) topped the Junior category.

Pole-sitter Saishiva, winner of the F1600 title last year, had a poor start and was running second behind Navi Mumbai’s Aditya Patnaik with two of the 10 laps to go when they ran into a backmarker. Aditya lost precious tenths of a second negotiating the backmarker, and Saishiva closed the gap. Aditya lost more time when he again ran into a backmarker on the last lap. Saishiva needed no second invitation as he passed Aditya for a win. Aditya had to be content with second place, ahead of Pune’s Swarnav Das.

In the F1600 class that was run concurrently with the F2000, Gyan too was in P2 for much of the race, trailing Bhuvan Bonu (Visakhapatnam) with Bengaluru’s Priyanka Vijay in P3. Towards the close, Bhuvan suffered from a drop in power, which saw both Gyan and Priyanka pass him while the Vizag driver finished third.

Vijayaraj had no challengers once he snatched the lead at Turn-1 and then gradually increased the lead for a commanding win, a race that turned out to be processionary once the grid settled down after initial jostling. Vijayaraj was followed home by his DTS Racing team-mates Vinith Kumar (Tirupur) and Liron Jaden Samuels (Tirunelveli).

Earlier, former National champion Arjun Narendran from Coimbatore, driving an Arka Motorsports-prepared Volkswagen Polo and returning to active racing after several years, expectedly qualified for pole position in the Indian Super Touring Cars class, with a hot lap of 01 minute, 49.033 seconds. Starting tomorrow’s race behind him will be the trio of Buzzing Hornet Motorsports drivers, Ritesh Rai (Chennai), Aman Nagdev (Noida) and Jeet Jhabakh (Hyderabad).

Veteran Diljith T.S. from Thrissur led a 1-2-3 sweep of the top three qualifying spots in the Super Stock class for DTS Racing, clocking a best lap of 02:02.678.

Mumbai’s Neel Shah was the quickest in the Volkswagen Polo Cup qualifying session with a best lap of 01:55.377, followed by his Buzzing Hornet Motorsports teammates Pratik Sonawane (Mumbai), Hitrath Bhat (Ahmedabad), Sidharth Desai (Mumbai) and Dushyant Nagesh (Bengaluru).

Provisional results (all 10 laps unless mentioned):

F2000 (Race-1, 9 laps): 1. Saishiva Sankaran (Pune) (14mins, 47.457secs); 2. Aditya Patnaik (Navi Mumbai) (14:48.121); 3. Swarnav Das (Pune) (14:53.134).

F1600 (Race-1, 9 laps): 1. Gyan S (Chennai) (16:28.952); 2. Priyanka Vijay (Bengaluru) (14:52.355+1 lap); 3. Bhuvan Bonu (Visakhapatnam) (14:59.959+1 lap).

Formula LGB 1300 (Race-1) Open: 1. Viswas Vijayaraj (Nellore, DTS Racing) (18:53.431); 2. Vinithkumar (Tirupur, DTS Racing) (18:58.267); 3. Liron Jaden Samuels (Tirunelveli) (19:03.051).

Junior: 1. Kaveen Diyyan Rajapaksa (Sri Lanka, Momentum Motorsports) (19:21.510); 2. Abhijit Vadavalli (Bengaluru, Momentum Motorsports) (19:39.205); 3. Yash Vikram Singh (Agra, Delta Speeds) (19:39596).

–IANS

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