The curtains came down on the 28th FMSCI National Racing Championship at the Kari Motor Speedway here on Sunday with action-packed races overflowing with emotions, and new champions emerging in several categories. Dhruvh Goswami (MSport) won both races on Sunday to be crowned the new champion in the LGB Formula 4 category, the blue riband event of the competition, after entering the final Round 3 weekend trailing championship leader Diljith TS (Dark Don Racing).
Bengaluru’s Goswami, an 18-year-old class 12 student of St Joseph’s, signed off in style in India’s longest-running single-seater championship, winning three of the four races over the weekend. The highpoint was the 20-lap final race on Sunday where he started 7th on the reverse grid, three spots behind former champion Diljith, who was trailing by 4 championship points. Goswami drove impressively to take the lead early in the race, lost it briefly to teammate Ruhaan Alva, before regaining it for a dominant finish.
Speaking about the final race in the context of the championship tussle with Diljith, Goswami said, “It was going to be a long race, I knew I required to be patient.” Monith Kumaran Srinivasan of Ahura Racing won the Rookie title in the LGB Formula 4 category. Round 4 of the FIA-certified Formula 4 Indian Championship, part of the Indian Racing Festival, was run alongside this championship and saw South African Luviwe Sambudla record his first win of the season in the day’s opening race and Kenya’s Shane Chandaria clinch the second race.
It was a pole-to-chequered flag finish by Sambudla in a race that saw Indian driver Ishaan Madesh of Kolkata Royal Tigers nose ahead of Saishiva Sankaran (Speed Demons Delhi) in the final laps to take third place behind teammate Ghazi Motlekar from Mozambique. In the second race, Chandaria won from pole while Motlekar climbed from fourth position to finish second.
French driver Sachel Rotge (Kichcha’s Kings Bengaluru), who won on Saturday, finished third after starting from the same position on the grid, while Madesh fended off Sankaran to finish fourth in a close battle. Having sealed the title in the professional category with a race to spare on Saturday in the Royal Enfield Continental GT Cup, presented by JK Tyre, Bengaluru rider Anish Shetty didn’t get complacent, finishing the season with a victory for what was his second title in this category.
Bryan Nicholas of Pondicherry bagged the title in the Amateur class of the Royal Enfield Continental GT Cup. Balaji Raju secured the Rookie crown in the JK Tyre Levitas Cup, India’s newest single-make racing series that debuted this season, by winning both races of the day. Jai Prashanth Venkat won the Gentlemen category, stamping his authority in a season the Coimbatore driver has clearly dominated.
With four drivers in contention for the crown in the JK Tyre Novice Cup, India’s entry-level single-seater series, Lokithlingeash Ravi (DTS Racing) from Pollachi took the honours by winning the shootout in the season’s final race.