New Delhi, Oct 28 (IANS): Over a hundred seasoned and rookie racers battle for top honours in the 25th JK Tyre FMSCI National Racing Championship that returns for the second round of its silver jubilee season over the weekend at Coimbatores Kari Motor Speedway.
The country's top talent will race around the challenging 2.1-km long layout this Saturday and Sunday as they compete in four categories that make up India's most coveted racing championship.
In the LGB Formula 4 category, all eyes will be on Arya Singh (26 points), Ashwin Datta (18 points), Tijil Rao (18 points), and Sandeep Kumar (15 points) who dominated last month's season-opening round, also held at Kari, for Dark Don Racing.
But, despite their imperious showing, they can expect to face stiff competition from Ahura Racing's seasoned campaigners Amir Sayed and Diljith T.S, and their teammate Viswas Vijayaraj, with the latter the only driver to break Dark Don's stranglehold on the podium with a second-place finish in the second race of the season-opening round, the organisers informed in a release on Friday.
The LGB Formula 4 field will also feature a slightly different look this weekend with MSport racer Ruhaan Alva, the reigning Novice Cup champion, set to miss the weekend as he is competing in the World Motorsport Games in Marseille.
The JK Tyre Novice Cup will see some of the country's most promising rookie racers renew their battle. Early championship leader Kyle Kumaran (38 points), DTS Racing teammate Vinith Kumar (19 points) Hasten Performance racer Aadithya Parasuram (27 points) and MSport's Dhruvh Goswami (21 points) are the favourites heading into the weekend.
The JK Tyre presents Royal Enfield Continental GT Cup could throw up some surprises if last month's opening round is anything to go by. The category, which runs to the Pro-Am format, features a field of 25 riders. Last year's defending champions Anish Damodara Shetty (20 points) and Allwin Xavier made a strong start to their campaign at last month's season-opening round and are among the favourites this weekend.
But they could face a challenger in the form of amateur racer Soorya PM, with Navaneeth Kumar, Ullas S Nanda, and Sudheer Sudhakar, also expected to up the ante this weekend.
The season-opening round of the 2022 season, also saw the introduction of the all-new JK Tyre Endurance League Cup powered by CRA. The category features 20 teams of two riders each racing on 250cc bikes non-stop for 60 minutes with a rider change is a true test of endurance.
This is another category that could be full of surprises with 12-year-old FIM Mini GP champion Shreyas Hareesh in contention and the all-girls team of Rakshitha and Czmikhy set to give a tough fight to the boys in the grid.