Jadav wins Bombay leg
of National karting
Our Correspondent
Ashok Jadav proved a cut about the rest to win the Bombay leg of the J K Tyre National karting championship,
organised by Sportscraft, in association with J K Tyres, AXN, Mahindra and Mahindra and Caltex, which was held over
the weekend at the Hakone Karting track at Hirananadani gardens, Powai, in north Bombay.
His victory earned him a place in the finals of the national championship, to be held at New Delhi on December 24.
Along with the regional final winners of the Hyderabad and Pune legs, which were held previously, Jadhav was
joined in the finals by Asif Nazir, who finished second to him in the Mumbai leg.
The others who have made it to the Delhi finals are Mandeep Singh and Pradeep Singh from the Hyderabad leg and
Rajesh Pawar and Rayomand Banaji from the Pune leg.
Jadhav was indeed the deserving champion in the Bombay leg, which incidentally was Sportscraft's 150th sporting
event since its first in 1988. He was the pick of the 153 entries. He got his act correct right from the first qualifying on Friday, in the heats on Saturday and then in finals on Sunday.
He started off on Sunday in pole position in Group B (55kgs to 65kgs class) as the best qualifier, having timed 0.29.88
seconds in the Saturday's heats which comprised six laps, and held pole right through as he battled it out later in the race for honours which was over 10 laps. His victory in the Group B finals of six participants was so easy that he even managed to lap the last man.
Then, when the top three of Group B took on the top three of Group A, and when the top three again clashed with the
top three of Group C, in the contest to decide the winner, Jadhav again came out trumps, winning both the races hands down.
The serpentine, sloping tarmac track was indeed not easy to negotiate at high speed. Some drivers lost control at the hairpin bends and rammed into the tyre-safety cordon while some got entangled into another's cart. Jadhav for his part kept a cool head and drove with precision control to emerge first in the last two races of the day, held for the top three of each group to decide the winner, to pick the top prize of Rs 10,000 as also the purse of Rs 5,000 for winning Group B.
"I am happy to do well here," said Jadav, adding he's now looking forward to the finals at Delhi, where the winner
will drive home with a Mahindra Bolero. "That will be the big test," he said.
Asif Nazir too performed creditably and there can be no doubt that he and Jadav were the best. He was in Group C,
and had the second best time in the heats -- 0. 30.18 seconds. He picked pole position from his group, but had to settle
behind Jadav in grid in the final rounds because his timing was slower than that of Jadav's.
Having achieved his first goal of making it to the finals, he too has set his sights on the final leg. "That is what will
count," he said. "I'm now looking at the national title," he said, expressing confidence of a better showing in Delhi.
Ameya Walawalkar, who had finished first in Group A (under 55 kgs) in the first race of Sunday's programme finshed
overall third. Finishing behind him were Arjun C Nambiar, Sachin Patil, Nikhil Kamble, Rustom Patel, Suresh Narvekar
and Winston D'Souza, in that order.
Top class action was not restricted to the National championship classes. The ladies and children's classes too
provided as much excitement. Indeed they too showed they could match the men.
Noor Jehand Anees won the Ladies class for 18 years and above. She was followed by Suvidha Patel
and Laurie Chinoy in that order.
The Children's class for 14 years to 18 years, was won by Abbas Ghadiali. Jigar Muni and Anand Iyer
were second and third respectively.
The children's class, for under-14s, was bagged by Aditya Akkeni. Kevan Chinoy and Siddharth Shah
were second and third respectively.
