Pradyum V Danigund, Krishnaraj Mahadik and Vishnu Prasad emerged as winners of the finals of the Micro, Junior and Senior Max categories in the second round of the JK Tyre National Rotax Max Karting Championship at Hyderabad here on Sunday.
Prasad, of Meco Motorsport, had a perfect weekend as he won both heats on Saturday and followed it up with wins in the pre-final on Saturday and final the day after.
His main rival, defending Senior Max champion, Ameya Bafna of Rayo Racing had to endure a difficult weekend, however.
A loose spark plug cap in the opening heat on Saturday cost Bafna at least a second place finish, if not a win as he and Prasad duked it out over the 15 lap race.
It wasn't until the final lap that the cap became completely loose and Bafna slowed down to a crawl and was classified 13th out of 14 finishers.
Bafna finished fourth in heat two after starting towards the rear of the field, which Prasad won ahead of Rayo Racing's Nayan Chatterjee.
Bafna started the pre-final in eighth place due to the finishing positions of a driver in the heats being averaged to determine the pre-final staring grid.
Bafna also had to deal with an intra-team rivalry with Nayan Chatterjee who battled him hard for second place in the final. Chittesh Mandody was also in the hunt for podium positions behind Prasad.
By contrast, it seemed like Prasad's only worry was how much the gap to the second placed driver in each race was going to be.
The former Volkswagen Polo R Cup and karting champion admitted that racing at the 860 meter circuit, which was formerly a parking lot at the Hyderabad airport, was a strong venue for Meco Motorsport due to it being their testing venue.
"This track is always good for us," said Prasad to autoX with a broad smile across his face after the end of the final. "Plus we also were able to find a setting for the carburettor that gave us a lot of power down the straights, so we were pretty fast today as compared to Saturday."
The Junior Max category was contested heavily too with Krishnaraj Mahadik, Abhirath Shetty and Mahaveer battling for top honours. However, technical infringements involving the Rotax engine's battery saw disqualifications within the category.
The disqualifications did not affect the top spot on the podium of the pre-final and final, however as Mahadik won both to seal a perfect Sunday performance.
The Micro Max category saw the most amount of disqualifications due to the technical issue with the battery, however.
The root cause turned out to be competitors using a non-Rotax supplied battery, which did not affect the performance of the kart but still amounted to a technical infringement.
The star of the Micro Max category, Pradyumn V Danigund, ended up being stripped of both his wins in the heats on Saturday as a result of the infringement before he won both the pre-final and final by sizeable margins.
The next round of the championship will be held on the 16 to 18 August weekend at Coimbatore.
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