Grand double for Chinnappa
Bengaluru’s Deepak Paul Chinnappa broke his Kari Motor Speedway jinx with a grand double in the premier Indian Touring Cars class on the concluding day of the MRF national racing championship in Coimbatore on Sunday.
Chennai lad Sandeep Kumar and Delhi’s Karminder Singh split the top spots in the two Volkswagen Ameo Cup races.
Driving with confidence, 30year old Chinnappa of Race Concepts had the measure of his two main rivals from Red Rooster Performance team, Ashish Ramaswamy, winner of the first race on Saturday, and defending champion Arjun Narendran, with a dominating performance.
“I have never won at this track since making my debut in this class three seasons ago. I have had issues with my car in the past, and this weekend was only slightly better, though problematic.
“I had to deal with the loss of power steering, two gears and brakes, but fortunately, everything came together for me and helped me break the Coimbatore jinx as I had never won here before,” said Chinnappa, son of two-wheeler legend Chandra Kumar Chinnappa.
In the first race, Chinnappa, from third on the grid made a great start and by the end of the first lap, had moved up to the front and established a comfortable lead which he kept to the flag.
In the next outing, Narendran, starting from pole, kept his position until the end of second lap when he ran wide exiting the last corner, and Chinnappa eased into the lead to take command of the race.
Narendran, who incidentally clocked the fastest laps in both the races on Sunday, then survived close attention from veteran Vidya Prakash (Prime Racing) to finish second.