Bengaluru’s Akshat Misra (Crest Motorsports) literally strolled to victory in the Senior Max final with a dominating win in the first round of the MECO-Fmsci National Karting Championship Rotax Max 2024 at the Kartopia track, here on Sunday.
The other winners were Nikhilesh Raju (Peregrine Racing), also from Bengaluru, in the Junior Max category and Chennai’s Rivaan Dev Preetham (MSPORT) who topped the Micro Max class. Incidentally, the event attracted 57 entries, including participants from abroad.
The Final runs in all three rounds witnessed close competition in the early laps until the eventual winners managed to break away from the bunch. Misra was an impressive winner in the Senior Max final as he opened a sizeable lead after surviving some early jostling for track positions and came through untroubled, ahead of the experienced fellow-Bengalurean Ruhaan Alva (MSPORT) and Chennai’s Varun Hari Praveen (Peregrine Racing).
In the Junior Max final, it was a tense battle all through the 14 laps with Nikhilesh holding his never to emerge winner with his closest rival, Pune’s Arafath Sheikh (Crest Motorsports) receiving five-second penalty that dropped him to fifth. Finishing second behind Nikhilesh were Eknath Vengatesan (Chennai, MSPORT) and Aarav Dewan (Gurugram, Leapfrog Racing).
Earlier, Rivaan had to fight hard for his win in the Micro Max final after wheel-to-wheel dicing with Yatharth Gaur, who finished second, but was later disqualified for “technical infringement”. Consequently, Rehan Khan (Chennai, MSPORT) moved up to second ahead of team-mate Mumbai’s Atiqa Asif Mir.
The results (Provisional):
Senior Max – Final (16 laps): 1. Akshat Misra (Bengaluru, Crest Motorsports) (14:59.597); 2. Ruhaan Alva (Bengaluru, MSPORT) (15:02.073); 3. Varun Hari Praveen (Chennai, Peregrine Racing) (15:05.202). Pre-final (14 laps): 1. Akshat Misra (13:18.023); 2. Ruhaan Alva (13:19.292); 3. Ishaan Madesh (Bengaluru, Peregrine Racing) (13:19.826).
Junior Max – Final (14 laps): 1. Nikhilesh Raju (Bengaluru, Peregrine Racing) (13:19.767); 2. Eknath Vengatesan (Chennai, MSPORT) (13:23.763); 3. Aarav Dewan (Gurugram, Leapfrog Racing) (13:24.377). Pre-final (12 laps): 1. Arafath Sheikh (Pune, Crest Motorsport) (11:30.445); 2. Aahil Mecklai (Mumbai, Rayo Racing) (11:31.159); 3. Eshanth Vengatesan (11:31.555).
Micro Max – Final (12 laps): 1. Rivaan Dev Preetham (Chennai, MSPORT) (12:16.790); 2. Rehan Khan (Chennai, MSPORT) (12:19.920); 3. Atiqa Asif Mir (Mumbai, MSPORT) (12:21.397). Pre-final (10 laps): 1. Yatharth Gaur (10:42.721); 2. Rivaan Dev Preetham (10:45.092); 3. Rishik Rohit Reddy (Bengaluru, Peregrine Racing) (10:49.071).