engaluru’s Rishon Rajeev and Nikhilesh Raju, and Rivaan Dev Preetham, the 11-year-old from Chennai, took the honours in their respective categories in the third round of the Meco Fmsci National Rotax Max Karting Championship 2024 at the brand new CoASTT circuit, built by India’s first F1 driver, Narain Karthikeyan, here on Sunday.
Former champion and Indian F4 driver, Rishon Rajeev (Birel Art India), topped the Pre-Final and the Final in the Senior Max class to underline his dominance. In fact, Rishon won the 19-lap Final by 7.4 seconds with Rayo Racing’s Krish Gupta from Mumbai finishing second and Bengalurean Ruhaan Alva (MSPORT) coming in third.
Nikhilesh Raju (Peregrine Racing) extended his win-streak by winning both Pre-Final and Final races in the Junior Max category. He edged out Gurugram’s Aarav Dewan (Leapfrog Racing) in the Final with Eshanth Vengatesan (Chennai, MSPORT) taking P3 spot. In the Pre-Final too Nikhilesh was a comfortable winner while Eshanth finished second, ahead of Aarav.
Rivaan Dev Preetham led a 1-2 finish for MSPORT in the Micro Max Final while finishing comfortably ahead of Rehan Khan R. Rayo Racing’s Danish Dalmiya from Mumbai completed the podium. Earlier, in the Pre-Final, the trio had finished in the same order.
Commissioner of Police, Coimbatore City, V. Balakrishnan and District Collector Kranthi Kumar Pati were the chief guests at the prize distribution ceremony.
The results (Provisional):
Senior Max (Final, 20 laps):1. Rishon Rajeev (Bengaluru, Birel Art India) (14:36.817); 2. Krish Gupta (Mumbai, Rayo Racing) (14:44.230); 3. Ruhaan Alva (Bengaluru, MSPORT) (14:49.916). Pre-final (14 laps): 1. Rishon Rajeev (10:40.150); 2. Rohan Madesh (Bengaluru, Peregrine Racing) (10:40.914); 3. Krish Gupta (10:43.194).
Junior Max (Final, 20 laps): 1. Nikhilesh Raju (Bengaluru, Peregrine Racing) (15:06.695); 2. Aarav Dewan (Gurugram, Leapfrog Racing) (15:09.069); 3. Eshanth Vengatesan (Chennai, MSPORT) (15:12.905). Pre-final (15 laps): 1. Nikhilesh Raju (11:19.432); 2. Eshanth Vengatesan (11:23.919); 3. Aarav Dewan (11:25.450).
Micro Max (Final, 20 laps): 1. Rivaan Dev Preetham (Chennai, MSPORT) (16:07.601); 2. Rehan Khan R (Chennai, MSPORT) (16:09.439); 3. Danish Dalmiya (Pune, Rayo Racing) (16:14.864). Pre-final (15 laps): 1. Rivaan Dev Preetham (12:08.129); 2. Rehan Khan R (12:09.135); 3. Danish Dalmiya (12:14.191).