At the races

The atmosphere at Danny's Go-Karting track in Chennai was charged, early Saturday afternoon. Young champions in racing suits, helmets in hand, filled in forms.The place buzzed with activity. It was a pleasant sight to see six and seven year old children driving go-karts at high speed.

The participants went through their qualifying rounds and only the best eight in every category qualified.

In the junior class under 10, Saravana Kumar took off from pole position and manoeuvred the first hairpin with amazing control, but lost it around the second corner. Vishnu Prasad took the lead with a huge margin. A controlled and calculated race saw him win.

The 10-18 years age group saw the young drivers qualify for the race with good timings. Eight of the boys were within 1.2 seconds at the start.

Aditya Patel who was on pole position was slow to start, and Anand Prasad moved marginally into the lead, blazing into the first corner. Aditya held his own through the corner, and took the lead, with skill and speed on the first lap, with Anand hot on his heels. Anand and Aditya showed tremendous skill and control over the four laps, with Aditya going ahead to win with Anand second, in what was a nail-biting finish.

The older drivers were categorised by weight, and competition was fierce. Sangeeta won the ladies race.

Results:

I Juniors under-10: 1. Vishnu Prasad, 2. Yazdaan Khan, 3. Nikhil Alfred Raj.

II. Age 10-18: 1. Aditya Patel, 2. Anand Prasad, 3. Prashant.

III Ladies: 1. Sangeeta, 2. A. Shobana, 3. Rejoice Immanuel.

IV 45-55 kg: 1. M. Preetam, 2. Armaan Ebrahim, 3. Suhail Chandhok.

V 56-65 kg: 1. M. Preetam, 2. S. Naren, 3. Mahesh Patel.

VI 66-75 kg: 1. Fazal Khan, 2. Ranvir Ranjit, 3. Sameer Ebrahim.

VII Above 75 kg: 1. Sanju Anto, 2. G. Satish, 3. Chummar Varghese.

VIII Race of champions: 1. S. Naren, 2. M. Preetam, 3. Ranvir Ranjit.

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