CHENNAI, Feb 7: Narain karthikeyan, the 22-year-old from Coimbatore, came up with a brilliant drive to win the first leg of the ELF Formula Campus car race in the McDowell Grand Prix at the Irungattukottai track, about 30kms from here, today.Another youngster, 19-year-old Parthiv Suresh, driving for JK Tyre, gave a truly outstanding performance in finishing second behind veteran Harish Samtani in the five-lap race for Indian 1300cc salon cars. Equally gutsy performances came from two other Indians, M R Rajendran of Chennai and Pune's Aspi Bhatena, as the duo finished in that order in the competition for 250 cc group `A' bikes.But it was Narain who obviously held the centre-stage as he overtook Frenchman Guillaume Greuet after two laps and went on to win quite comfortably. Greuet was docked one minute for a foul start as he flashed past Narain at the start. Narain, occupying pole position, did well enough to keep pace and after two laps, overtook Greuet, and went on to maintain the lead for a clearwinner.
For Samtani, it was a hat-trick of triumphs as he had won the event in the past two years, but the first act of his as he climbed out of the Esteem was to congratulate Parthiv, young enough to be his son.
Results: Gr C 110cc bikes: 1. R A Abdullah (Ind) 11-07.912s. 2. V Mohan Raj (Ind). 3. Irfan Sheriff (Ind).Gr D bikes:1. V Mohan Raj (Ind) 12-06.698s 2. T K Rajesh (Ind). 3. Yohan John Thomas (Ind).Gr A 125cc bikes:1. M R Rajkumar (Ind) 10.09.170. 2. Irfan Sheriff (Ind). 3. Sheri Bhatena (Ind).TVS Race-A-Bike:1. Sekar. 2. Emmanuel Clarke. 3. Farookh.Gr A 250cc bikes:1. M R Rajendra (Ind) 10.10.689s. 2. Aspi Bhatena (Ind). 3. Sha Jehan Oli Mohammed (Ind). Indain cars (1300cc):1. Harish Samtani (Ind) 11.37.410s. 2. Parthiv Suresh (Ind). 3. Arun Selvaraj (Ind).Formula Campus cars (1st leg): 1. Narain Karthikeyan (Ind) 14.49.418s. 2. Sebastian Philipe (France). 3. Ludovic Simon (France).
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
