Coimbatore JK Tyre: Tharani wins Race 2 as leaders crash again

Yash Aradhya started the reversed grid Race 2 from pole position and did well to fend off his rivals in the first 10 laps, the gap to second-placed Nirmal Uma Shankar fluctuating between a couple of tenths to nearly a second.

With race reaching its closing mark, Uma Shankar turned up a gear and dived down the inside of Aradhya at turn 2, only to misjudge the move completely and t-bone the race leader.

Aradhya was forced wide off track and outside contention for victory, with Uma Shankar somehow managing keep to his foot planted to retain the lead on track.

Behind, fifth-placed starter Tharani, who had already passed Bryan Perera for fourth and assumed third after Aradhya’s off, took advantage of the situation to overtake Sudarshan Rao and move into second.

Thereafter Uma Shankar made a mistake in the parabolica section with three laps to go, allowing Tharani to slip past and cruise to a comfortable 1.656s win.

Behind, Uma Shankar managed to fend off Nayan Chatterjee in the closing stages of the race to finish second on road.

However, he is likely to lose that position as he is being investigated for both a jump start and the aforesaid collision with Aradhya.

Should he receive a penalty, Chatterjee will be promoted to second, culminating a heroic charge from last place on the grid.

Rao finished fourth while championship leader and Race 1 winner Ashwin Datta was only classified fifth.

Sri Lanka’s Bryan Perera also endured a difficult race and could only muster sixth, ahead of a recovery Aradhya.

Manav Sharma finished less than a second ahead of Mira Erda in eighth, while Arya Singh completed the top 10. Amputee river Chetan Korada was last of the classified finishers in 11th.