Ajay Kini grabs pole in Fomula Maruti, Sailesh in Esteem

Chennai, Apr 29 (UNI) Displaying composure and control in the Chennai heat, championship leader Ajay Kini grabbed the pole in Formula Maruti category while Bolisetti Sailesh outpaced his rivals in the race for grid in Esteem category in the JK Tyre Racing Cup for Juniors here.

Ajay fended off a gritty challenge by Saran Vikram to win the first qualifying race. Race two, which commence with the reversed grid, restarted after being red flagged following a three vehicle pile up in lap 2. Dipak R won the race finishing marginally ahead of Ajay, who started from eighth place.

Earlier, the event of Esteems was run as a support race. The lad from Vizag and pole leader Bolisetti Sailesh who took the honors in Race one with a sterling performance. Finishing in second and third places were Chennai racers Saran Vikram and Bharat P V respectively.

Race two which started also with a reversed grid saw Saran Vikram starting in 6th place come up with an excellent effort to move up and win the race very comfortably. Abhinand Shankar finished second while P V Bharat finished third.

Round four will be held tomorrow.

Results: Formula Maruti (8 laps) Race I 1. Ajay Kini (10:24:702), 2. Saran Vikram (10:24:809), 3.

Sudarshan Rao (10:31:439).

Race II 1. Deepak R (07:59:698), 2. Ajay Kini (08:00:013), 3. Saran Vikram (08:02:408).

Esteem (5 laps& bsp) Race I 1. Bolisetti Sailesh (06:54:371) 2. Saran Vikram (06:55:502) 3. Bharat PV (06:59:603).

Race II 1. Saran Vikram (07:00:100), 2. Abhinand Shankar (07:03:266), 3. Bharath P V (07:03:569).

UNI XC DH AY PM1811