Fifth round of National Karting championship on Dec 10

Mumbai, Dec 8 (UNI) The fifth and final round of the MRF-MAI Indian National Karting Championship will be held at the Acres Club, Chembur here on December 10.

The leader after four rounds which were conducted at Coimbatore, Kolhapur, Goa and Nagpur, city-lad Ameya Walavalkar with 173 points will face tough competition from the second placed Audumber Hede from Goa who is on 111 points and third placed Abbas Ghadially on 85 points.

The organisers informed at a press conference here today that the competition will be held in three categories - the INKC (Indian National Karting Championship) which will be run over 27 laps; K-INKC (Kadet-Indian National Karting Championship) of 14 laps; and KCT (Karting Champions Trophy) of 18 laps.

The championship will also see the use of Formule Mondiale karts whose specifications have been laid by the international governing body for karting CIK-FIA. It was also informed that this is the first time these karts have been fabricated in India for a national karting championship.

Elaborating further on the karts, the organisers informed that the karts will be powered by 13 bhp. Honda GX 390 engines. The karts will also have specially made tyres by MRF, the main sponsors of the event, which have been approved by CIK-FIA for international events.

The qualifying stage where a total of 80 entries have been recieved in all categories will take part on Staurday and the main race will be held on Sunday. For the main race, it was announced a maximum of 16 karters for INKC will race, 10 for K-INKC and 10 for KCT.

The winner of the INKC will stand to gain Rs 10,000, while the runner-up will take home Rs 7,000. In the K-INKC the winner will get Rs 10,000 as prize money, with the runner-up taking home Rs 7,000.

In the KCT the winner will stand to gain Rs 7,000, with the runner-up being richer by Rs 5000, it was announced at the conference.

UNI GS MJ DH ND1642