Donison, Ali shine at Karting Championship

Senior Max favourite Ricky Donison and Micro Max star Shahan Ali grabbed pole positions for the biggest race-day of the 13th JK Tyre-FMSCI National Rotax Max Karting Championship, winning their respective heats in the fifth and final round with consummate ease here on Saturday.

In the Junior Max, Chirag Ghorpade grabbed the honours by winning the first heat and playing it safe in the second, pulling out of the race to save his wet tyres in the fifth lap. He will hope to take advantage of his pole position to pull off a sensational win on Sunday at the Mohite Racing Academy.

Ricky of BPC Racing showed his class on Day 1 of the championship weekend, grabbing the pole position from Vishnu Prasad in the qualifying and marking his intent right away.

In H1, he built a huge lead by the second lap itself and looked untouchable all the way through. He clocked a stupendous 51.320 seconds, amazingly in the last lap to show that he is not going to let up until the final chequered flag comes out on what promises to be a stupendous Sunday.

He was equally imperious in Senior Max's H2, quickly storming ahead of the field and taking the race with elan. He is currently on 324 points, just four behind the championship leader, Vishnu Prasad, and will fancy his chances on the big day, when a full house is expected to turn out to witness the grand finale.

Local hero Dhruv Mohite gave Kolhapur's fans a lot to cheer by snatching P2, and staying in line to pull off a sensational upset. He finished second in the first heat and third in the second to stay in the reckoning. He is on 314 points and knows that two great runs on Sunday can well give him the championship.

--IANS

pur/vm