Sohil Shah scripts double in national racing meet

Bengaluru schoolboy Sohil Shah completed a fine double in the premier MRF F1600 category in the third round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI National Car Racing Championship at the MMRT track at Sriperumbudur near here Sunday.

VW Motorsport's Ishaan Dodhiwala of Hyderabad notched his maiden win in the Indian Touring Cars class after his team-mate Karthik Tharani was disqualified for a couple of infringements and subsequently banned for one race.

Meanwhile, Bengaluru's Rithvik Thomas (Race Concepts) chalked up his third win of the season in the Super Stock category.

Other winners of the day were Viswas Vijayaraj (DTS Racing) in the Formula LGB 1300 race and Mumbai's Saurav Bandyopadhyay who took the honours in the Volkswagen Ameo Class.

The saloon car race saw Tharani being disqualified for his violations and stewards subsequently slapped a one-race ban which would take effect for the next round of the championship scheduled for August 16-18.

After Tharani's disqualification, team-mate Dodhiwala was declared winner followed by Nikanth Ram (ARKA Motorsports) and Arjun Balu (Race Concepts).

The stewards, following the post-ITC race hearing with Tharani, ruled: "The competitor was called to give the explanation as to why he ignored the 'drive through' penalty board for five laps and ignored the 'black flag' for the remaining three laps of the race.

"In view of the fact that the competitor is a highly experienced driver and he is also a driver-trainer, the stewards were of the opinion that exemplary sanctions should be imposed on this driver and a sentence of not being permitted a start in the next race of this championship (one race only)."