Like in the first round, Nayan
struggled with his pace on day 1, only managing the third place in the first
two races. But on Sunday, once again, he was a different racer altogether. He
exhibited amazing pace and was virtually uncatchable in the final race, even
though the speedy Ananth Shanmugam was snapping at his tail in each of the
laps.
Nayan got a lucky break in the
first lap itself, though, with the morning’s darling Ajay Kini getting into a
melee with Anindith Reddy and Karthik Tharani. He took advantage of it to pick
up a huge lead. But Ananth from Karnataka upped the ante in the latter part of
the race and almost overtook Nayan in the final lap.
“He was really quick,” said
Nayan of Ananth, clearly looking relieved to have warded off his challenge.
“Luckily, my car setup was good today and I held on to my nerves,” he added.
In the morning, Nayan was even
more spectacular, streaking past one driver after another in a spectacular
display of racing. He started off in the fourth position with the reverse grid
coming into play to get the psychological edge over overnight leader Ananth
Shanmugam. Akash Gowda and Ajay Kini at P1 and P2 just didn’t have the pace to
hold him off and yielded the lead by the first turn itself.
The field got an opportunity
to catch up with Nayan in the 10th lap when the safety car came out. Ajay Kini
gave it his best shot, as did Ananth, but neither could even rattle the leader.
The LGB Formula 4 saw a
stunning finish in the morning, with Ashwin Sundar of Dark Don Racing
outsmarting Vishnu Prasad of Meco Racing in the final home stretch. He was,
however, handed`a 10-second penalty for his driving which saw him slip down to
fourth position. That saw Raghul Rangasama move up the ladder to first
position. Vishnu took the second place.