OGIER WINS ON HOME GROUND

The fight for the 2011 title seems to be going right down to the wire as Sebastien Ogier took his fifth win of the season by winning Rallye de France. Making the most out of Loeb’s retirement, the Frenchmen clinched a well deserved 25 points to occupy second spot in the Drivers Standings behind Mikko Hirvonen and Sebastien Loeb who are currently leading the table.

Dani Sordo competing for the MINI John Cooper Works WRC team finished second, making it two podiums from four appearances for the emerging manufacturer. In fact, the Spaniard spent much of the final day trimming down Ogier’s lead courtesy selection of soft compound tyres, which helped him during the earlier part of the day. But at the end he had to settle for second position due to rising temperatures in his tyres. Meanwhile, Petter Solberg recovered from his spin on the second stage of the final day to go on to complete the final place on the podium. This was his second consecutive podium finish for his eponymous team.

Ford’s Jari-Matti Latvala should have finished fourth as he started the final day’s proceedings 1 minute and 25 seconds ahead of his team-mate Hirvonen. Unfortunately, he was forced down the order due to a two-minute time penalty which was enforced due to an early entry into the regroup ahead of the rally-closing Power Stag thereby promoting Mikko up one position. Dutchmen - Dennis Kuipers came in sixth as he set the second fastest time on Sunday’s first stage. Armindo Araujo would have claimed seventh place but a broken front-left suspension on stage 18 left him out of contention giving way to Henning Solberg who took up the position. He was followed by Mads Ostberg who finished eight overall.

Stoner and Honda are the Champions



In what has seemed to be a complete white-wash since the start of the season; Casey Stoner grabbed first place yet again on home turf at the Iveco Australian Grand Prix to be crowned the 2011 champion. Meanwhile, Honda’s constructors championship was aided by Honda’s other rider, Dani Pedrosa, who took his third victory of the season in a dramatic Grand Prix of Japan with Casey Stoner alongside him on the podium in third position and with Andrea Dovizioso finishing fifth.

The 2011 MotoGP Constructors Championship was Honda’s 18th in the premier class-five in MotoGP and 13 in 500cc-to go along six 350cc titles, 19 in the 250cc class, 15 in the 125cc class, and two in the 50cc category. With Stoner’s ninth victory of the season, Honda riders have won 646 races, a number that will only continue to grow.

Pedrosa celebrated the 400th win for a Spaniard in Grand Prix racing and gave the Repsol Honda Team its first ever victory at the Motegi circuit at the Grand Prix of Japan. It’s also the first win for Honda at this track since Makoto Tamada was victorious aboard his Camel Honda in 2004. Joining Pedrosa on the podium, accepting the constructors trophy was Mr. Takanobu Ito - President, Chief Executive Officer and Representative Director of Honda. The three Repsol Honda riders made a fantastic start and led the race as a pack for the first four laps, until Stoner experienced a big wobble on lap five and ran off track. Dovizioso then led the race but took a ride through penalty for a jump start. Pedrosa took the lead and improved his pace lap by lap to take a comfortable win by more than seven seconds ahead of Lorenzo. Stoner fought his way back up the field to finish on the podium. After his penalty, Dovizioso got back on the pace quickly and had a great battle with Marco Simoncelli on the final two laps for fourth position, but was overtaken by Simoncelli on the last lap.

Ikhwan wins at Singapore

Afiq Ikhwan recently claimed his sixth straight win of the season during Round 12 of the JK Racing Asia Series held at the Marina Bay Circuit, which was witness to the SingTel Singapore Grand Prix.

Afiq completed the 10 lap race in 27 minutes and 10.178 seconds, which was marred by two Safety Car periods. The first incident took place on lap 2 when Indian driver Akash Nandy lost control of his car and hit the wall sending him out of the race. The second mishap happened when Iran Ilyas, who was trying to overtake seventh placed Calvin Seibl, resulting in severe damage on the front wings of both the cars. With the completion of the race, Afiq is now second in the Driver’s standings with nine points separating him from the current leader Lucas Auer as the head into the third and final Formula One support race weekend, which is taking place in India at the end of the month.

Meanwhile, malaysian driver, Nabil Jeffri came in second followed by Duvashen Padayachee who broke his fourth place jinks to claim his first podium of the season.

Comeback kid Dalal shows who’s the daddy!

Round five of the JK Tyre Volkswagen Polo R Cup held at the Irungattukottai Race Track in Chennai had Rahil Noorani win Race 1 while guest racer, Gaurav Dalal won Race 2 of the event.

Rahil Noori from Mumbai completed the race in 20 minutes and 46 seconds in front of Oshan Kothadiya who crossed the line 2.375 seconds behind, followed by Avdumber Hede who completed the final podium position. Oshan could’ve won the race since he was at pole, but excessive throttle had his wheels spinning on the starting line and he lost some ground allowing Rahil to take the lead by the first corner. Meanwhile, Avdumber Hede, who was fifth on the grid worked his way up the order by passing Munjal Savla to grab fourth before having to overtake Mihir Dharkar on lap 8 to claim his podium position.

On a come back trail to professional racing, it was guest driver Gaurav Dalal who took the top honours. He was followed by Vishnu Prasad who finished second followed by Mihir Dharkar in third place. Starting on the front row, Gaurav Dalal made his move the moment the lights turned green by around the outside of pole sitter Vidit Jain in the first corner. Vishnu Prasad also got a good start going past Vidit on lap 2 to claim second position. Rahil Noorani – winner of race one – had a dismal race as he finished 13th after spinning while running fourth. Munjal Savla and Oshan Kothadiya finished in fourth and fifth position respectively.

Double wins for Leelakrishnan



N Leelakrishnan claimed back to back victories at Round 5 of the JK Tyre National Racing Championship held at the MMST track in Chennai recently. Having won both races in the Indian Touring Car Category, the veteran has now moved up to second position in the driver’s standings just behind current leader V Rajvirdhan. Behind them was Siddharth Kishore who came in third followed by C Rajaram in fourth and B Vijayakumar in fifth place respectively.

In the Formula LGB Swift Category, it was Ameya Walawalkar who bounced back from two successive disqualifications to secure his fifth win of the season. This win has ensured that he is now just five points behind the current leader R Deepak in the driver’s championship with the final round to be held at the Buddh International Racing Circuit in Greater Noida. It was Chiesh Mandody who finished second in class followed by Sarosh Hataria in third and R Deepak in fourth place.

Meanwhile in the IJTC (Indian Junior Touring Cars) class, Diljith Shaji from LCT Sigaram Sports took first place followed by B Balavijay of MotoRev India in second and Gokul Krishna also belonging to MotoRev India taking third. The race here was marred with controversy as Feroze Khan of HCZ Racing was disqualified from both after his car failed to pass a technical scrutiny.