Akhil Khushlani finished the Round 9 race of the JK Racing Asia Series in eighth place despite having an overheating engine and after being away from racing for a year.
Competing for the US Formula Project racing team, the youngster immediately got back on pace and even managed to
set the third fastest lap of the race. His engine caused him to make a pit-stop halfway through the race.
"It was going well for the first few laps," said Khushlani. "I was going really strong and fighting for fourth and third but the engine was overheating and I didn't want it to cease for the next race so I had to come in. The team made a few changes and once that was done, I went back out.
"I finished eighth but with the third fastest lap so I am kind of satisfied. It's been a year's gap but I am still very much on pace. Hopefully next race I can be defending up there and hope I won't have any issues. It could have been better but it was unfortunate" he ended.
Malaysia's Afiq Ikhwan claimed a pole to flag finish. The Meritus GP driver completed ten laps of the 5.901km circuit pulling away right from the start, opening up a gap of more than five seconds in the early part of the race. He also set the fastest lap of the day when he completed lap four in 2:10.697.
Ikhwan hardly broke a sweat and was delighted with the results today, citing hard work from the team as the winning factor.
Kumar victorious again at home
Sarath Kumar continued his brilliant form on his return to the MMSC - Sidvin FMSCI Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship with another dominant win in the Honda CBR 250R Open category. After a layoff of nearly a year, Sarath proved that he hadn't lost any of his magic as he blitzed the field to take another win.
R Deepak won the 600cc Superbike category after pre-race favourite K. Rajini crashed out of the race in the early stages.
Prashant Kumar took the win the TVS One Make category ahead of Arun Muthukrishnan from Chennai and Rahul Rathod from Yavathmal.