Coimbatore, Nov 15 — An absorbing day of action at the Kari Motor Speedway gripped motorsport-loving fans during Day 1 of the second round of the Indian National Car Racing Championship 2026, as it witnessed thrilling finishes, last-lap battles and dramatic comebacks.
Mehul Agarwal and Deepak Ravikumar produced late overtakes to secure strong wins in the LGB Formula 4 and Indian Junior Touring Cars, respectively, while Augustine Boby won by a narrow margin of 0.032 seconds over Shatveer Shetty in the F1300 Novice Cup.
Mehul won a closely contested LGB Formula 4 race, beating teammate Arya Singh by 0.237 seconds in the 15-lap race. In the Royal Enfield Continental GT Cup, Kabir Sahoch from Vadodara extended his winning run in the Amateur class, winning by 0.979 seconds over Saurav Sanjay Dey after surviving two red-flag interruptions.
While Sahoch won the race after briefly losing his lead to Dey, Paramjeet Singh and Pushpendra Kumar Markandey had a last-lap collision as Brandon Dsouza took advantage to finish third, ninth on the grid. Dey set the fastest lap of 1:19.396.
In the Pro class, Anish Shetty of Bengaluru won a pole-to-flag win by 3.089 seconds over Senthil Kumar, as Navaneeth Kumar took the chequered flag in third place.
In the JK Tyre Levitas Cup, Mumbai's Pratik Sonawane won two pole-to-flag races in the Gentleman class. He set the fastest lap of 1:24.059 to win the race. In the second one, he dominated again from the pole and clinched the race by 1.418 seconds over Kaveen Rajapaksa, who did a rookie double.
In the Super Saloon categories, Arjun Narendran of Arka Morotsports registered a comfortable win by 7.288 seconds after fending off Arjun Balu. In the Indian Touring Cars, Balaprasath A of Team Performance Racing took the win over Ramcharan Chandran and Vidyaprakash Damodaran.
In the Indian Junior Touring Cars, Team Performance Racing had more joy as Srinivas Teja clinched the first race after a fight with teammate Anirudha Arvind, while Deepak Ravikumar finished third in a dramatic comeback after recovering from 15th.
The teammates then produced a thrilling battle in the second race, with Ravikumar leading for much of it before Teja passed him on lap nine. Ravikumar reclaimed the position after winning by 0.308 seconds, with Arvind third.
In the F1300 Novice Cup, DTS Racing's Augustine Boby beat Meco Racing's Shatveer Shetty by a bare margin of 0.032 seconds after a late safety-car restart set up a frantic finish. Pranav Ramasamy took an early lead as Boby moved into the front from fifth on the grid. Shetty slipped down the order from pole but recovered well and passed Ramasamy in the closing stages to take second. Ramasamy was third, while Boby set the fastest lap of 1:16.953 to win the race.