Coimbatore, Oct 25 — A final corner collision in the touring cars, a 0.004s photo-finish for the fourth spot in the Novice F1300 race and a red-flagged LGB Formula 4 finale headlined as the round 1 of the Indian National Car Racing Championship 2026 drew to a close at the Kari Motor Speedway here on Sunday.
Dhruvh Goswami of Meco Racing won the first race of the LGB Formula 4 on Sunday, taking the chequered flag first with a gap of 0.356 seconds. He held his nerve for a close finish, with the race being interrupted by safety-car introductions as Ahura Racing had a mechanical setback.
Goswami went past the Dark Don drivers and overtook Mehul Agarwal to retake the lead as he went on to win, with Agarwal finishing second and Arya Singh, who won the race yesterday, taking third.
The second race was hit with rain and poor visibility and started behind the safety car before it was red-flagged and classified at the end of the ninth lap. Balaprasath won as he converted his pole position to victory, finishing 0.392 seconds clear of teammate Agarwal, with Meco Racing’s Raghul Rangasamy third.
In the Royal Enfield Continental GT Cup Pro Class, Anish Shetty of Bengaluru registered a strong win from fifth on the grid, taking the chequered flag first ahead of Navaneeth Kumar, while Senthil Kumar recovered from a sluggish start and ended third.
Meanwhile, Kabir Sahoch completed a hat trick of wins in the Amateur class as he won by 1.793 seconds while fending off early chaos. Srivilliputtur’s Harish Yodhin took second place from fifth, while Saurav Sanjay Dey was third.
The Super Saloon Categories saw a final-corner collision in the Indian Super Touring Cars finale as Team N1 Intervalve’s Biren Pithawalla won a chaotic, rain-hit race by 2.480 seconds. He took the win from Arjun Narendran in a multi-class collision at the final corner. Aman Nagdev pounced on the chaos and took back-to-back wins in the Indian Touring Cars, as he was 18.137 seconds clear of Vidyaprakash Damodaran.
Meanwhile, in the Indian Junior Touring Cars, Deepak Ravikumar held Srinivas Teja in a drag race to the line to complete a double.
The F1300 Novice Cup saw a photo-finish for fourth place where Meco Racing’s Shatveer Shetty completed a weekend double. The race was hampered early when Kek Qian Jun hit the inside tyre barrier, which prompted the safety car on duty, and a subsequent three-car concertina collision ended the races of Hardik L Lakiphangal and Kaveen Rajapaksa. Augustine Boby held off Aadam Junaid on the restart to take the win, while Momentum Motorsports’ Ruthvik Reddy finished fourth as he defeated his teammate Yash Vikram Singh by 0.004 seconds on the final lap.
Meanwhile, the Levitas Cup saw Mumbai’s Pratik Sonawane complete a weekend sweep in the Gentleman class as he registered a strong win by 5.053 seconds over Sidharth Balasundaram. Vinith Kumar was third behind the duo as Mira Erda settled for fourth after an overtake on the penultimate lap. Sri Lanka’s Aadam Junaid won the Rookie class as he clinched two wins in as many starts and finished fifth overall.