Gulf dirt track race concludes

Mangalore, March 18: The racing spirit was high in the city with the Gulf Dirt Track National Championship- 2012 held at Fisheries College Grounds in Mangalore on Sunday.

When the riders geared up, hitting the maximum speed on their speedometers, the enthusiastic spectators were equally thrilled cheering their lungs out in support of their favourite rider.

The 14- race event was organized by Mumbai Sports craft for the tenth straight year, in association with Mangalore Motor Sports Association. The event was flagged of by Assistant Commissioner of Police Jagannath. Naresh V S was the surprise package. The Bangalore rider stole the limelight with his Yamaha RX 135, bagging the first place in four races of which two were Private Expert Class, one in the Indian Expert Class and also the local class being a tough competition to the TVS Racing team, whose riders won most of the other classes.

Naresh won both the races in the Private Expert Class leaving Suhail Ahmed and Shahbaz Khan in second and third places respectively in the first race and Syed Hidyathulla and Shahbaz Khan behind in that order in the next. The TVS riders cornered the glory in the Foreign Motorcycles class, with Pramod Joshua finishing ahead of R Natraj and Harith Noha in the first race, Noha though, won the second race, relegating the seasoned Natraj and Adnan Ahmed to second and third place respectively.

“Mangalore is always a different experience. The track is slippery and tight. You have to ride smooth. A bit of hurry can spoil the entire race” said Pramod Joshua from TVS Racing team. He further added that the water on the race track, made it slushy and this was the turning point of the race. “I had great expectations with the practice session. However, the water in the track was a spoiler,” he said and added that the track was the smallest compared to other dirt race tracks.

Harshal S Kadbhane from Nashik too was disappointed when his bike broke down in the Foreign Motorcycle category. “The climate is humid and may be the bike broke down because of that. The track was also small. However the overall racing experience was good”, he said.

The local talent were heartening and some first timers like Rajendra R E of Shimoga came up with a fine display in one of the races in the Novice class. Astride a Yamaha , he did well around the hairpin bends particularly to place ahead of Bangalore's Anthony Benedict and CS Anand Kumar both riding Yamaha RX 135. R Sajeesh , riding , Yamaha RX 135 emerged best in the Mangalore class, motorcycles upto 165 cc. He was always under pressure as he went around the specially laid out serpentine course, but to his credit he did well to overcome a strong challenge from Dean Mascarenhas and Mohammed Nabeel who finished second and third respectively in the category.

R Sajeesh was thrilled with the race. “It was a great experience for me” he said

“This race is well organized. It is the first time I am participating in the Gulf dirt track racing,” said 18 year old Dean Mascarenhas from Mangalore. Presently pursuing his studies in St Aloysius College, Dean spends most of his weekends practicing racing on his bike. Though the racing gave an adrenaline rush to the city folks, there were a few fatalities. In one such race around five riders slipped due to slush. However , there were no serious causalities.

ALBUM