Joshua, Prakash best in Gulf Cup Dirt Track racing – Nashik 13th December

Pramod Joshua dished out yet another flawless display to win the glamour events in the third round of the Gulf Cup Dirt Track Racking in Nashik on Sunday 13th December.

The 28-year-old Bangalore rider, like in the previous rounds in Jaipur and Hyderabad, once again did TVS Racing proud by sweeping the Indian Expert Class Group A Foreign Motorcycles upto 260 cc and Indian Expert Class Group B upto 260cc 2 & 4 stroke classes.

The goodly crowd that turned up on a chilly morning was left in awe as riders went through the motions in the event, organized by Sportscraft in association with Nashik Automotive Sports Association ( N.A.S.A).

If Joshua stole the limelight in the Indian Expert class, it was R Prakash of Coimbatore who took the honours in the other glamour event, the Private Expert Class for foreign motorcycles 260cc 2 & 4 stroke.

Delhi’s Maninder Singh and Pune’s Fabio Chindy were favourites and expected to battle it out for the top spot, but Prakash beat back a strong challenge from both the fancied riders to win three of the four races in the category, leaving both Maninder and Fabio to settle for second and third places.

Bhopal’s Muzaffar Ali was best in the one of the four races in the Private Expert class, finishing ahead of Jaipur’s Jas David and Nashik’s Kalyan Kambekar.

Gulf Oil has over the years spared no effort in giving two-wheeler riders an opportunity to test their skills under a safe environment with events like Dirt Track Racing and the Monsoon Scooter Rally. Sunday’s event in Nashik was no less challenging, as the course laid out by Sportscraft was really tough.

In addition to the sharp bends there was also loose gravel and water-logged areas to negotiate, which made riding a dicey proposition. However, all riders, first timers included, displayed excellent skills to come through this test of man and machine in flying colours.

Joshua, like in the past was given a tough time by his TVS mates from Bangalore R Natraj and H K Pradeep, but his flexibility and deft maneuvering over the serpentine bends proved decisive in his impressive showing.

There was huge cheering when the Novice class was run. Nashik’s Shashank Shewale gave the home fans lots to shout about as he challenged Coimbatore’s A Anand in the 165cc class all the way. However, Anand proved that wee bit better as he won a close race. Shewale placed second ahead of Mumbai’s Kshitij Shukla.

Bangalore’s R Murthy won the other two races in the Novice class. In the category for 130 cc 4-stroke bikes, he placed first ahead of city mate Syed Hidayath and Mumbai’s Kannan Naidu.

In the category for 131cc upto 165cc 4-stroke bikes, Murthy was again a class above, placing ahead of Coimbatore’s A Anand and Hidayath in that order.

Pune’s Pinkesh Thakker won three Open events – for scooters 100cc 2 & 4 stroke, Motorcycles 165cc 4 stroke and 165cc 2 stroke.

Mohan Pawar won the college class for Nashik riders for bikes upto 165cc. Samir Bharve and Gaurav Deshpande finished second and tird respectively.

While the crowd that turned up was appreciative of the event, the riders too were all praise for Sportscraft and N.A.S.A’s conduct of the event, which saw the races being gone through with precision efficiency. They thanked Gulf Oil for giving motorcycle riders an opportunity to parade their skills and expressed hope that more such event will be held in Nashik.

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