Sportscraft Autocross Challenge poised for keen finish

Mumbai, Sep 5 (UNI) Edge-of-the seat action is expected in the final round of the Sportscraft Autocross Challenge for two-wheelers this Sunday.

After two rounds of intense competition at the Godrej grounds in Vikhroli, riders are gearing up for one final assault to be crowned in their respective classes of the three-round autocross.

And any of the top riders could pick the various titles at stake, as only a small margin separates them going into the third round.

While Mumbai's Rustom Patel is virtually assured of the title in the class for foreign mortorcycles upto 260cc after winning the first two rounds comfortably and taking a big lead with 40 points, the race in the class for motorcycles upto 130cc is hot, with the top five riders being separated by just two or three points.

Mumbai's Badal Doshi, who is placed behind Rustom in the foreign motorcycles class with 34 points, heads the points standing, but is only two points ahead of Pune's Snehal Chavan, who stole the limelight in the second leg, and one ahead of Mumbai's Malcolm Elavia, who has 30. Then, he also has riders like Jagjit Singh (25), Rustom Patel (24) and Sudeh Parkar (23) all in hot pursuit.

Snehal Chavan leads the class for bikes 130cc upto 165cc with 37 points, with Sameer Khan, who placed first in the first round, following him with 27 points. Aamir Dalvi and Rustom Patel, with 26 and 25 points respectively in third and fourth place, will be looking for a good outing to make it to the top.

Pune's Pinkesh Thakkar (35) leads the standings in the class for 130cc upto 165cc four-stroke bikes by a narrow one point margin over Amul Satpute, also of Pune.

This class is poised for an interesting finish as Ganesh Lokhande, who finished first in the second round last week after failing to log points in the first, is looking to upset all calculations in a bid for honours. All three aforementioned riders are well-accomplished in dirt conditions and should make for an interesting contest.

Tarak Daiya tops the points tally in the class for Scooters above 160cc two and four stroke with 35 points, followed by another Mumbai rider Vineeth Kurup (34) and Percy Billiardmarkar (33).

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