MUMBAI: Engines sang, tyres squealed and the clouds conspired to make Round 2 of the JK Tyre Racing Season 2025 at Kari Motor Speedway an intoxicating cocktail of speed, suspense and sheer stamina. On the outskirts of Coimbatore, India’s motorsport faithful were treated to a weekend where lap times fell, tempers rose and the next generation of racers announced themselves with panache.
The newest kid on the grid, the JK Tyre Levitas Cup, lived up to its billing. For local favourite Jai Prashanth Venkat, Sunday was a coming-of-age as he steered his Maruti Ignis with poise to clock 14:38.490 over 10 laps, edging past guest driver and seasoned campaigner Mira Erda by a whisker. His best lap of 1:26.100 capped a weekend that began cautiously on Saturday but ended with a flourish. Mira, with 15 years in the sport, remained the constant thorn in the side of the men, finishing on the podium in all four races and clocking 15:04.056 in Race 2 and a close 14:38.750 in the finale. For the rookies, 10th-standard student Nihal Singh was the revelation, winning Saturday’s opener in 15:28.013 with raw pace before mechanical gremlins denied him a Sunday repeat. Balaji Raju, Ashwin Pugalagiri and Dipayan Dutta each had their moments, posting times like 15:32.923, 15:14.501 and 15:11.024 to underline the depth of young talent. The Levitas Cup, run as a single-make series, proved a sturdy launchpad for rookies while offering professionals a stern workout under rain and wind.
If the cars delivered drama, the bikes supplied theatre. The Royal Enfield Continental GT Cup turned into a heavyweight slugfest as regulars Anish D Shetty and Navaneeth Kumar traded blows on the stopwatch. Anish drew first blood with a 13:21.374 in Race 1 and improved to 13:10.550 in Race 2, but the climax came in the third race when Navaneeth snatched victory by a scarcely believable 0.002 seconds, his 13:21.934 just ahead of Anish’s 13:21.936. Both riders clocked best laps under 1:17, showing the Continental GT’s ability to hustle despite its heft. Among the amateurs, the “Street to Circuit” ethos paid dividends as Bryan Nicholas, Kabir Sahoch and Assam’s Johring Warisa made their presence felt. Warisa’s steady climb culminated in a 13:30.058 win in Race 3, proof that scouting raw street talent into circuit racing can bear fruit.
The JK Tyre Novice Cup kept the buzz alive, pitting fledglings against each other in three tight races. Msport’s Bhuvan Bonu dominated the weekend, winning Race 1 in 16:06.951 and Race 3 in 16:26.624, but not before Abhijit Vadavalli of Momentum Motorsports muscled his way to a Race 2 victory with a commanding 14:23.860. Bonu was never far behind, chasing home in 14:25.946, while DTS Racing’s Lokithlingeash Ravi consistently hovered near the sharp end, clocking 14:27.820 and 16:27.943 to bag podiums. Vinith Kumar M and Avi Malavalli also kept the field honest, ensuring that every chequered flag was earned, not gifted.
For JK Tyre, the weekend was more than just a collection of winners and losers; it was a reaffirmation of its three-decade-long crusade to democratise Indian motorsport. The Levitas Cup showed that grassroots talent can flourish when given the right machine and platform, the Continental GT Cup reminded fans that bikes can thrill as much as cars, and the Novice Cup underlined that the pipeline of future stars is brimming. Rain, wind and close calls could not dampen the spirit. Instead, they added edge to a round where victories were measured in milliseconds, rookies raced like veterans, and veterans proved why their fire still burns.
By the time engines fell silent on Sunday evening, Kari Motor Speedway had done what it does best: transform promise into performance, rivals into legends and ordinary weekends into extraordinary tales of speed. If Round 2 was a glimpse of the future, the rest of the JK Tyre Racing Season promises to be a rollercoaster on wheels.
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