Bakhru, Samervel win Clash of Pros

by Suman Gupta

Mumbai, February : Mumbai teenagers Raaj Bakhru and Raiden Samervel won the Ajmera IndiKarting Clash of Pros racing event here in Wadala, Mumbai. Bakhru won 2 races and was second in one race to win the Pro Senior, while Samervel won all three races to win the Pro Junior. 

Some of India’s best talent from around the country participated in the 2 day FMSCI sanctioned event, inspite of numerous Covid related protocols in place. More than expected entries in the Pro senior meant that the seniors would be split into groups & would therefore get 4 races each, with 6 races in total.

Bakhru qualified on pole in the Pro Senior with a laptime of 27.491, a mere tenth of a second ahead of Rahul Deshpande & Ojas Surve. Samervel bagged pole in the Pro Junior ahead of Veer Sheth & Nirvaan Chandna.

Race 1 saw Bakhru stamp his authority to win from pole ahead of Deshpande & Neville Tata who climbed up from seventh on the grid.  Deshpande won race 2, while Bakhru won race 3. Surve & Aditya Patnaik, were second and third in race 2 & 3. Former National Karting Champion & JK Formula 1300 Champion – Aaroh Ravindra started last and showed his class to win race 4 ahead of Bakhru & Ishaan Barde who completed the podium.

Barde won race 5 after an intense battle with Ravindra. Surve followed in third. Race 6 was won by Aditya Pandit ahead of Patnaik, while Paarth Damani drove well to make it on the podium for the final race. 

Samervel dominated the Pro Junior. He started from Pole in Race 1 & won ahead of Sheth and Chandna. Race 2 grid which was based on Race 1 results reversed, saw Samervel start from eighth and carve his way through the field to eventually win the race. Hoshmand Elavia & Chandna were second and third respectively. Samervel started from pole in race 3 and won ahead of Sheth & Elavia.

The overall Pro Senior was won by Raaj Bakhru on 21 points, ahead of Aaroh Ravindra by a mere half point. Aditya Patnaik’s consistency took him to third with 18 points. Raiden Samervel on 30 points dominated the Pro Junior ahead of Elavia & Sheth on 18 and 16 points respectively.