United States’ Conor Daly was declared as the MRF Challenge 2012 champion after an action packed final race at the MMRT in Sriperumbudur on Sunday. It was a perfect treat for the sports crazy fans who were able to take advantage of their holiday in a perfectly.
However, it was the 21-year-old who completed with 164 points to push Great Britain’s Jordan King into second place with 159 points. Daly, who began from second position, emerged victorious in the race while King, who before the race led Daly by 14 points, was unable to get a fourth place finish which would have offered him the championship.
A maximum of the drama unfolded early in the first lap when King ran wide on the first corner to hand Daly the initiative. He found his way back into the top eight only to see Daly move into the race lead with a mistake by Belgium’s Sam Dejonghe who was running first until then.
The towering task appeared all the more difficult as he had to pass four more cars on a track which offered limited opportunities to overtake. His challenge almost ended in the 13th lap when he was tucked down by traffic and had to lose two more places as one of the cars suddenly slowed down ahead of him.
“I am very very happy,” said Daly of his triumph. “We struggled in the qualifying and that put us way back. So the whole team had to work very hard for this,” he said even as he acknowledged that he was “extremely lucky” and “whatever happened to King was very unfortunate.”
Earlier, the day was off to a topsy-turvy start when the first race witnessed two restarts. Collisions between Indian Parth Gorphade and Brazilian Gustavo Myasava, which heeded in the former’s car being overturned, and between Brit Luciano Bacheta and Japanese driver Yudai Jinkawa meant that the contest was reduced to a 13-lap affair. King however remained unaffected and romped home with victory. There were some nervous moments in the midst, but everything went on well in the end.
"This feels good. Whenever we can jam to the American national anthem on the podium, it's a good day. I've loved every minute of racing in India and can't thank MRF and everyone on this team enough for putting up with me and my crazy travel schedules," mentioned Daly.
It was amazing to find the way in which all the racers have competed. There was a mad rush to find the ecstasy among the competitors. Though it was King who had fair amount of chances of winning the championship, it was surprisingly Daly who walked away with honors. The American racers has already got several championships under his belt. This one adds up to his long list of race wins. The cheering crowd in this modest city of Tamil Nadu ensured that the race is totally charged up.
Elsewhere, Bacheta sealed the third spot in the championship after a sixth place finish in the second race.
