Karthik has been maintaining a race diary for this season of Malaysian Super Series racing and you can read the report from the earlier rounds of the Production Bikes class of the Malaysian Super Series here:
Karthik repeats performance in Round 3 with an overall 6th place finish.
After the previous races, Karthik's engine had been rebuilt for this round and he was asked to run in the engine for few laps. As a result of this, he did not get much practice except for a couple of laps, which did not materialiaze into a good timing.
On saturday, as he was pushing harder to find a good lap timing a minor problem in the bike settings resulted in him qualifying 9th on the grid.
Race 1:
Karthik was confident that he could compete with the top riders in the bunch but did a mistake and missed a good start. Other riders went past and he had to push really hard to catch up with then which took till the last lap. Due to the low experience level in the Sepang track, he managed to finish in 7th position out of a total 20 bikes on the grid. 
Race 2:
In the 2nd race, Karthik was 7th on the grid as this was his 1st race finishing position.
"After my warm up lap, I was thinking that I should not miss the race start and it was only the thing that kept on running in my mind until the red light was on. This time I did not get the best start though somehow managed to get a average start. Into the 1st corner I was confidently overtaking everybody & got into 5th position. I pushed really hard right from the 1st lap though did some mistakes, because of that again other riders were easily passing me on the straight and also because my bike is only 125cc competing with 135cc bikes. I knew that I can really push hard into the corners and sorted out one by one in the tight and fast corners. In the last lap I made big mistake and went out of the track and managed to finish 7th postion again as I did in the 1st race."  Karthik fights for position with Ahmad who eventually finished 9th. Though Karthik finished 7th in both races, after adding the 1st & 2nd race points he was placed overall in 6th position. But he is happy that he is improving a lot with the bike setup and riding skills, as this category is one of the tuffest category & big one to compete in Malaysia.
"Mr. Sivanesan is my tuner who really helps me a lot in setting up a bike & also my riding, many thanks to him. I am really working hard for the next round to achieve 1st in podium which is to be held on July 13th. I am sponsored by Perots systems IBPS chennai and TVS motor company, which realy helps me to compete in Malaysian Super Series 2008. My hearty thanks to my sponsors because without them I would have not achieved this level of racing."  Karthik on the podium, but in 6th place. Hope to see you higher soon! Karthik is planning to take part in the 3rd round of the FIM Asian Grand prix in the 115cc 4-stroke underbone -Yamaha legenda category which is to be held in Malaysia on the 29th June 2008. This is again a very competitive class in F.I.M Asian Grand prix.
|
Racing News » 
