2017 Ameo Cup Round 1: Karminder Singh and Sandeep Kumar tied for championship lead

The first round of the 2017 Ameo Cup season concluded at Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore with a tie for the championship lead between Karminder Singh and A Sandeep Kumar. Karminder, who qualified on pole yesterday, managed to dominate Race 1 with a clean run heading the pack from start to finish.

Karminder Singh in the lead of Race 1 of the Ameo Cup at the Kari Motor Speedway

This, despite the fact that Safety Car was out on the circuit for a few laps. In second place was A Sandeep Kumar while Aditya Pawar and Tauhid Anwar were bumped up to third and fourth respectively, despite crossing the line at fifth and sixth. Jeet Jhabakh and Donovan Vaz had crossed the line in third and fourth, but a 20-second penalty was imposed on them for overtaking under a yellow flag which pushed them down to eleventh and twelfth.

Karminder Singh in first place, flanked by second-placed Sandeep Kumar and third-placed Aditya Pawar on the podium for Race 1 of the Ameo Cup.

The second race, which started on a reverse grid of four, saw Anwar and Pawar on the front row followed by Kumar and Singh. By the third corner, Kumar managed to take the lead closely followed by Singh. Dhruv Mohite, who started from P5, pushed his way up to third.

Sandeep Kumar leads the way in Race 2 of the Ameo Cup

The rest of the race saw the top three pulling away from the pack together. Singh tried his best to take the lead, but Kumar drove very skillfully and never gave up first place right till the end of the race. Singh finished second while Mohite took third.

Sandeep Kumar on the top step of the podium for Race 2 of the Ameo Cup, flanked by second-placed Karminder Singh and third-placed Dhruv Mohite

The Indian Touring Car championship races saw quite a bit of too. Race Concepts' Deepak Paul Chinnappa, who finished second in yesterday's race behind Ashish Ramaswamy, started third from the grid.

Deepak Paul Chinnappa leads the way in the ITC class

By the end of Lap 1, he was up in front while Red Rooster Racing's Arjun Narendran was at second despite starting from eighth on the grid. However, a huge spin in the last corner sent him to the back of the pack. He did manage to fight his way back to finish third behind Chinnappa and Ramaswamy.

Deepak Paul Chinnappa (centre) flanked by Ashish Ramaswamy (left) and Arjun Narendran

Narendran started the second ITC race from pole position since he had set the second fastest lap time during qualifying. He managed to hold off Chinnappa until the end of the second lap when he ran wide and fell to third behind Ashish Ramaswamy. Ramaswamy eventually retired from the race due to mechanical issues, but by then, D Vidya Prakash had caught up with him and came quite close to overtaking him too. However, he too ran wide towards the end of the race and had to settle for third behind Chinnappa and Narendran.