Lancaster, Pariat win thrilling round 1 in Indian Racing Festival

CHENNAI: Jaden Pariat from Bengaluru Speedsters won the season-opener of the Formula 4 Indian Championship while veteran Jon Lancaster of Chennai Turbo Riders registered his first win in Indian Racing League (IRL) held here at the Madras International Circuit on Saturday.

After two days of pre-season testing, the Indian Racing Festival finally began with an action-packed racing extravaganza across various racing categories in round one.

Hugh Barter from Godspeed Kochi topped the charts in the first qualifying session clocking 1:39:590 followed by Aqil Alibhai and Ruhaan Alva in the top three. However, the narrative that unfolded in the race suggested a completely different story.

Barter retired when looking set for an easy win, handing P1 to Pariat in lap 16. He retired in the final lap of the race after leading throughout with a tilted rear wing.

Starting from fourth place, Pariat took his time and waited till the end to pounce ahead of the leaders. And his patience rewarded him as the Meghalaya-based driver won the first race of the F4 Indian Championship 2024. Aqil from Black Birds Hyderabad and Ruhaan from Shirachi Rarh Bengal Tigers finished where they started the race to complete the podium finish.

Meanwhile, the IRL race went down to the wire with British driver Lancaster representing the home team, Chennai Turbo Riders, crossing the chequered flag just over half a second ahead of Alvaro Parante. This was Lancaster’s first ever win in the IRL league.

Sai Sanjay: The driver of the day

After expressing concerns over certain issues with the car in testing, Salem-born racer Sai Sanjay speaking to DT Next exclusively before qualifying session said, “We have some issues with the car and the mechanics are working on it. Hopefully we get it sorted before the lights go out.”

Qualifying session happened, and it was not looking good for Sanjay as he was 12th and last in the grid. The former IRL vice champion said that he was “hopeful” of finishing in the top five every race to help the team win the championship. But from the last position, it was not ideal for him to finish where he wanted to.

Despite all this, he pulled off a stellar drive in the 25-minute race as he overtook one by one starting from lap one when he overtook his fellow Tamil Nadu driver Sandeep Kumar. And one by one he started to cruise past the field and the DNF’s which caused four drivers to retire from the race helped his case.

In the end, he finished the race in fourth place to help Speed Demons Delhi team bag huge points as his teammate Alvaro too finished in second place.

Sanjay is the first driver from Tamil Nadu to do a full season in the prestigious British GT series.

“It was a really nice experience; it was my first international racing event. I won the national championship here and went to the UK for the first time. The league was really competitive and all the drivers were really fast,” said Sanjay.

In his international debut, he outclassed some of the seasoned drivers by winning races in the GT Cup Championship 300 finale in the GTH class.

The 21-year-old driver started karting back in 2015 and came a long way in his racing career. He aspires to race in the world endurance championship in the Hypercar category coming up.