Agra boy Shahan Ali Mohsin crowned 2018 Indian National Karting Champion 

Agra, November 5: The 2018  Indian National Rotax Max Karting Championship came to a rousing finish in the final round of the season at Bangalore’s MecoKartopia circuit with Team MSport’s Shahan Ali Mohsin taking the Junior title in his second year in the category.

This information was given today by Shahan's father Shahroo Mohsin to IANS in Agra. Shahroo said  said this was his son Shahan’s second title in 2018 after winning the MecoMotorsports X30 India Challenge which earned him the chance to represent India in the 2018 IAME X30 Karting Challenge. 

For the final round in the Indian championship, considering the points lead he had, it was all about finishing the races.The approach was to see through the races without major dramas. He qualified third for Heat 1 where he finished as well but was quite close behind second placed Suriya Varathan. In Heat 2, he was third again and continued the same in Pre-Final.

In the Final, he finished fourth to wrap up the 2018 season and the title with 432 points to beat Birel ART’s Mihir SumanAvalakki with 417 points while Shahan’s Team MSport’s teammate Suriya was third with 416 points after the five rounds.

Over in the Senior class, Shahan completed his first year on a fine note being the first and youngest driver ever to race full season in both Junior and Senior categories in the same year. He qualified third for Heat 1 which he won by a huge margin of 12.406s in extremely wet conditions. He won the Heat 2 as well and rounded the season with victory in Pre-Final and Final.

The wins helped him recover the points lost due to retirement in Pre -Final and Final of Round 3 as he finished third in his rookie year in the national championship  with 403 points – he was 22 points  behind the winner and 13 behind the second placed driver in the end.

He was also awarded the ‘Best Driver of the Year’ trophy by the panel. 

“What a fantastic weekend of racing it was in the final round of the Rotax Max Challenge,” says Shahan. “Heading into the last round I knew I had a comfortable lead in Junior category and I just needed to finish the races to seal the championship.

“And so, I did not want to take any risk during the races and just did enough to bring the kart home in the Heats and the Pre-Final and the Final to win the championship in my second year in the category. What I missed in my rookie season, I made sure to work on it and get the title in my bag.

“In the Senior category, I finally got the break as I managed a clean sweep of victories with both the Heats and the Pre-Final and the Final. After some bad luck in the earlier rounds it was great to get my first win in Senior category fighting against more experienced and older drivers.