The 17-year old Shahan survived a roller-coaster season that included a DNF (did not finish), to win the championship. In the final race which he went in with a two-point advantage.

Shahan came in second behind Bengaluru’s Rishon Rajeev, who thus completed a double, but crucially, ahead of another Bengalurean Chirag Ghorpade.

The result meant that Shahan, winner of the Asian Karting championship in 2016, finished on 194 points and four wins, while Chirag ended second on 189 (2 wins) and Rishon (172, 2 wins) was placed third in the championship.

Others who won the National titles in their respective categories were Bengaluru’s Tijil Rao (Momentum Motorsport) in the Formula LGB 1300, Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) from Coimbatore in the Indian Touring Cars, Chennai’s Deepak Ravikumar (Performance Racing) in Super Stock, Hatim Shabbir Jamnagarwala (Performance Racing), also from Chennai, in Indian Junior Touring Cars, Sandeep Kumar (Chennai) in Volkswagen Polo and Mumbai’s Fahad Kutty (Redline Racing) in MRF Saloon Cars (Toyota Etios).

Defending champion Coimbatore’s 47-year old Arjun Balu, who made his racing debut in 1992, ended the season on an emphatic note by completing a double to take his tally to six wins in eight starts to win the championship in the ITC category. It was his 10th National title.

Balu, starting third on the reverse grid behind the Rayo Racing pair from Hyderabad, Ishaan Dodhiwala and Jeet Jhabakh, bided his time before easing his way to the front for a commanding win.

The Coimbatore veteran’s searing pace was evident as he clocked a best lap of one minute, 50.076 seconds in the eighth of the 10-lap race.

Meanwhile, two second place finishes proved sufficient for Chennai’s Hatim Shabbir Jamnagarwala to claim the title in the IJTC category, though, following a protest, the final outcome is awaited.

The title in the Super Stock class was already pocketed by Deepak Ravikumar on conclusion of the third round last month. He finished this weekend with a second place and a win, his sixth of the season.

The 18-year old from Bengaluru, Tijil Rao drove smart and safe to finish second in a race that was red-flagged twice and the number of laps reduced to seven.

Tijil displayed amazing pace to move from P12 at the start on the reverse grid to P1 before tucking himself just behind the front-runners to avoid close racing.