Rao, 20, a Business Management student, made up for a retirement in Race-1 that Raghul Rangasamy (Chennai, MSport) won earlier in the day after coming into contact with another competitor. Starting form P14 on the reverse grid, Tijil scythed through the field for a tremendous victory.

The day’s other winners were Deepak Ravikumar (Chennai, Performance Racing) in the Indian Junior Touring Cars category, Coimbatore veteran Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) in the Indian Touring Cars class, Thrissur’s Diljith TS (DTS Racing) in the Super Stock segment, and Angad Matharoo (Chennai, Redline Racing) who authored a lights-to-flag win in the MRF Saloons (Toyota Ethios) race.

The three front-runners, taking part in the Indian Junior Touring Cars category, went on to deliver a podium sweep for Team Performance Racing with Ravikumar finishing well ahead of Prasad and Teja.

Behind the foursome, there were close battles up and down the grid. Balu’s team-mates Gurunath Meiyappan and Diana Pundole were locked in a tight tussle before the former finished second ahead of the Pune driver in the ITC category.

Further back, Dilijth claimed the honours in the Super Stock category ahead of local challenger Jarshan Anand (DB Motorsports) and Delhi’s Justin Singh (Redline Racing).

In the first Formula LGB 1300 race, pole-sitter Viswas Vijayaraj and Deepak Ravikumar forged ahead after the initial jostle through first of the eight laps. Viswas was harried by Ravikumar through much of the six laps, including a brief Safety Car period until the two made contact in the closing stages. Ravikumar dropped to ninth where he finished while Raghul passed Viswas who was nursing a damaged camber strut following the incident, to take the lead and eventually win the race. Finishing third behind Viswas was Bengaluru’s Chetan Surineni (MSport) who had started from P6.