With a dominant season under his belt, Agra-based driver Shahan Ali Mohsin was crowned the 2018 Indian National Rotax Max Karting Champion in the final round of the series. The final round took place at the MecoKartopia circuit in Bangalore, racing with team MSport. Shahan took the championship title in the Junior category, competing in this space for the second year. This is Shahan's second title for 2018 having clinched the MecoMotorsports X30 India Challenge as well earlier this year.
In the final round, Shahan had to finish the races over the weekend, already leading the points table. Heat 1 saw the karting champion qualify third behind Suriya Varathan, while Heat 2 also saw the driver finish third leading up to the pre-final.
The final race though saw a less than favourable finish for Shahan as he crossed the chequered flag fourth, finishing the season with a total of 432 points. Shahan beat title contender Mihir Suman Avalakki of Team Birel ART by 15 points, while MSport driver and Shahan's teammate Suriya finished third with 416 points across five rounds.
Also competing in the senior category for the first time this year, Shahan finished third in the points table, 22 points behind the winner, and 13 points behind the second placed driver.
Commenting on his new championship title, Shahan said, "What a fantastic weekend of racing it was in the final round of the Rotax Max Challenge. 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. All in all, it has been a great year of racing for me with the National Junior category title after being the Indian X30 Karting Champion few months back."
Shahan was also awarded the 'Best Driver of the Year' title for his fantastic performance through the season. The international karting champion also became the first-ever Indian to compete in the IAME X30 Karting Challenge at Le Mans earlier this year.
