Atiqa Mir secures runner-up in MECO FMSCI Rotax National C'ship 2024 Round 1

India’s karting sensation Atiqa Mir surmounted technical issues in the initial rounds to secure a second runner-up finish in the MECO FMSCI Rotax National Karting Championship 2024 at the Meco Kartopia track in Bangalore on Sunday.

Kashmir’s Atiqa achieved her feat in the Final Race of Round One in the Micro Max Class, with a timing of 12:21.397 points. Chennai’s Rivaan Preetham (12:16.790) and Rehan Khan (12:19.920), also of Team Sport like her, took the top two positions on the podium.

With this win, Atiqa has achieved the rare distinction of scoring 3 podium finishes in three straight weekends across different classes.

Speaking after her win, Atiqa said: “It is great being back home in India and driving in this prestigious championship. The competition and drivers here are top class and it was great fun driving with them. After struggling initially with some technical issues, our team MSport was able to iron out the issues and give me a competitive kart. Overall I’m happy with the result but I will be gunning for more in the next round.”

Atiqa had finished 5th in the qualifying on Saturday, only 0.2 seconds off the Pole position. In the Pre-Finals and Finals Atiqa was in top form and secured a solid consistent drive which ended up in a podium finish.

Atiqa’s father, former India National Karting Champion Asif Nazir, said: “This is a great result for Atiqa considering that we only decided to compete in the championship a week back. I want to thank MSport for putting this together on such short notice. We now look forward to Round Two and aim to do even better.”

Atiqa now heads to Europe to compete in various races over the next few weeks.