MAM
Full throttle thrills at JK Tyre Round 2 in Coimbatore
MUMBAI: Engines sang, tyres squealed and the clouds conspired to make Round 2 of the JK Tyre Racing Season 2025 at Kari Motor Speedway an intoxicating cocktail of speed, suspense and sheer stamina. On the outskirts of Coimbatore, India’s motorsport faithful were treated to a weekend where lap times fell, tempers rose and the next generation of racers announced themselves with panache.
The newest kid on the grid, the JK Tyre Levitas Cup, lived up to its billing. For local favourite Jai Prashanth Venkat, Sunday was a coming-of-age as he steered his Maruti Ignis with poise to clock 14:38.490 over 10 laps, edging past guest driver and seasoned campaigner Mira Erda by a whisker. His best lap of 1:26.100 capped a weekend that began cautiously on Saturday but ended with a flourish. Mira, with 15 years in the sport, remained the constant thorn in the side of the men, finishing on the podium in all four races and clocking 15:04.056 in Race 2 and a close 14:38.750 in the finale. For the rookies, 10th-standard student Nihal Singh was the revelation, winning Saturday’s opener in 15:28.013 with raw pace before mechanical gremlins denied him a Sunday repeat. Balaji Raju, Ashwin Pugalagiri and Dipayan Dutta each had their moments, posting times like 15:32.923, 15:14.501 and 15:11.024 to underline the depth of young talent. The Levitas Cup, run as a single-make series, proved a sturdy launchpad for rookies while offering professionals a stern workout under rain and wind.
If the cars delivered drama, the bikes supplied theatre. The Royal Enfield Continental GT Cup turned into a heavyweight slugfest as regulars Anish D Shetty and Navaneeth Kumar traded blows on the stopwatch. Anish drew first blood with a 13:21.374 in Race 1 and improved to 13:10.550 in Race 2, but the climax came in the third race when Navaneeth snatched victory by a scarcely believable 0.002 seconds, his 13:21.934 just ahead of Anish’s 13:21.936. Both riders clocked best laps under 1:17, showing the Continental GT’s ability to hustle despite its heft. Among the amateurs, the “Street to Circuit” ethos paid dividends as Bryan Nicholas, Kabir Sahoch and Assam’s Johring Warisa made their presence felt. Warisa’s steady climb culminated in a 13:30.058 win in Race 3, proof that scouting raw street talent into circuit racing can bear fruit.
The JK Tyre Novice Cup kept the buzz alive, pitting fledglings against each other in three tight races. Msport’s Bhuvan Bonu dominated the weekend, winning Race 1 in 16:06.951 and Race 3 in 16:26.624, but not before Abhijit Vadavalli of Momentum Motorsports muscled his way to a Race 2 victory with a commanding 14:23.860. Bonu was never far behind, chasing home in 14:25.946, while DTS Racing’s Lokithlingeash Ravi consistently hovered near the sharp end, clocking 14:27.820 and 16:27.943 to bag podiums. Vinith Kumar M and Avi Malavalli also kept the field honest, ensuring that every chequered flag was earned, not gifted.
For JK Tyre, the weekend was more than just a collection of winners and losers; it was a reaffirmation of its three-decade-long crusade to democratise Indian motorsport. The Levitas Cup showed that grassroots talent can flourish when given the right machine and platform, the Continental GT Cup reminded fans that bikes can thrill as much as cars, and the Novice Cup underlined that the pipeline of future stars is brimming. Rain, wind and close calls could not dampen the spirit. Instead, they added edge to a round where victories were measured in milliseconds, rookies raced like veterans, and veterans proved why their fire still burns.
By the time engines fell silent on Sunday evening, Kari Motor Speedway had done what it does best: transform promise into performance, rivals into legends and ordinary weekends into extraordinary tales of speed. If Round 2 was a glimpse of the future, the rest of the JK Tyre Racing Season promises to be a rollercoaster on wheels.
Apple rarely announces minor updates with much fanfare, and iOS 26.4 is no exception. No dramatic redesigns, no flashy keynote moments. What it delivers instead is a focused set of improvements that sharpen the experience you already have. If that sounds underwhelming, spend a week with it. You will change your mind.
Apple Music Learns to Listen Better
The biggest shift in this update lives inside Apple Music. Apple has brought AI-powered playlist generation to the app, and it works on mood rather than genre. Type something like “rainy evening at home” or “running late on a Monday,” and it builds a playlist that actually fits. This is not algorithmic guesswork dressed up in new clothing. It genuinely reads the intent behind vague descriptions and responds well.
Alongside this, a new concerts feature scans your listening history and surfaces live events happening near you. It is a smart bridge between your digital music habits and real-world experiences. Apple is quietly making the case that a music app should do more than just play songs.
Shazam also gets a meaningful upgrade. It can now identify songs without an internet connection. This might sound like a minor convenience, but anyone who has tried to Shazam something at a crowded venue with patchy signal will tell you it is anything but minor. The feature works locally on-device, which also means it is faster.
CarPlay Gets Smarter Controls
CarPlay has been updated with deeper integration for intelligent voice assistants. The goal is to reduce how often drivers need to look at a screen or tap anything at all. You speak, things happen. It is a clear step toward making the driving experience safer without stripping away functionality. The integration feels natural rather than bolted on, which is a harder thing to achieve than it sounds.
The Fixes You Feel Every Day
This is where iOS 26.4 earns its keep. Keyboard responsiveness has been improved, and the difference is noticeable immediately. Typing feels more accurate and less combative. Accessibility features have been refined across the board, with better contrast options and adjusted spacing that makes the interface easier to read without forcing you into larger text sizes.
The Health app has also been updated. It now surfaces more actionable insights from your daily data rather than just displaying numbers. If your sleep patterns have shifted or your activity levels have changed, the app now contextualises that clearly instead of leaving you to interpret raw figures on your own.
These are the kinds of changes that do not photograph well for a press release. They also happen to be the ones that make your phone feel genuinely better to use.
A Few Other Additions
New emojis have been added in this update. They will find their way into your conversations faster than you expect. Family Sharing has also been updated, with more granular control over shared payments and subscriptions. If you share an Apple account with family members, this puts clearer limits on who can spend what, which has been a long-requested fix.
What This Update Actually Represents
iOS 26.4 is Apple doing what it does best when it is not trying to make headlines. Every addition here serves a clear purpose. The AI music features are genuinely useful. The CarPlay improvements address a real safety concern. The small UI fixes accumulate into a noticeably smoother daily experience.
There is no bloat. Nothing feels experimental or half-finished. That discipline is harder to maintain than it looks, especially as operating systems grow more complex with each passing year.
If you have been holding off on updating, this is the one worth installing.
