Coimbatore (Sakal Times): Reigning National champion Jagan Kumar of TVS Racing set the benchmark in the premier Super Sport Indian (165cc, Open) class by topping the time sheets in free practice session as the Rolon Round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship commenced at Kari Motor Speedway, on Friday.
Jagan, who notched his sixth consecutive National title last year, displayed good form as he clocked a best of one minute, 12.686 seconds, ahead of TVS Racing team-mates Deepak Ravikumar (01:12.959) and KY Ahamed (01:13.449).
Also among the quicker riders of the day was Prabhu Arunagiri of Team Alisha Abdullah who topped the Pro-Stock 301-400cc class practice session with a 01:12.698, while last year’s winner in this category Amarnath Menon (Gusto Racing India) was the fourth (01:13.503) behind team-mate Satyanarayana Raju (01:12.923) and Faraz Shariff (01:13.468), a private entrant from Bengaluru.
In the Pro-Stock (165cc) class, Anup Kumar (Team Alisha Abdullah) was the quickest with a timing of 01:15.959), well ahead of Anish Shetty (Honda Ten10 Racing, 01:17.592) and Kevin Kannan (Rockers Racing, 01:17.825).
Results: (Qualifying round):
Stock 165cc (Novice, Batch 1): 1. Akshay V Murali (Apex Racing) 1:21.50; 2. Ashfaq Ahamed (Team 24 Racing) 1:21.140; 3. A S Alexander (Sparks Racing) 1:21.179.
Batch 2: 1. Aditya Rao (Sparks Racing) 1:19.674; 2. Varun Sobhan (Speed Up Racing) 1:20.452; 3. M Nethaji (Pvt) 1:20.698.
TVS One-Make Championship Novice (Batch 1): 1. Karthik Mateti (Hyderabad) 1min, 22.796secs; 2. AS Alexander (Chennai) 1:24.616; 3. Suhail Ahamed (Chennai) 1:25.432.
Batch 2: 1. Mohamed Shafin (Kerala) 1:25.075; 2. Kesavan S (Chennai) 1:25.405; 3. Suneeth SR (Bengaluru) 1:25.802.