Chennai: The battle for points turned fierce as Jagan Kumar of TVS Racing and Deepak Ravikumar (Moto-Rev) chalked up crucial victories in their respective categories in the
MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship at MMRT on Saturday.
Jagan Kumar scored a fine win in the premier Super Sport Indian (Up to 165cc) class, holding off championship leader Rajiv Sethu (Honda Ten10 Racing) after the duo exchanged leads over nine laps before the TVS racer pulled away, taking advantage of back-markers.
Going into Sunday’s race of the double-header, Jagan, by virtue of today’s win, his third of the season, moved up to third place, just four points behind Mathana Kumar of Honda Ten10 Racing (101 points) who after a collision with TVS Racing’s KY Ahamed in the first lap, limped home fifth. Sethu continues to head the table with 123 points.
Likewise, Ravikumar survived a tight three-way fight in the Super Sport Indian (300-400cc) race that was red-flagged and reduced to six laps to finish ahead of Antony Peter
(Team Alisha Abdullah) and championship leader Amarnath Menon (Gusto Racing) who played it smart, going for points. Menon is still comfortably placed with 140 points to
Ravikumar’s 91 with three more races, including one on Sunday and the double-header of the final round later this month.
Aishwarya clinches title
In a dramatic turn of events following disqualification of two riders, Bengaluru’s 21-year old Aishwarya Pissay (Apex Racing Academy) clinched the title in the Girls category with a
round to spare.
Aishwarya had finished second behind Chennai’s Alisha Abdullah in the eight-lap race with Kalyani Potekar from Indore third. However, following post-race scrutiny, Kalyani was
disqualified on technical grounds along with her Speed Up Racing team-mate Ryhana Bee who had come in fifth.
The revised result of the race took Aishwarya’s points tally to 83 and 32 points clear of Kalyani in the championship standings with just one more race to be run October 29-November 1 and a maximum of 25 points available.
Earlier this year, Pissay won the Indian National Rally Championship for girls, also with a round to spare.
Results: (Provisional):
Super Sport Indian (Up to 165cc): Race 1 (9 laps):
1. Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) 10mins, 17.792secs;
2. Rajiv Sethu (Honda Ten10 Racing) 10:18.134;
3. Kannan Subramaniam (TVS Racing) 10:31.729.
Pro-Stock (Up to 165cc): Race 1 (9 laps):
1. Sivanesan S (Team Alisha Abdullah) 11mins,
04.205secs;
2.Prabhu V (Sparks Racing) 11: 28.319;
3. Sahay S (Rockers Racing) 10:19.716.
Super Sport Indian (300-400cc): Race 1 (6 laps):
1. Deepak Ravi Kumar (Moto Rev) 06mins, 57.944secs;
2. Antony Peter (Team Alisha Abdullah) 06:58.620;
3. Amarnath Menon (Gusto Racing India) 06:58.802;
Girls (Stock, Up to 165cc, 8 laps):
1. Alisha Abdullah (Team Alisha Abdullah) 10mins,
24.640secs;
2. Aishwarya Pissay (Apex Racing Academy) 10:25.424;
3. Ann Jennifer
(RACR) 10:32.057.
One-Make Championship: Honda CBR 150 (Novice, 8 laps) Race 1:
1. Amala Jerald A (Chennai) 10mins, 15.838secs;
2. Balaji G (Chennai) 10:17.292;
3. Satyanarayana Raju (Hyderabad) 10:18.948.
TVS Apache RTR 200 (Open): Race 1 (9 laps):
1. Sivanesan S (Chennai) 11mins, 25.588secs;
2. Arun Muthukrishnan (Chennai) 11:28.680;
3. Anand Kumar S (Chennai) 11:28.689.
Support Races for Girls: Honda (8 laps:
1. Kalyani Potekar (Indore) 10mins, 41.311secs;
2. Deepika Rajeswari (Chennai) 11: 26.476;
3. Elakiya R (Chennai) 11:26.887.
TVS (5 laps):
1. Aishwarya Pissay (Bengaluru) 06mins, 36.371;
2. Ann Jennifer (Chennai) 06:45.102;
3. Soundari A (Chennai) 07:04.157.
