Words: Ryan Lee
The grand finale of the MMSC FMSCI Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship and the Honda MMSC One-Make Championship was held at the MMRT in Sriperumbudur, Chennai. The race weekend witnessed a total of 11 races with 75 riders participating, and for the first time, an all ladies race was held with 10 participants fighting for the title on race-spec Honda CBR 150s.
The three categories of the National Championship – Group B (open), Group C (165-cc, open) and Group D (165-cc, Novice) races were a treat to watch. TVS Racing’s Jagan Kumar clinched the title with a double win in Group B, Mathana Kumar from Ten 10 Racing won the title in Group C and Vishwadev Muraleedharan of Sparks Racing was crowned champion in the Group D.
In Group B, Jagan enjoyed his racing season and bagged the championship title in his class, finishing first in both races. On day one, Jagan started at the end of the grid, but managed to squeeze his way past teammates KY Ahamed and Harry Sylvester from TVS Racing to win the race in style. On day two, once again Jagan showed exemplary riding skills and finished first ahead of KY Ahamed from TVS Racing and Kannan Subramani.
In Group C, Mathana Kumar had a good weekend taking the championship title to his name, winning both the races ahead of Rajiv Sethu and Shyam Shankar from Thunderbolt Racing. The Group D class witnessed a close finish on day one with Kishoar VS finishing first, followed by Kannan Karnan from Moto-Rev Yamaha and Arvind Balakrishnan from United Tech Torque Racing. But on day two, Kannan finished first clenching the championship according to the provisional results. After posr race scrutiny, Kannan was stripped of the title and lost 50 points due to a technical infringement in his motorcycle, making Vishwadev Murlidharan from Sparks Racing the Group C champion.
In the CBR 250 (open) category of the Honda MMSC One-Make Championship, Sarath Kumar from Ten10 Racing had already bagged the championship in the fourth round of the competition and decided to skip the final race. On day one Sumit Lucas Toppo from Pro Lap Racing finished first followed by Group B champion Mathana Kumar and Hari Krishnan from Ten10 Racing. On day two, Dinesh Kumar D from United Tech Torque Racing was surprisingly quick and ended on the top, followed by Rajiv Sethu and Hari Krishnan, who finished third overall in the championship.
The Honda CBR 150 (novice) category witnessed a nail-biting finish between Kishoar VS and Aravind Balakrishnan. Kishoar managed to win in both the races, winning him the Honda One-Make Championship in the CBR 150 class.
Racing for the first time in the history of Indian motorsport, the all-girls race kicked off to a good start with Pooja Dabhi managing to bag pole position on day one. On day two, Pooja ran wide giving Rehana Reya the opportunity to race ahead and bag the first women’s championship title.