Round 3 of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2021 went underway this weekend with eight different classes of racing and eight different winners. For the unknown, the eight races are divided into two action-packed categories. On one hand, we have the National Championship which has three open class races, whereas on the other we have the One-Make Championship organised by MMSC which runs as side events to the main championship. There are five races organised in this One-Make Championship class which is organised by two different manufacturers, TVS and Honda. Rahil Shetty came victorious in the Prostock 301-400cc beating championship leader Deepak Ravikumar to the finish line. Ahmed KY and Anfal Akdhar were the other two winners from the highly competitive Prostock 165cc Open and the Novice (Stock 165cc) respectively. So with all that said, let us look into the weekend and see how it unfolded for these daredevil riders.
ProStock 301-400cc
The 23-year old Rahil Shetty marked his comeback after a season’s absence with a close finish, beating veteran Rajini Krishnan (RACR Castrol Power Racing) and the championship leader in this category, TVS Racing’s Deepak Ravikumar. Rahil dictated the pace for most of the race, but went wide on the penultimate lap and lost all the advantage. The race was nailbiting between the riders as Shetty nabbed the victory from Krishnan in the last lap, who was just two-tenths behind.
Prostock 165cc Open
Ahamed KY registered his first win of the season in this category as he finished in front of teammates Deepak Ravikumar and defending champion Jagan Kumar. This also claimed TVS Racing’s all three podium finishes, showing their dominance in the class. Ahamed, who had lost the championship to Jagan Kumar last season by just one point, survived contact with pole-sitter Deepak Ravikumar on the very first lap but staged a remarkable recovery to move to the front of the pack. Thereafter, Ahamed held off Ravikumar and Jagan for a fine win.
Novice (Stock 165cc)
In a battle between two riders from Thrissur in the Novice (Stock 165cc) category, Anfal Akdhar snatched a thrilling, last lunge win over Allwin Xavier (Sparks Racing) with just five-hundredths of a second separating the two on the finish line. Anfal was trailing the Allwin for most of the race but managed to overtake the Sparks Racing rider in the final few corners of the race.
In the One Make Championship, organised by MMSC, Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup NSF 250R kicked off with Sarthak Chavan (Pune) taking victory in the class finishing just two tenths off Kevin Quintal (Chennai) followed by Mohsin Peramban (Malappuram) in third.
Ikshan Shanbhag (Satara) had a tough fight for the victory Honda Novice (CBR 150) as he had to fight till the finish line with Prakash Kamat (Bokaro Steel City) with just three-hundredths of a second between the two.
In the final open cup from Honda, Kevin Kannan (Chennai) takes the checkered flag over Alwin Sundar (Chennai) in the Honda Hornet 2.0 class.
In the TVS side of the championship, TVS Rookie (Apache RTR 200) class saw Shreyas Hareesh (Bengaluru) take a win over Vignesh Goud (Hyderabad) by just one-hundredth of a second, showcasing the tough wheel to wheel battles taking place over the six-lap race. In the TVS Girls (Apache RTR 200) class, Rakshita Dave (Chennai) took a dominant victory over Adlin Seles (Chennai) in second and Aditi Krishnan (Bengaluru) in third.
With this, Round 3 comes to an end and the fourth round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2021 will be held from January 7 to January 9 at MMRT, Chennai. Stay tuned to evo India for updates and news from the Indian motorsport world.