It's safe to say that round three of the 2024 Idemitsu Honda Talent Cup NSF250R was nothing short of exciting as the race weekend, held at the Madras International Circuit on August 3-4, saw some incredible shoulder-to-shoulder drama and a few unexpected turns.
Before we tell you how the weekend unfolded, a quick overview on the Honda Talent Cup and the track-only NSF250R race bike first.
Started in 2019, the Honda Talent Cup is a one make championship which serves as a stepping-stone for aspiring Indian racers. This championship features the Moto-3 spec Honda NSF250R motorcycle which, as the name suggests, is powered by a 250cc single-cylinder engine making 49bhp. It features an all-aluminium frame, a composite bodywork and has a kerb weight of just 84kg. The bike gets a six-speed gearbox and has a top whack of over 200kmph. It benefits from slick tyres and a steering damper to aid stability at high speeds. This is a proper race bike.
In round 3 of the 2024 Honda Talent Cup, before the two main races slated for Saturday and Sunday, the preceding Friday was all-set for qualifying which was dominated by current championship leader Mohsin Paramban. The Malappuram based rider further went on to win Race 1 the next day. With a good race start, Mohsin throttled through the six-lap race after a tough fight with rivals Siddesh Sawant and Prakash Kamat, who finished at P2 and P3 respectively.
Siddesh Sawant, who hails from Kolhapur, was tailing Prakash Kamat for the first few laps, but he moved on to the second position after a skillful pass over his opponent, in lap five, and also managed to clock the fastest lap time of 1min 51.970secs. But the two continued to be neck and neck till the very end where Prakash had to settle for P3, just 0.195 seconds behind his arch rival.
In race 2, Mohsin continued to show dominance and lead the now eight-lap race till lap three. But he was then overtaken by Siddesh, Prakash and Bengaluru-based rider Savion Sabu. Mohsin, keen to return to P1, kept pushing until disaster struck when his front end washed out owing to a panic brake scenario. Sadly, the rider made his way back to the pits and called it a day. In the meantime, Prakash also had to retire due to technical reasons. After these two incidents, the leader Siddhesh managed to pull way and garnered quite a big lead on Savion Sabu. Savion on the other hand was now facing competition from Hyderabad-based racer Beedani Rajender. Over the next four laps though, Savion also managed to pull away and saw the chequered flag nine seconds ahead of Beedani who bagged P3.
After round 3, Mohsin continues to lead on the points table, now followed by Siddesh and Prakash.
Round four and five of the 2024 Honda Talent Cup are all set to take place in the months of September and October respectively.