The opening races on day one of the MRF MMSC FMSCI National Racing Championship 2018 held at the Madras Motor Race Track in Chennai, were more of a teaser of what lay ahead. Day two saw Yash Aradhya takes his maiden win in the MRF F1600 race on Sunday, Arjun Narendran marks another victory in the Indian Touring car series. Rookie, Shubhomoy Ball stuns the crowd with a stellar win in the Ameo Cup 2018.
MRF F1600 –
Local racer, Goutham Parekh took a stellar win in the second race of the F1600 category. Goutham took a huge lead over Sandeep Kumar. The battled for second place was eventually won by Sandeep, while Arya Singh had to settle with third place. Yash Ardhya took his maiden win of the season in the third race of the MRF F1600 category. Goutham trailed in second place, while Raghul Rangasamy finished in a close third place. Raghul had taken the first win of the fourth round in Saturday’s F1600 race, but lost his groove and managed a third place finish in race three on Sunday.
Indian Touring Cars and Turbo support class –
The second race of the ITC was an epic battled for first place between Arjun Narendran and Arjun Balu. Arjun Narendran wrestled his way to victory while Arjun Balu finished in a close second place. Ashish Ramasamy had a slow pace compared to the two leaders and finished in third place.
The Turbo support class currently has only four entrants, three of which are Volkswagen Motorsports TC4-A Vento’s while the fourth is an APR Tuned Skoda Laura by Team N1 Racing. Karthik Tharani took the top spot, while Rayomond Banajee and Ishan Dodhiwala finished in second and third place respectively
Super stock, IJTC and Esteem Cup –
Varun Anekar piloted the Race Concepts Honda City to victory yet again in the second race of the Super Stock class. Srinivas Teja managed to finish in second place while RP Rajarajan completed the podium.
Nikunj Wagh took the win for Team N1 racing in the second race Indian Junior Touring Car class. Chris Desouza of Unimek Racing finishes in second place and Prabhu AS completes the podium.
Biren Pithawala took the win for Team N1 racing in the second race of the Esteem Cup. Raghul Rangasamy finished in second place while R. Shyam of Prime Racing rounded off the podium.
Volkswagen Ameo Cup 2018 – (Round 3 – Race 2 and 3)
The rookie driver, Shubhomoy Ball from Bengaluru took his maiden win of the season in the second race on Sunday. Affan Islam managed to finish in second place while Dhruv lost his pace and had to settle with third. The race was full of drama, as Jeet Jhabakh made contact with two other cars on the very first lap, for which he was given a 5-position grid penalty. Dhruv took another win in the third race with a huge lead over Saurav Bandhyopadhyay. Saurav finished in second, while Shubhomoy completed the podium.
MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Racing Championship 2018 – Round 4
MEDIA RELEASE
Maiden MRF F1600 win for Bengaluru schoolboy Yash Aradhya
Chennai, August 19: The schoolboy from Bengaluru Yash Aradhya marked his first season in the MRF F1600 class with a maiden win in the fourth round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Racing Championship at the MMRT here on Sunday.
Aradhya, who celebrated his 17th birthday last Friday, started Race-3 from third position on the grid, but within two laps, hit the front, getting past pole-sitter Goutham Parekh and Sandeep Kumar before defending his position to score a fine win. Earlier, Parekh comfortably won the in Race-2 of the MRF F1600.
After this weekend’s triple-header, Raghul Rangasamy (134), following his win in Race-1 yesterday, leads the MRF F1600 championship, ahead of Parekh (129), Ashwin Datta (110) and Sandeep Kumar (109). The winner of the championship will earn a ticket to the Mazda Road To Indy shootout in the United States later this year.
The second race of the Indian Touring Cars class witnessed another tight battle between last year’s champion Arjun Narendran (Arka Motorsports) and Arjun Balu (Race Concepts). The two Coimbatore drivers were locked in a titanic fight with Narendran, who had finished second behind Balu in yesterday’s first race, managing to avenge that defeat, but not before the two came together twice in the eight-lap race. Balu, who led initially after starting from pole position, ran wide after a contact with Narendran who then survived another brush towards the end of the race.
With another two races to be run in the final round of the championship next month, Bengaluru’s Ashish Ramaswamy (Arka Motorsports) continues to lead with 131 points following two podium finishes this weekend while Balu is placed second on 111, followed by Nikanth Ram of Arka Motorsports (98) and Narendran (93).
Another Bengaluru entry, 27-year old Varun Anekar completed a double in the Super Stock category of saloon cars to lead the championship in this category with five wins in six starts. Nikunj Vagh (Surat) and Biren Pithawalla (Mumbai) of Team N1, won the Indian Junior Touring Cars and the Esteem Cup races, respectively.
Bengaluru’s Shubhomoy Ball and Dhruv Mohite from Kolhapur, split the two Volkswagen Ameo Cup races today. Mohite, thus, extended his lead in the championship, having scored five wins from eight starts.
The results (Provisional, all 8 laps unless mentioned):
MRF F1600 (Race-2, 7 laps): 1. Goutham Parekh (Chennai) (11mins, 55.958secs); 2.Sandeep Kumar (Chennai) (11:59.036); 3. Arya Singh (Kolkata) (11:59.807). Race-3: 1. Yash Aradhya (Bengaluru) (13:38.672); 2. Goutham Parekh (Chennai) (13:39.045); 3. Raghul Rangasamy (Chennai) (13:39.335).
Indian Touring Cars (Race-2): 1. Arjun Narendran (Arka Motorsports) (15:18.697); 2. Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) (15:18.972); 3. Ashish Ramaswamy (Arka Motorsports) (15:27.011).
Turbo (Race-2): 1. Karthik Tharani (VW Motorsport) (15:26.584); 2.Rayomand Banajee (VW Motorsport) (15:40.368); 3.Ishaan Dodhiwala (VW Motorsport) (15:48.720).
Super Stock (Race-2): 1. Varun Anekar (Race Concepts) (15:47.827); 2.Srinivas Teja (Performance Racing) (16:25.497); 3. RP Rajarajan (Performance Racing) (16:25.743).
Indian Junior Touring Cars (Race-2): 1. Nikunj Vagh (Team N1) (16:46.717). 2. Chris Desouza (Unimek Racing ) (16:59.674); 3. Prabu AS (Arka Motorsports) (17:22.050).
Esteem Cup (Race-2): 1. Biren Pithawala (Team N1) (16:45.958); 2. Raghul Rangasamy (Performance Racing) (16:56.231); 3. R Shyam (Prime Racing) (17:22.349).
Volkswagen Ameo Cup (Race-2): 1. Shubhomoy Ball (Bengaluru) (15:40.496); 2.Affan Sadat Safwan Islam (Chittagong) (15:41.536); 3. Dhruv Mohite (Kolhapur) (15:41.784). Race-3: 1. Dhruv Mohite (Kolhapur) (15:38.206); 2. Saurav Bandyopadhyay (Mumbai) (15:45.963); 3. Shubhomoy Ball (Bengaluru) (15:48.007).