Arjun Balu pulls off a clean win in the ITC race

MRF MMSC FMSCI National Racing Championship 2019 - Round 3

It was a busy day at the Madras Motor Racing Track, with the third round of the MRF MMSC FMSI National Car Racing Championship 2019 being underway. Major changes this time were that the Super Stock category would share the grid with the more powerful ITC cars, and also the MRF F1600 cars were back from a one round hiatus.

Indian Touring Cars & Super Stock:

Race Concepts Arjun Balu had a dreaded qualifying, posting a time only enough for the fifth spot on the grid. However, the ace driver made a sweet comeback in the first race of the weekend, taking big lead over the Volkswagen Vento’s. Kolhapur’s Dhruv Mohite was also in good form but lost his groove to technical issues (Not confirmed) with the vehicles. A full nine seconds behind Balu was VW’s Karthik Tharani, who finished second while Nikanth Ram finished third in his Arka Motorsports prepared Esteem. In the Super Stock class, veteran racer, RP Rajarajan took the win in the first race, with a cumulative gap of two seconds over Ritvik Thomas of Race Concepts.

MRF F1600:

Sohil Shah had a clear cut chance of a race win thanks to a P1 during qualifying. But Nayan was more aggressive off the line, pulling away at every corner. Nayan won the first race with a cumulative 3 second lead over Chennai’s Nirmal Umashankar. A Bala Prasath finished third. A reverse grid second race cut off all chances of Nayan bagging another win. Vishnu Prasad took home a clear win,barely a second faster than local boy, Sandeep Kumar who finished second.

FLGB 1300:

20-year old, Ashwin Datta, who was runner-up to Sohil Shah in the LGB 1300 championship last season, overcame a slow start when he dropped from second to third before recovering to grab the lead and chalk up his second win of the season. Bengaluru’s Tijil Rao who started on pole finished right behind him in second place.