INRC Round five: Raghul Rangasamy wins in the MRF Formula 1600 category

The MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Racing Championship 2018 concluded at the MMRT on Sunday with some classic performances across various categories. Mamallapuram’s Rahul Rangasamy emerged victorious in the MRF Formula 1600 category at the INRC 2018 which earned him a ticket to this year’s Mazda Road To Indy shootout in the US.

Rangasamy’s win came after three consecutive podium finishes this weekend which increased his final tally to 182 points (two wins and seven podiums), 8 more than the final tally of Goutham Parekh who finished with 174 point (two wins, six podiums). Mumbai’s Nayan Chatterjee won race one and three while 16-year-old Yash Aradhya from Bengaluru, won for the second time in his debut season in the category.

Read more about the INRC here

On clinching the title in the MRF Formula 1600 category, Rangasamy said “I feel great to win the championship and look forward to the Mazda Road To Indy shootout. I wanted to finish the season with a win, but I’m happy that I took the title at this level considering that I started racing only when I was 19. I love speed and I gave up my medical studies after three years to pursue racing which I do just for my pleasure since at 25, I can’t think of a career in racing”.

In the Indian Touring cars category, Arka Motorsport’s Ashish Ramaswamy bagged his 7^th consecutive podium finish of the season, and clinching the championship with a total of 167 points edging out Race Concept’s veteran Arjun Balu by just six points. Balu missed the championship despite of putting up a great performance. He scored a double in this weekend’s final round and won five races from seven starts.

Caterham 7 Asian Zonal Championship and Formula 4 South-East Asia Championship

Coimbatore’s B Vijayakumar scored a double as he won both the races in the Caterham 7 Asian Zonal Championship. The FIA Formula 4 SEAC saw three different winners in Alessandro Ghiretti (France), Alister Yoong (Malaysia) and Muizz Musyaffa (Malaysia) at the MMRT on Sunday. Vijayakumar led a 1-2-3 finish for India in both the races with MR Dastur and Vicky Chandhok completing the podium in that order in the double-header.

In the Caterham race, most of the thrilling action took place in the first race itself. At the beginning, Vijayakumar lost his position to Chandhok, who himself got a 30-second penalty for jump-start. Though he made an impressive comeback and went on to finish at the top, while Chandhok’s penalty pushed him to third place, with first-timer MR Dastur finishing in second.

Find below the detailed results:

MRF Formula 1600 (Race-2): 1. Yash Aradhya (Bengaluru) (16mins, 54.672secs); 2.Goutham Parekh (Chennai) 16:55.296); 3. Raghul Rangaswamy (Mamallapuram) (16:55.543). Race -3: 1. Nayan Chatterjee (Mumbai) (13:35.208); 2. Parekh (13:35.776); 3. Rangasamy (13:36.359). Champion: Raghul Rangasamy (182 points).

Indian Touring Cars (Race-2): 1. Arjun Balu (Race Concept) (15:22.974); 2. Ashish Ramaswamy (Arka Motorsport)(15:37.888); 3.D Vidya Prakash (Prime Racing) (15:38.145). Champion: Ashish Ramaswamy (167 points). Turbo cars: 1. Karthick Tharani (VW Motorsport) (15:26.077); 2. Rayomand Banajee (VW Motorsport) (15:40.141); 3. Ishaan Dodhiwala (VW Motorsport) (15:49.744).

Formula 4 South-East Asia Championship – Race 1 (14 laps): 1. Alessandro Ghiretti (France) (24:49.279); 2. Kane Shepherd (Thailand) (24:52.274); 3. Luke Thompson (Ireland) (25:04.684). Race-2 (15 laps): 1. Alister Yoong (Malaysia) (25:02.054); 2. Alessandro Ghiretti (France) (25:02.152); 3. Antoine Potty (Belgium) (25:08.487). Race-3 (15 laps): 1. Muizz Musyaffa (Malaysia) (24:42.780); 2. Alessandro Ghiretti (France) (24:48.322); 3. Kane Shepherd (Thailand) (25:01.954).

Caterham 7 Asian Zonal Championship – Race 1 (10 laps): 1. B Vijay Kumar (India) (19:20.498); 2. MR Dastur (India) (19:49.889); 3. Vicky Chandhok (India) (19:52.440 – with 30sec penalty). Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Vijayakumar (19:12.411); 2. Dastur (19:14.488); 3. Chandhok (19:16.577).