MRF MMSC FMSCI National Racing Championship: Sohil is FLGB 1300 champion

In the on-going fifth and final round of the MRF MMSC National Racing Championship at MMRT in Chennai, 17-year old Sohil Shah (MSport) won the FLGB 1300 championship title. With a slender lead of just one point from Ashwin Datta (Momentum Motorsport) after the first race, Sohil had to finish ahead of Ashwin in the next race to win the title. In the second race, he finished second while Balaprasath (DTS Racing) won the race. However, he finished ahead of Ashwin and earned the 18 crucial points, which took his tally to 154 points to seal the championship title. Ashwin Datta is just four points behind him.

After he won the championship, an elated Sohil Shah said, “This is my first season in a National Championship and to win a title, it feels fantastic. In today’s race, I knew I had to finish in front of Ashwin (Datta) to seal the championship, but it was tough. I had some issues with the engine and Ashwin was catching up with me, but I managed to stay in front.”

In the MRF F1600 category, Nayan Chatterjee cruised to victory in the first race, after taking a good lead over the rest of the pack. Raghul Rangasamy and Goutham Parekh took the second and third positions respectively. Raghul has amassed 152 points overall in the championship and Goutham Parekh is 14 points behind Raghul. With still a day to go, the winner in this category will be eligible to participate in the Mazda Road to Indy Shootout in the United States later this year.

In the IJTC class, Prabhu AS (Arka Motorsports) won the championship title after finishing second in the final race today. Chrys D’Souza from Unimek Racing crossed the finish line first but he incurred a 30-second penalty for an avoidable collision. As a result, Nikunj Vagh inherited the second place and Chrys took the third position.

In the ITC class, pole sitter Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) took a stellar lead and won the race by a whopping 23-second margin. Arjun Narendran, in second position, was having mechanical issues in his car in the last lap due to which he lost pace. As a result, Ashish Ramaswamy (Arka Motorsport) overtook him and finished second while his teammate Arjun Narendran finished third. However, Ashish still leads the championship with 149 points, while Arjun is trailing behind him at 136 points. With one race to go and a maximum of 25 points for the taking, the championship winner will be decided tomorrow.

In the Caterham Zonal Championship qualifying session, B Vijaykumar, Vicky Chandhok and MR Dastur finished on the podium. Vicky Chandhok already has two podium finishes from the previous round. This is the maiden drive for Vijaykumar, Dastur and Kasha Sai (Salem) in this class.

Here are the provisional results:

MRF F1600 (Race-1): 1. Nayan Chatterjee (Mumbai) (13mins, 33.003secs); 2. Raghul Rangasamy (Mamallapuram) (13:36.349); 3. Goutham Parekh (Chennai) (13:39.932).

Formula LGB 1300 (Race-2): 1. A Balaprasath (DTS Racing) (15:41.318); 2. Sohil Shah (M Sport) (15:42.943); 3. S Ashwin Datta (Momentum Motorsports) (15:43.479). Champion: Sohil Shah (154 points).

Indian Touring Cars (Race-1): 1. Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) (15:12.890); 2. Ashish Ramaswamy (Arka Motorsports) (15:35.313); 3. Arjun Narendran (Arka Motorsports) (15:35.990). Turbo: 1. Karthick Tharani (VW Motorsport) (15:37.110); 2. Rayomand Banajee (VW Motorsport) (15:48.091); 3. Ishaan Dodhiwala (VW Motorsport) (15:50.365).

Super Stock (Race-2): 1. Srinivas Teja (Performance Racing) (16:53.173); 2. Deepak Ravikumar (Infinite Piston) (17:10.342); 3. Kasha Sai (Arka Motorsports) (17:12.346). Champion: Srinivas Teja (118.5 points).

Indian Junior Touring Cars (Race-2): 1. Prabhu AS (Arka Motorsports) (17:27.309); 2. Nikunj Vagh (Team N1) (17:38.045); 3. Chrys D’Souza (Unimek Racing) (17:43.479). Champion: Prabhu AS (103.5 points).

Esteem Cup (Race-2): 1. Raghul Rangasamy (Performance Racing) (16:50.288); 2. Jagadeesh Raj (Arka Motorsports) (17:03.421); 3. Lea Daran (Performance Racing) (18:59.539). Champion: Raghul Rangasamy (118 points).

Qualifying – Formula 4 South-East Asia Championship: 1. Alessandro Ghiretti (France) (01:37.757); 2. Muizz Musyaffa (Malaysia) (01:38.039); 3. Kane Shepherd (UK) (01:38.041).

Caterham 7 Asia Zonal Championship: 1. B Vijayakumar (Coimbatore) (01:54.589); 2. Vicky Chandhok (Chennai) (01:54.975); 3. MR Dastur (Chennai) (01:56.275).