MRF National Racing Championship 2018 – An epic opener to the race weekend

The first Race day of the MRF National Racing Championship 2018 was full of wheel to wheel battles and epic finishes. Dhruv Mohite won the opening race of the third round of the Ameo Cup 2018. Arjun Balu shined through in the Indian Touring Cars while Varun Anekar took the win in the Super stock class. Nabil Hussain was the winner in the F1600 race and Ashwin Datta won the Formula LGB1300 class.

Race day one – result roundup:

MRF F1600 –

The first race of the MRF F1600 category was led by Raghul Rangasamy who was almost 3 seconds faster than local boy Sandeep Kumar. Raghul marched away from Sandeep creating a huge gap. The second place battle between Sandeep and Nirmal Uma Shanker was won by the local sensation while Nirmal had to settle with third.

Formula LGB 1300 –

Both the races today were a tough fight for the podium and the competitors did not have much of a gap between them apart from the two race leaders. In the first race, Ashwin Datta managed to hold his guard against Sohil Shah who finished in second place while Deepak Ravikumar completed the podium. Sohil took the top spot in the second race while Ashwin lost pace but managed a commendable third place. A Balaprasath of DTS Racing finished in second place.

Indian Touring Cars and Turbo Support class –

The premiere saloon car racing series always has a stunning showcase of vehicle performance and driver skill. Arjun Balu piloted the Race Concepts Honda City touring car to victory in the first race. However, Arjun Narendran was right on his tail and finished in second place while Ashish Ramaswamy completed the podium. Karthik Tharani rose to the top in the Turbo class piloting one of the three TC4-A Ventos that raced the Turbo class. Rayomond Banajee and Ishan Dodhiwala finished in second and third place respectively.

Super Stock, IJTC and Esteem Cup –

Varun Anekar carried on his winning streak from the previous round and won the first race of the Super Stock class. Varun pulled away from Deepak Ravikumar, increasing the gap lap after lap. Deepak managed to stick to second place while Srinivas Teja rounded off the podium.

Prabhu AS won the first race of the Indian Junior Touring Car class with more than a 4 second lead over Nikunj Vagh. Goan boy, Chris Desouza managed a commendable third place.

Raghul Rangasamy piloting the Performance Racing Esteem won the first race of the Esteem Cup. Vinod Subramaniam and Biren Pithawala of Team N1 finished in second and third place.

Volkswagen Ameo Cup (Round 3 – Race 1) –

Even though there were two serious incidents during free practice yesterday, all the cars and drivers made it to the grid in top shape. Dhruv Mohite was in top form, finishing the 7 lap race in 15:38.719 (m:s.ms). Saurav and Jeet battled it out for the podium for almost 5 laps. Saurav made it stick and grabbed the second position while Jeet finished in a close third. Prateek Sonawne made his way from eight to 4th and will be starting P3 on the grid in Race two.

Stay tuned for another action-packed race day tomorrow!