MRF MMSC FMSCI INRC 2018: Day 2 ends with a bang

Indian Touring Car category

Round two of the Indian National Racing Championship (INRC) 2018 is underway. The Indian Touring Car (ITC) category saw the comeback of veteran racer N Leela Krishnan. Arjun Balu was unstoppable and took the top honours in his flawless race prepped Honda City where he maintained a comfortable lead to finish the race, lapping up 25 points. N Leela Krishnan in his race spec Maruti Suzuki Esteem was down one place from where he started off from fourth place in the grid, as he lost control of the car somewhere near turn ten, but quickly regained control to finish fifth. Vidya Prakash and Vijay Kumar from Prime racing finished second and third respectively.

FLGB 1300 category

The second race of FLGB 1300 saw a few incidents like tyre failure and drivers losing control over the cars. Ashwin Datta from Momentum Motorsports kept his cool to win the race with 25 points. He finished the first race at fifth position but he made a superb comeback in the second race. Rupesh Sivakumar and Nabil Hussain finished second and third with 18 and 15 points respectively. The incident marred second race saw just 11 racers finishing the race, while the other seven did not finish. In the first race of FLGB 1300, Sohail Shah from MSport won the race starting at pole position maintaining the same form as he did in the qualifying session. Team mate Nabil Hussain finished second while Balaprasath from DTS racing clinched the third position. The trio maintained a good lead over the rest of the pack.

Super Stock, IJTC and EC

The first race of the Super Stock, Indian Junior Touring Cars and the Esteem Cup category witnessed some high-adrenaline action. During the initial part of the race, one of the cars (no 10, Honda Brio) lost control at the end of the main straight and toppled and ended up on the sand gravel. Shortly into the race, another car suffered a mechanical issue due to which the driver slowed down midway near corner nine, causing chaos. Another car headed straight into the sand gravel without turning at the end of the main straight, due to steering issue. These back to back incidents forced the race marshals to raise the yellow flag and the safety car was called to lead the race for a few laps to contain the situation. Varun Anekar from Race Concepts grabbed the top spot, followed by Deepak Ravikumar from Infinite Piston and Srinivas Teja from Performance Racing. Chrys D’Souza (Unimek Racing) took the top spot in the IJTC category. In the Esteem Cup, Vinod S was the only one to finish the race, making him the lone winner in that category.

MRF Formula 1600

Ashwin Dutta from Chennai comfortably cruised to victory in the first race, after starting from pole position. The Chennai lad maintained his good form from the qualifying session to get 25 points and finish on top. Raghul Rangasamy and Nirmal Umashankar finished the race in second and third position respectively. Sandeep Kumar from Chennai finished second in the qualifying but dropped down the order to fourth position at the end of the first race. Keith D Souza suffered a blown tyre after lap 4, due to which he was forced to retire from the race.

Stay tuned for more updates on the MRF INRC 2018.

Results for day 1:

MRF F1600 (Race 1): 1. Ashwin Datta (Chennai) (15mins, 52.195secs); 2. Raghul Rangasamy (Mamallapuram) (15:59.749); 3. Nirmal Umashanker (Chennai) (16:03.412).

Indian Touring Cars (Race 1): 1. Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) (16:38.541); 2. D Vidya Prakash (Prime Racing) (16:46.128); 3. B Vijay Kumar (Prime Racing) (16:47.238).

Super Stock (Race 1): 1. Varun Anekar (Race Concepts) (22:43.752); Deepak Ravikumar (Infinite Piston) (22:45.806); 3. K Srinivas Teja (Performance Racing) (22:48.777).

Indian Junior Touring Cars (Race 1): 1. Chrys D’Souza (Unimek Racing) (22:54.799); 2. Prabhu AS (ARKA Motorsports) (22:57.507); 3. Nikunj Vagh (Team N1) (23:01.287). Esteem Cup (Race 1): 1. Vinod S (Team N1) (22:50.081). Only one finisher.

Formula LGB 1300 (Race 1): 1. Sohil Shah (MSport) (19:20.665); 2. Nabil Hussain (MSport) (19:21.179); 3. A Balaprasath (DTS Racing) (19:22.636).

Race 2:. Ashwin Datta (Momentum Motorsports) (17:32.137); 2. Rupesh Sivakumar (MSport) (17:51.678); 3. Nabil Hussain (MSport) (17:55.093).