MRF INMRC 2018 Round 3 –Jagan Kumar shines for TVS Racing
TVS Racing and Team Alisha Abdullah had a great weekend as Jagan Kumar and Prabhu Arunagiri won double apiece in their respective categories in the third round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship at the MMRT, on Sunday.
Defending champion Jagan Kumar, who hadn’t won in the first two rounds this season ended with a dominating win in the Super Sport Indian (165cc) class after an initial battle with Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing’s Sarath Kumar, who denied TVS Racing a repeat of Saturday’s 1-2 finish by pushing KY Ahamed to third place.
In the Pro-Stock (301-400cc) category, Prabhu Arunagiri held off Gusto Racing India team’s Satyanarayana Raju and Amarnath Menon. Whereas in the Pro-Stock 165cc class, 21-year old Kevin Kannan from Team Rockers bagged his first win of the season by overtaking Idemitsu Honda Ten10’s Mithun Kumar in the last lap.
For full details, read the press release attached below:
Chennai, September 2: Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) and Prabhu Arunagiri (Team Alisha Abdullah) notched a double apiece in their respective categories in the third round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship at the MMRT, here on Sunday.
Also on the winner’s list in the National Championship were Kevin Kannan (Rockers Racing) who scored his maiden victory in the Pro-Stock 165cc class and Arjun Rajendran who took the honours in the Novice (Stock 165cc) category.
Last year’s champion Jagan, without a win in the first two rounds this season, closed out a very successful weekend with another dominating performance in the premier Super Sport Indian (165cc) class, but not without a bitter fight with his arch-rival Sarath Kumar (Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing) who denied TVS Racing a repeat of yesterday’s 1-2 finish by pipping KY Ahamed to second place in a thrilling race.
Pole-sitter Sarath Kumar conceded his track position soon after start with Jagan and later Ahamed moving past him. However, Sarath fought his way back to overtake Ahamed and then hung on grimly for a well-deserved second spot while Jagan put in consistent laps to emerge a clear winner.
At the end of Round 3, Jagan leads the championship with 112 points, followed by Ahamed (91) while TVS Racing’s Deepak Ravikumar who has been consistently picking up points, is in third with 74, just ahead of Sarath Kumar and his Honda team-mate Rajiv Sethu, both tied on 70.
Earlier, Arunagiri scored his second win of the weekend in the Pro-Stock (301-400cc) category, again holding off Gusto Racing India team’s Satyanarayana Raju and Amarnath Menon. The race turned out to be a bit of an anti-climax in the latter-half with Menon suffering loss of power and Raju unable to make up the ever-increasing deficit to Arunagiri. The victory took Arunagiri’s tally to 89 points which placed him third in the championship behind Menon (105) and Raju (94) after three of the scheduled five rounds.
Meanwhile, 21-year old Kevin Kannan (Rockers), a mechanic from Chennai, recorded his first win of the season in the Pro-Stock 165cc class with a last lap move against leader Mithun Kumar (Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing). It was a crucial win for Kannan as he held on to his second place on the leaderboard with 85 points behind leader Anish Shetty (101) of Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing.
Another local lad, Anand Rajendran pulled off a fine win in the Novice (Stock 165cc) race after a tough fight with championship leader Karthik Mateti (Sparks Racing) who, however, maintained his top slot on the leaderboard with 61 points, just three ahead of team-mate Aditya Rao who finished third in today’s race.
The results (Provisional):
Pro-Stock (301-400cc) Race-2 (8 laps): 1. Prabhu Arunagiri (Team Alisha Abdullah) (15:34.119); 2. Satyanarayana Raju (Gusto Racing India) (15:38.041); 3. Amarnath Menon (Gusto Racing India) (15:42.045).
Super Sport Indian (165cc) Race-2 (8 laps): 1. Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) (15:39.486); 2. Sarath Kumar (Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing) (15:41.227); 3. KY Ahamed (TVS Racing) (15:41.533).
Pro-Stock (165cc) Race-2 (8 laps): 1. Kevin Kannan (Rockers Racing) (16:15.144); 2. Mithun Kumar (Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing) (16:15.222); 3. Senthil Kumar (Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing) (16:17.454).
Stock 165cc (Novice, 6 laps): 1. Anand Rajendran (Pvt, Chennai) (13:12.693); 2. Karthik Mateti (Sparks Racing) (13:12.855); 3. Aditya Rao (Sparks Racing) (13:14.453).
MMSC One-Make Championship (Novice) – TVS (Apache RTR 200) Race-2 (5 laps): 1. Karthik Mateti (Hyderabad) (11:24.619); 2. Anand Rajendran (Chennai) (11:24.799); 3. Venkatesan I (Chennai) (11:33.121).
Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup (CBR 250) Race-2 (6 laps): 1. Mohamed Mikail (Chennai) (13:07.613); 2. Anandhu KK (Chennai) (13:18.859); 3. Charan T (Chennai) (13:24.097).
