2022 MMSC FMSCI INMRC Round 1: Rajni Krishnan, Jagan Kumar and Anand R bag podium

After a three-year hiatus, the MRF MMSCI FMSCI Indian National Racing Championship (INMRC) returned to the Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore this weekend.

The MMSC INMRC had 8 races scheduled across various categories scheduled for the weekend. They were split into four categories namely — Pro-Stock 301-400cc and 165cc, Novice (Stock 165cc) and Girls (Stock 165cc) – while Petronas TVS One-Make Championship (301-400cc Open, Rookie, Girls and Media) and Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup (NSF 250R, CBR 150 and Hornet 2.0) are also part of the programme. A new addition was the Stock 301-400cc category which was a support race.

The Pro-Stock 301-400cc category saw veteran rider Rajini Krishnan taking first place.

Meanwhile Pacer Yamaha riders Mathana Kumar and Prabhu Arunagiri delivered a 1-2 finish for the Bengaluru-based team in the Pro-Stock 165cc Open category while Hubballi’s Sarvesh Balappa of Axor Sparks Racing was handed a victory in the Novice Stock 165cc class.

The Novice category race witnessed a nail-biting finish. Md Samrul Zubair, starting from pole position, scripted a 1-2 finish for the Race’ist Motorcycle Club, Hyderabad, ahead of Vignesh Goud and Balappa after the race that was cut to seven laps from scheduled 10 following a red flag stoppage due to an incident in the very first lap. However, both Zubair and Goud were disqualified on “technical grounds'' after the race. The revised results pushed Balappa to first place, followed by Bengaluru’s Chiranth V (Rookies Racing) and Aldrin Babu (RACR Castrol Power 1) from Chalakudy.

“It is my first win in the Championship. Last year, I finished fourth in the championship standings. I am thrilled with the victory. Back home, I used to simply ride the bike here and there, before I decided to race,” said Balappa, a mechanical engineering student, now in his third season of racing.

After the race, which saw Rajni open up a huge gap ahead of the second rider from the very start, he said “I opened up a good lead at the start and pushed hard over the first five laps before easing off a bit. The expected fight did not materialise, but I am very happy with the win. We made a lot of changes on my Yamaha R3 in the past few months with a lighter frame. Last year, the bike was a bit heavy. But I will know how much the bike has improved only when I race at the Madras International Circuit in the next round,” said Rajini.

Participating in this year's TVS Young Media Racer Program was Mandar Sawant who represented Team evo India and Fast Bikes India at the sixth outing of the program. He bagged second place in qualifying ahead of the main race tomorrow. Riding for the very first time at Kari, earlier in the day, Mandar had clocked a time of 1:39 seconds in practice earlier in the day. But with the best qualifying lap time of 1:35 seconds, he shaved off four seconds, just two second behind the pole position achiever. Stay tuned for more updates on what happens in the main race tomorrow and at other outings of the 2022 INMRC.

Here are the podium grabbers of all the categories, with total timings of each race:

Pro-Stock 301-400cc Open: 1. Rajini Krishnan (RACR Castrol Power 1, Chennai) (12mins, 26.700secs); 2. Jagan Kumar (Petronas TVS Racing, Chennai) (12:30.167); 3. Anand R (Speed Up Racing, Chennai) (12:41.745).

Pro-Stock 165cc Open: 1. Mathana Kumar (Pacer Yamaha, Chennai) (13:07.483); 2. Prabhu Arunagiri (Pacer Yamaha, Chennai) (13:07.875); 3. Rajiv Sethu (Idemitsu Honda SK69 Racing, Chennai) (13:16.228).

Novice-Stock 165cc: 1. Sarvesh Balappa (Axor Sparks Racing, Hubballi) (10:12.279); 2. Chiranth V (Rookies Racing, Bengaluru) (10:13.555); 3. Aldrin Babu (RACR Castrol Power 1, Chalakudy) (10:23.920).

Support Race – Stock 301-400cc: 1. Mihir Vijay Sakpal (Apex Racing Academy) (13:52.706); 2. Ashwin R (Pvt, Bengaluru) (13:55.015); 3. Naresh Kaname (Pvt, Lakur) (13:57.088).

Petronas TVS One-Make Championship – Rookie (Apache RTR 200): 1. Chiranth V (Bengaluru) (13:53.153); 2. Shreyas Hareesh (Bengaluru) (13:57.560); 3. Tamizhinian KR (14:25.140).

Girls (Apache RTR 200, 8 laps): 1. Aditi Krishnan (Bengaluru) (11:58.451); 2. Renuka Gajendran Bengaluru) (12:13.332); 3. Ananya Aswathi (Chennai) (12:35.006).

Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup – NSF250 Open (Race-1): 1. Sarthak Shrikant Chavan (Pune) (12:24.394); 2. Shyam Sundar (Chennai) (12:40.808); 3. AS James (Bengaluru) (12:44.806).

CBR 150 (Race-1): 1. Raheesh Mudassar Khatri (Mumbai) (14:46.340); 2. Siddesh Sawant (Kolhapur) (14:46.408); 3. Shyam Babu (Chennai) (15:06.707).

Support Race (Hornet 2.0, Race-1): 1. Ullas Santrupt Nanda (Bengaluru) (15:03.230); 2. G Balaji (Chennai) (15:03.458); 3. Romario (Chennai) (15:05.368).