Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship – Ultimate round!

The fifth and the final round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship was held at the MMRT track in Chennai from December 14 to 16, 2018. This weekend saw a lot of action on the tarmac and budding talent making up to the podium.

Qualifying

The first day of the race saw Honda Ten10 Racing’s Rajiv Sethu grabbing the pole position in the premier Super Sport 165cc category clocking 01:54.906. TVS Racing’s Jagan Kumar clocked 01:55.231 in the intense 10 minute qualifying session  and landed the second position while his team-mate Ahamed Arif quickly followed with 01:55.951 on the timer.

In the Pro-stock 301-400cc category, Team Alisha Abdullah’s Prabhu grabbed the pole position with a lap of 01:53.872 and landed third on the leaderboard with 114 points while the championship leader Satyanarayan Raju of Gusto Racing qualified third with 119 points. Sparks Racing’s Rahil Pillarishetty bagged the second position with 55 points.

The girl’s class saw Ann Jennifer of Sparks racing academy grabbed the pole position with ease, clocking 02:13.615 followed by Kalyani Potekar of Apex Racing Academy and Nivetha Kumar.

The Pro-stock 165cc category saw Anish Shetty of Honda ten10 racing clinching the top spot on the grid with a best time of 01:59.630 while Anup Kumar of Team Alsiha Abdullah grabbed the second position on the grid.

Another interesting highlight was Honda talent hunt’s 14-year-old Mohammed Mukail grabbing the pole position.

Day 1

The action-packed second day saw riders crashing and races yielding unexpected results. The supersport 165cc class saw an unexpected twist when Jagan and team mate Ahamed Arif crashed after coming out together at the turn-1 on the third lap. Pole-sitter Rajiv Sethu lost pace after his clip-on handlebar gave away in the second lap. Deepak Ravikumar grabbed his maiden win followed by Mathana Kumar and Sethu.

The Pro-stock 301-400cc category saw an edge-of-the seat action with Satyanarayana taking a 14-point lead over team-mate Amarnath Menon of Gusto Racing in the championship st followed by Rahil PIllarishetty at the second place and Prabhu Arunagiri finishing at third.

The Pro-stock 165cc saw remarkable performance from Anish Shetty who took on three front-runners during the last lap. This was the fourth win from the 23-year old techie and part-time gym trainer with 156 points on the card. Kevin Kannan remained second with 115 points after hitting the ground in the race.

Spark’s racing Ryhana Bee and Ann Jennifer were battling it out in the Girls Stock 165cc class. Jennifer managed to turn things around in the last lap, grabbing the fourth win in the five races.

Day 2

The concluding race saw Jagan Kumar finishing sixth battling his wrist injury from the previous crash. However, the eight points he had secured were enough to give him his seventh national victory. Rajiv Sethu won the Supersport 165cc with Sarath Kumar and Manthan Kumar in the second and third position.

The Pro-stock 301-400cc category saw Rahil (Sparks Racing) bagging the first place followed by Prabhu (Team Alisha Abdullah) and Sathyanarayana (Gusto Racing India). The final standings had Sathyanarayan Raju bagging the first spot followed by Prabhu and Amarnath. Stock 165cc category saw Karthik Mateti, a 19 year old scoring his third win ahead of Venkatesan I and Anand Rajendran. The most interesting race was the Pro-stock 165cc with Anish Shetty taking on Kannan and bagging the first position by three-thousandth of a second.

The results:

Super Sport 165cc (Race 2): 1. Rajiv Sethu (Honda Ten10 Racing) (15mins, 41.626secs); 2. Sarath Kumar (Honda Ten10 Racing) (15:47.183); 3. Mathana Kumar (Honda Ten10 Racing) (15:47.683).

• Final rider standings: 1. Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing, 158 points); 2. Rajiv Sethu (145); 3. Mathana Kumar (130). Team championship: TVS Racing. Manufacturer championship: TVS.

Pro-Stock 301-400cc (Race 2): 1. Rahil Pillarishetty (Sparks Racing) (15:29.004); 2. Prabhu Arunagiri (Team Alisha Abdullah) (15:29.197); 3. Sathyanarayana Raju (Gusto Racing India) (15:32.809).

• Final rider standings: 1. Sathyanarayana Raju (159 points); 2. Prabhu Arunagiri (147); 3. Amarnath Menon (Gusto Racing, 142). Team championship: Gusto Racing. Manufacturer championship: KTM.

Pro-Stock 165cc (Race-2): 1. Anish Damodara Shetty (Honda Ten10 Racing) (16:12.523); 2. Kannan Subramaniam (TVS Racing) (16:12.520); 3. Anup Kumar (Team Alisha Abdullah) (16:14.942).

• Final rider standings: 1. Anish Damodara Shetty (181 points); 2. Kevin Kannan (Rockers Racing, 123); 3. Senthil Kumar (Honda Ten10 Racing, 118 points). Team championship: Honda Ten10 Racing. Manufacturer championship: Honda.

Stock 165cc (4 laps): Karthik Mateti (Sparks Racing) (08:41.788); 2. Venkatesan I (Pvt) (08:42.661); 3. Anand Rajendran (Pvt) (08:46.975).

• Final rider standings: 1. Karthik Mateti (111 points); 2. Aditya Rao Immaneni (Sparks Racing, 70); 3. Anand Rajendran (50). Team championship: Sparks Racing. Manufacturer championship: Yamaha.

ONE-MAKE CHAMPIONSHIP – Honda Talent Cup (CBR 250) Race-2: 1. Anish Damodara Shetty (Bengaluru) (16:36.267); 2. Abhishek Vasudev (Bengaluru) (16:36.474); 3.Aravind Balakrishnan (Chennai) (16:36.567).

• Final rider standings: 1. Abhishek Vasudev (171); 2. Anish Damodar Shetty (165); 3. Senthil Kumar (Chennai, 140).

CBR 150 (Race 2, 6 laps): 1. Mohamed Mikail (Chennai) (13:25.633); 2.Anandhu KK (Chennai) (13:27.569); 3. Varoon S (Chennai) (13:47.180).

Race-3: 1. Mohamed Mikail (Chennai) (13:10.101); 2. Kritik Vasan Habib (Gadag) (13:14.564); 3. Anandhu KK (13:16.475).

• Final rider standings: 1. Mohamed Mikail (233 points); 2. Anandhu KK (151); 3. Kritik Vasan Habib (133).

TVS Girls (Race 2, 5 laps): 1. Ann Jennifer AS (Chennai) (11:57.962); 2. Ryhana Bee (Chennai) (12:02.281); Elakiya Lee (Chennai) (12:13.653).

• Final rider standings: 1. Ann Jennifer (111 points); 2. Ryhana Bee (104); 3. Elakiya Lee (52).

TVS Apache RR 310 Open (Race 2): 1. Deepak Ravikumar (Chennai) (15:32.651); 2. Kannan K (Chennai) (15:34.875); 3. Amarnath Menon K (Calicut) (15:34.881).

• Final rider standings: 1. Deepak Ravikumar (Chennai, 176 points); 2. Vivek Pillai (Chennai, 137); 3. Yashas RL (Bengaluru, 136.

Support event – Alisha Abdullah Inter-College Star Race (Race-3, 6 laps): 1. Mervin Kirani (Trichy) (12:47.854); R Vijay Shekar (Chennai) (13:12.758); 3. Reuben Rocky (Kochi) (13:33.948).