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Category: Domestic
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Ghosh leaves MRF and joins JK Tyre to partner Gill in #INRC2020
New Delhi, 3 Dec 2020: Former INRC champion and K1000 champion Amittrajit Ghosh left the Reds and joined Yellow on Thursday as the famed Yellow team, JK Tyre unveiled it’s team for the FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship to begin at Itanagar for the first two rounds. The King of Indian motorsports, Gaurav Gill, will now have his long-time Mahindra teammate in yellow colours too.
Gaurav Gill with experienced Musa Sherif as co-driver and Ghosh with trusted Ashwin Naik will still be driving XUV300 vehicles, but the factory team entry from Mahindra is missing this year. The thrilling, new compact #MahindraXUV300, then gave some initial hiccups to Gill, the multiple National champion, came back from the blues of Jodhpur, and asserted his supremacy once again, winning the Popular Rally in Kerala. Mahindras have allowed both the top drivers to rally with their vehicles this INRC.
Amittrajit Ghosh of Kolkata leaves MRF and turns out in JK colours for INRC 2020. A JK Tyre image Arjuna Awardee Gill, will lead the team’s challenge once again as Yellows will be alone with their long-time rivals, Reds missing in action this year.
“Gill and Ghosh are two of the country’s finest drivers. Their testing and feedback of our products and development will add tremendous value in our endeavor to return to Indian rallying bigger and better,” Sanjay Sharma, Head of Motorsport, JK Tyre, said.
“We are happy to have them lead our challenge. Not just that, even in these unprecedented difficult times, India’s finest talent have found support of JK Tyre, country’s biggest patron of motorsport, adding up to 24 members who will be sporting our colors in the event.”
Among the accomplished drivers who will turn out in JK Tyre’s canary yellow colours are Dean Mascarenhas from Mangalore (former INRC champion; with navigator Shruptha Padival), Suhem Kabir from Coorg, Fabid Ahmer from Cochin and Syed Salman from Mysore amongst others.
Besides the above, standing true to their ethos of promoting and nurturing young and local talent, JK Tyre is also supporting 4 local teams from North East which includes an all-girls team.
Phurpa Tsering (with Yashwardhan Kumar), Ms Nabam Asha (Ms Dinky Varghese), Hage Naku (Hage Bitu) and Pem Sonam(with Lenin Joseph) are sure to get a lot of support from the fans in Arunachal Pradesh.
The INRC season gets underway in Arunachal Pradesh on December 16, with two back to back rounds. The third round will be held in Coimbatore and the final one in Bangalore.
They will be competing in various INRC categories in different cars but will have only one common theme: JK Tyre.
“We are looking forward to an interesting competition in the challenging terrains of Arunachal,” Gill said, revealing that he has been preparing for the season with renewed vigour. “I am happy to be back with JK after a brief hiatus,” Ghosh added.
About JK Tyre Motorsport:
JK Tyre has been closely associated with the world of motorsports for almost three decades back. The company laid down a long term plan to popularise and promote the sport in the country. Its first target was to change the notion that this was a sport for the elite. So it packaged and redesigned it in a spectator-friendly way, drawing the masses to the sport.
The company then endeavored to spot, nurture and sharpen the drivers to turn them into world champions. With this goal in mind, we conceptualized the JK Tyre National Racing Champion in 1997. Our efforts started paying dividends in just a few years’ time, with the likes of Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandok going all the way to the F1 rung, the highest level of single-seat racing in the world. Since then, a number of stars emerged, including Armaan Ebrahim, the Maini brothers (Kush and Arjun), Anindith Reddy Konda, amongst many others.
Before all this, JK Tyre had a successful stint in rallying too, conquering the scene in the early 90s. At the same time, gradually, we moved on to various disciplines, including cross-country rallying and off-roading, leaving a mark in each of them with their unique and innovative ways.
JK Tyre Motorsports is also very proud of the role it has played in bringing women into motorsports in a big way. Apart from encouraging them to get into the sport through karting as kids, we also gave them opportunities in various national championships. Last year was particularly rewarding for us as an All-Women Racing team was introduced for the first time in the LGB 4 category. In addition, the company also undertook various other initiatives to encourage them to try motorsports, even if for fun to begin with.
To supplement JK Tyre’s entry into the two-wheeler market, the JKNRC hosted the Suzuki Gixxer Cup and the Red Bull Road to Rookies Cup categories and saw enthusiastic participation from across the country.
Today, the company is synonymous with motorsports, and even more so with racing, creating a lot of goodwill for the brand. Right from budding racers to accomplished drivers in the country, everybody owes their rise and success to JK Tyre.
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Arjun Balu finally gets a National title for Race Concepts in their 6th year
Chennai, 29 Nov 2020: The Gentleman of Indian Motorsports, and one of the best talent India has produced, Arjun Balu of Coimbatore was crowned National champion in the ribbon event, the Indian Touring Class in the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Car Racing Championship which concluded at the MMRT, here on Sunday.
His team Race Concepts, which started six years ago, got all the monkeys off their back and won the championship fair and square and the Joel Joseph-led team, which had many talented drivers had to put up with some `off-the-track-excursion’ tactics by many a veteran driver. In the first few years, it was Deepak Chinnappa, turning out in Race Concepts Eneo colours, who was shunted out in Coimbatore and the `tactics’ went on in different ways to deny the talented and hard-working outfit, points in the title race and Arjun Balu too, a decent winner in many rounds of the Indian National Rally Championship, lost the title by a narrow margin the last two years, despite his best efforts and for reasons which are not in his control. This reporter has watched all the races of Race Concepts in the first five years before missing this year’s rounds due to Covid-induced restrictions on media and spectators as per government guidelines.
“This is our first championship win in six years. It has been a long and difficult journey with many ups and downs, but eventually, we clinched the title. I owe it to all the members of the Race Concepts team that worked long and hard to get us here,” said Joel Joseph.
From left: Raghul Rangasamy (Super Stock), Arjun Balu (Indian Touring Cars) and Tijil Rao (Formula LGB 1300) who were crowned the 2020 National Champions at Madras Motor Race Track (MMRT) on Nov 29. All photos by Anand Philar A hugely relieved Balu, after sealing the championship with a race to spare, said: “After winning Race-1, I knew I needed just seven points from Race-2 to clinch the championship. So, I held the position through the 10 laps for P2. This championship win is most special and most satisfying for me. The previous two seasons, I missed the title by a whisker (to Ashish Ramaswamy and Dhruv Mohite) despite enjoying big leads early on. This title is also a tribute to Joel Joseph and his Race Concepts team which worked so hard, sparing no effort to make sure I get a competitive car.” A gentleman racer as humble as ever!
Also clinching the drivers’ titles in their respective categories were Mamallapuram’s Raghul Rangasamy of Performance Racing (Super Stock), 17-year old Bengaluru collegian Tijil Rao of Momentum Motorsport (Formula LGB 1300) and Thrissur’s Diljith TS (MRF Saloon Car series).
Tijil Rao, number 12 blue car, in action before clinching the title in FLGB1300 title. Balu, who was runner-up in the previous two seasons, endured a difficult, rain-affected weekend and did just enough to pick up crucial points by winning Race-1 and finishing second in Race-2 before retiring in Race-3 after a shunt. Dhruv Mohite of FB Motorsport won a double to help his team take the team championship.
Meanwhile, Rangasamy made up for a non-finish in Race-1 by surging to win in the next two outings for the title. In contrast, young Tijil Rao went without a win this weekend, but three podium finishes in the four races ensured him the crown.
The 2020 season was drastically impacted by the pandemic and was reduced to three rounds instead of the scheduled five. The first round was held in February and the remaining two this month behind closed doors while following the Covid-19 protocols.
Dilijith, the champion in the MRF Saloon Car Series for 2020. Indian Touring Cars: Race-1 (8 laps): 1. Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) (15mins, 31.003secs); 2. Keith D’Souza (FB Motorspor) (15:35.528); 3. Dhruv Mohite (FB Motorsport) (15:42.847). Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Mohite (19:34.316); 2. Balu (19:36.706); 3.D’Souza (19:37.940). Race-3 (8 laps): 1. Mohite (15:49.069); 2. D’Souza (15:49.378); 3. Varun Anekar (Race Concepts) (16:31.373).
Super Stock: Race-1 (8 laps): 1. Alisha Abdullah (Race Concepts) (16:41.042); 2. Vineet Abhiram (Race Concepts) (17:02.885); 3. Sridhar Nagaraj (Race Concepts) (17:24.841). Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Raghul Rangasamy (Performance Racing) (20:27.517); 2. Raja Rajan (Performance Racing) (20:28.739); 3. Rithvik Thomas (Race Concepts) (20:43.616). Race-3 (8 laps): 1. Rangasamy (16:33.837); 2. Alisha (16:50.086); 3. Sridhar Nagaraj (16:52.214).
MRF Saloon Car Series: Race-1 (8 laps): 1. Sreeram Sridhar (Chennai) (17:30.244); 2. Diljith TS (Thrissur) (17:31.226); 3. Chandresh Tolia (Mumbai) (17:42.636). Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Chetan Korada (Chennai) (19:35.644); 2. Diljith (19:38.741); Sreeram (19:42.939). Race-3 (8 laps): 1. A Balaprasath (Chennai) (17:24.875); 2. Korada (17:26.241); 3. Diljith (17:27.661).
Formula LGB 1300: Race-1 (8 laps): 1. Viswas Vijayaraj (DTS Racing) (15:30.277); 2. Tijil Rao (Momentum Motorsport) (15:30.408); 3. Prithveen Rajan (Joba Racing) (15:30.588). Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Prithveen Rajan (Joba Racing); 2. Mohamed Ryan (M Sport); 3. Tijil Rao. Race-3 (8 laps): 1. A Balaprasath (M Sport) (15:23.138); 2. Raghul Rangasamy (M Sport) (15:29.350); 3. Ryan (15:29.724). Race-4 (7 laps): Viswas Vijayaraj (15:26.300); 2. Chirag Ghorpade (Momentum Motorsport) (15:27.162); 3. Tijil Rao (15:28.427).
National Champions:
Indian Touring Cars: Driver – Arjun Balu (Coimbatore, Race Concepts, 151 points). Team – FB Motorsport (262)
Super Stock: Driver – Raghul Rangasamy (Mamallapuram, Performance Racing, 154). Team – Race Concepts (289).
MRF Saloon Car Series: Diljith TS (Thrissur, 113).
Formula LGB 1300: Driver – Tijil Rao (Bengaluru, 122). Team – Momentum Motorsport (215).
About Madras Motor Sports Club
Since its humble beginnings in 1953, the Madras Motor Sports Club has grown in stature as the hub of motorsport activity in India. Having moved from Sholavaram to its present location in Sriperumbudur in 1979, MMSC has kept pace with changing times by upgrading facilities. At a cost of about Rs 20 Crore, the MMSC built a pit complex comprising 20 garages, VIP hospitality suites and a viewing gallery, on the eastern side, apart from a second Paddock on the western side with its own short circuit. The Control Room too was upgraded with state-of-the-art hardware while the track itself was improved to meet the exacting FIA standards for Grade-2 certification. The facilities are also extensively used by various vehicle manufacturers for testing their products, displays and corporate days.
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Jeet Jhabakh takes pole in ITC class before rains stop session: Racing Nationals
Chennai, 28 Nov 2020: Heavy showers in the afternoon forced curtailment of day’s schedule even as Hyderabad’s Jeet Jhabakh (FB Motorsport) grabbed the pole position in the premier Indian Touring Cars class as the third and final round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Car Racing Championship commenced at the MMRT, here on Saturday.
Due to water-logged track the races were put off to Sunday. @Twitter The day’s proceedings began in bright sunshine with Formula LGB 1300 and the saloon cars going through their paces in two Free Practice sessions apiece before the rains halted further action. After a nearly two-hour break, the qualifying session for the saloon cars was run on a drying track with wet patches in some sections.
Jhabakh and teammate Dhruv Mohite from Kolhapur occupied the front row ahead of Coimbatore veteran and championship leader Arjun Balu of Race Concepts who, incidentally had topped the practice sessions. Completing the second row was Goa’s Keith D’Souza, also in a FB Motorsport livery.
Marshals trying their best after rains lashed the MMRT on Saturday. Images courtesy Twitter @VickyChandhok Mamallapuram’s Raghul Rangasamy (Performance Racing) was the quickest in the Super Stock category while Diljith TS from Thrissur snatched pole position in the MRF Saloon Car series class (Toyota Etios). All the three categories will be on a combined grid for the three races to be run on Sunday while the Formula LGB 1300 will have four runs.
As per the revised schedule for Sunday, the Formula LGB 1300 will have a qualifying session and four races interspersed with three Saloon car races.
The results (Qualifying):
Indian Touring Cars: 1. Jeet Jhabakh (FB Motorsport) (02mins, 02.041secs); 2. Dhruv Mohite (FB Motorsport) (02:02.599); 3. Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) (02:03.392).
Super Stock: 1. Raghul Rangasamy (Performance Racing) (02:09.276); 2. Rithvik Thomas (Race Concepts) (02:10.038); 3. Alisha Abdullah (Race Concepts) (02:16.115).
MRF Saloon Car series: 1. Diljith TS (Thrissur) (02:15.996); 2. A Balaprasath (Chennai) (02:18.969); 3. Chetan Korada (Chennai) (02:20.943).
For Live streaming of Sunday’s races, please visit: https://en.madrasmotorsports.com/streaming/
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2-wheeler Rally Nationals (INRC) to begin with Puttur round: TVS raring to go
By David Bodapati
Puttur (Mangaluru), 27 Nov 2020: With four National champions under its colours, Team TVS Racing, a giant in the two-wheeler motorsports in the country, both rallying and racing, is raring to go as the MRF fmsci Indian Natioinal Rally Championship which begins here with the first round Special Stages (SS) organised at Panja, about 40km from here on Sunday.
A record number of entries of 67 including 4 ladies from across India have confirmed their participation. The 115.59km rally distance includes 57.39km special stage sections on the winding dirt roads, going up and down the lush-green rubber-estate hills in and around the scenic Panja. For other details and last year, Championship results read the build-up article here.
Rajendra RE, the star campaigner of TVS racing and the current National champion in the top class, the Group A Pro-Experts class will spearhead the challenge astride an Apache RTR450. He will have teammate Nataraj to deal with first to retain his title this year along with others as he goes for another title. Last year, he began with a bang winning the first three rounds before TVS pulled out of the Coimbatore leg for want of time to produce the homologation papers for their new bikes. However, Rajendra won again at the 5th round here, with Puttur turning out to be one of his favourites tracks as he sealed the title before the championship went to K1000, which he missed again.
Bengaluru’s Aishwarya Pissay, the Baja World Cup champion, will be defending her ladies title on an Apache RTR 200 4V, with Ryhana Bee astride a Hero Impulse and local star Arpita Bhat also on an Impulse, will be fighting for the minor slots but only time will tell if they spring a surprise. There are five entries and Tanika Shanbhag from Satara in Maharashtra, who beat favourite Ryhana in the Sprint Nationals Round 4 last Sunday, can throw a surprise or two. Aishwarya, who is multiple National champion in circuit racing after making her debut in 2016 has sacrificed racing to focus on the off-road event and made a stunning resilience rising like a phoenix from a life-threatening accident that made her bed-ridden for a few months last year.
Promoted by God Speed Racing, organisers Ace Events, who put Puttur in the motorsports map of India four years back, will be hosting the event for the fourth year running and the man behind the club, ace rider Akash Aithal, will be the Clerk of the Course. “The terrain is technical and tricky and at the same time provides a challenge to the riders who will surely enjoy the mix of dirt and gravel track, winding up and down with two physical stages named Karkala and Palangaya,” Akash said. God Speed Racing which also promotes the Supercross Nationals is headed by another giant, Shyam Kothari, who was a multiple champion in his heydays not just in supercross but also in rally and motocross. This reporter still remembers when Kothari last won his National title at the football stadium in Bengaluru. A truly stunning achievement to win seven National titles. Kothari said: “The pandemic has delayed the season but we are well prepared with all the safety measures in place. And ACE Events of Puttur has done extremely well in organising the event and all the riders are eager to get back to the track.”
“Team TVS Racing has fielded the same team as last year which has four champions. Though much of our time is lost due to the pandemic, we are well prepared and I am confident our champions will continue to keep the TVS colours flying once again,” said Team Principal, Selvaraj, who took over a couple of years back, from the legendary Arvind Padgaonkar, who led the TVS team for over two decades.
Aishwarya Pissay 2019 file photo by Ace Events, organiser of INRC for 2w Apart from Rajendra and Aishwarya, Imran Pasha and Syed Asif Ali. Pasha won the championship in the Class 4 for Super Sport 260cc bikes leaving Samuel Jacob (2nd in the championship) to fight with Sachin D last year. Asif Ali had won the National title in the Scooters upto 210cc class with ease as he took a huge lead in points as his teammates from TVS, Shamim Khan beat Pinkesh Thakur for the first runners-up in the championship battle. All the top-three riders in both these classes were trained and nurtured by Team TVS Racing and the factory team completed a championship sweep in these two classes.
Jatin Jain, a privateer from Nagpur, will defend his title in the Class 1A for Superbikes (Expert) and M Srikanth won the 2019 title in the Super Sport 130cc class while local star Ishan Chandra clinched Super Sport 165cc class. Mangaluru’s Sudeep Kottary in Super Sport 400 cc and Suhail Ahmed, who last Sunday won both the rounds of Sprint Nationals, will defend his title in the Super Sport 550cc Class 6. The other class left is Star of Karnataka for local riders, which is not counted for the National Championship points.
Sanjeev Matandoor, MLA Puttur, will be the Chief guest at the Ceremonial flag-off at the Puttur Club at 4.30 pm on Saturday. The PD (Prize Distribution) will be on Sunday.
Aakash Aithal will be the Clerk of the Course with the current Indian Rally Champion of four wheelers Chetan Shivaram, being the Assistant CoC. His co-driver Dilip Sharan is the CRO. Bhaskar Gupta of Karnataka Motor Sports Club is the Chief Steward. Chidananda NC and D Uday Kumar are the other stewards while experienced Yogesh Kalro will be the Technical Delegate.
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Can Arjun Balu clinch the title this year? Racing Nationals
Chennai, 27 Nov 2020: Arjun Balu of Coimbatore will be looking to clinch the championship in the plum ITC class as the abridged MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Car Championship 2020 draws to a close with the third and final round being held at the MMRT this weekend behind closed doors due to the pandemic.
The humble motorsports giant with a chequered motorsports career of over 20 years missed the Championship title last year because of certain issues beyond his control, but with a 36-point lead will be looking to garner as many points as possible in the final three races. He has to get 15 more points than second-placed Keith D’Souza of Goa to seal the title in the first race.
The two-day, seven-race programme, kicks-off on Saturday, and concludes on Sunday. The track which received a drenching from cyclone Nivar earlier this week has recovered well for the races to be held as scheduled.
The titles in all four categories – the premier Indian Touring Cars, Super Stock, Formula LGB 1300 and the MRF Saloon Car series – are up for grabs with very little separating the contenders, both individual and team championships.
As for the Championship stakes, the ITC class has Coimbatore’s Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) enjoying a 35-point lead over Goan Keith D’Souza (FB Motorsport) going into this weekend’s triple-header with a maximum of 75 points on offer. The two front-runners are followed by Jeet Jhabakh (FB Motorsport) from Hyderabad (52) and team-mate, Kolhapur’s Dhruv Mohite (45).
The situation in the Super Stock category is much tighter with Mamallapuram’s Raghul Rangasamy (Prime Racing) ahead of Rithvik Thomas (Race Concepts) from Bengaluru by just one point.
Momentum Motorsport’s Tijil Rao (72) and Chirag Ghorpade (62) lead the pack in the Formula LGB 1300 category that will have four races over the weekend with a maximum of 100 points up for grabs. Trailing the duo are DTS Racing’s Viswas Vijayraj (52) and former champion Arya Singh (42).
The MMSC-promoted MRF Saloon Car series (Toyota Etios), run by Arka Motorsport in conjunction with FB Motorsport, witnessed extremely close competition in the first round earlier this month with all three races producing different winners. So much so, a mere six points separate the four contenders – Diljith TS (55), A Balaprasath (54), Chandresh Tolia (52) and Chetan Korada (49).
Reviewing the season thus far, MMSC president Ajit Thomas said: “A few months back, at the height of the lockdown, we couldn’t even visualise resumption of the National championship. However, with the government easing the restrictions thereafter, we decided to kick-start motorsport activities after a nine-month break, even if it meant drastically scaling down the various National championships.
“We began last month by conducting the two-wheeler Drag races and followed it up with the Round-2 of the four-wheeler championship three weeks back. We put in place strict safety measures such as face masks, physical distancing, thermal screening and hand sanitizing besides restricting entry only to competitors, their helpers and officials. Unfortunately, we had to also exclude our friends from the Media who, nevertheless, extended wide coverage for which we are grateful, as also to our title sponsors, MRF Tyres.”
The weekend programme will be streamed live on MMSC’s Facebook page and website.
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MRF Mogrip 2w INRC Round 1 at Puttur on Nov 29
Bengaluru, 26 Nov 2020: The first round of the MRF Mogrip fmsci Indian National Rally Championship for two-wheelers will begin the 2020 calendar at Puttur in Dakshina Kannada district on November 28 and 29.
A total number of 67 entries were received at the regular close of entries time on Nov 23 with only 8 more slots left for late entries (till Friday) as the organisers, Ace Events, restricted the number of bikes to 75 for safety and logistics convenience. Promoted by God Speed Racing of Pune, under the able guidance of former 7-time National champion, Shyam Kothari, the rally offers two Special Stages, a 9.7-km Karkala stage and 9.43-km Palangaya stage, which are run three times each on Sunday, making it six Special Stages for a total stage distance of 57.39km and along with 58.2km of transport, the first-round covers 115.59km.
TVS Racing is expected to dominate the proceedings once again in the top class but the huge number of privateers will make their presence in many other classes. Defending champion Rajendra RE in the Group A Pro-Expert SuperBike class is expected to spearhead the TVS Racing challenge once again but the other Group A class Super Bike (expert) is likely to witness stiff competition with reigning champion Jatin Jain having to deal with the likes of strong contenders Badal Doshi of Mumbai and Bengaluru’s Vishwas SD in this class. Last year, Rajendra began with a bang and won all the first three rounds before missing the fourth round at Coimbatore as Team TVS Racing pulled out, but one more win at Mangalore in the 5th round sealed the championship for him with 100 points and he did not take part in the last round, the K1000 in Bengaluru.
The Ladies class with Open Indian Motorcycles will see the presence of Aishwarya PM, the 2019 champion along with Ryhana Bee, who is fresh from the Sprint Nationals, where is she is leading the title race, and Dimpy.
Rajendra, the defending champ in the top class. Many riders like Sachin D, Suhail Ahmed, Sudeep Kottary and Sinan Francis have taken part in the Sprint Nationals to gain some valuable bike time on similar terrain and have won podium places. All of them will be raring to go in their respective classes.
Aakash Aithal will be the Clerk of the Course with the current Indian Rally Champion of four wheelers Chetan Shivaram, being the Assistant CoC. His co-driver Dilip Sharan is the CRO. Bhaskar Gupta of Karnataka Motor Sports Club is the Chief Steward. Chidananda NC and D Uday Kumar are the other stewards while Yogesh Kalro is nomiated as Technical Delegate.
You can watch a video produced by autotrack.ind.in for MRF Racing of last year’s action here.
INRC 2-W final Championship table 2019:
Class 1: Superbike (Pro-Expert):
1. Rajendra RE, TVS Racing, 100
2. R Nataraj, TVS Racing, 51
3. Nikhil Balakrishna, Privateer, 36
Class 1A: Superbike (Expert):
1. Jatain Jain, 101
2. Badal S Doshi, 65
3. Venu Ramesh Kumar, 33
Class 2 – Super Sport 130:
1. M Srikanth, 95
2. Azeeb Mohammed, 86
3. Santhosh Kour, 53
Class 3: Super Sport 165:
1. Ishan Chandra, 126
2. Francis PV, 90
3. Akshay Siddharamaaiyah, 53
Class 4: Super Sport 260:
1. Imran Pasha, TVS Racing, 118,
2. Samuel Jacob, TVS Racing, 91
3. Sachin D, TVS Racing, 90
Class 5: Super Sport 400:
1. Sudeep Kottary, 118
2. Vikram K, 58,
3. Shivan Wani, 48
Class 6: Super Sport 550:
1. Suhail Ahmed, 125
2. Arun Joy, 66
3. Devraj Venkatesh, 59
Class 7: S0 to S3 Scooters upto 210cc (S0 to S3):
1. Syed Asif Ali, TVS Racing, 143
2. Shamim Khan, TVS Racing, 102
3. Pinkesh Thakkar, TVS Racing, 93
Class 8 – Ladies Class: Ladies Class (Open Indian Motorcycles):
1. Aishwarya Pissay, TVS Racing, 150
2. Ryhana Bee, 48
3. Fazeela, 36.
ends
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Suriya Varathan crowned new champion in X30 Senior class
Bangalore, 23 Nov 2o20: Coimbatore’s Suriya Varathan dethroned Nirmal Umashankar to become the new champion in the Senior Category of the X30 Class Meco-FMSCI National Karting Championship that concluded at Meco Kartopia, near Bagalur, on Sunday.
This is the first national championship to be successfully completed in the country, with all safety protocols followed, since the COVID 19 pandemic in March, an FMSCI press release said on Monday.
Suriya, who began the fifth and final round with 138 points, had to be satisfied with the third position in the Senior Category over Saturday and Sunday. But that was good enough to give him a totally tally of 161 points and the coveted championship.
Chennai’s Nirmal Umashankar put up a game fight but had to settle for the second position (142) after managing 31 points and a second place in the last round. Bangalore’s Rishon Rajeev was the winner of this round with three wins and one second place.
In the Junior Class, Ruhaan Alva had already clinched the National Championship in the earlier round. He put up another stellar show among the Juniors to take another win with utmost ease but a clash of karts saw him finish behind Rohan Madesh in one race before he asserted his supremeacy in the last race of the season winning by a mile. He will now move to Senior class next year.
Ruhaan and city mate Rohaan Madesh won two races apiece and finished second in two races this weekend to garner 37 points each.
Ruhaan Alva went home with an overall score of 184. Rohaan Madesh finished with 143.
In the Cadet Class, it was complete domination by Rohaan’s younger brother Ishaan Madesh, who delighted all by annexing the Cadet championship. Ishaan won all the four races in the final round to pip Pune’s Sai Shiva Makesh who had given him a good fight all through the event. Bangalore’s Anshul Sai took the third place in the Championship.
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Top honours for Suhail Ahmed; Double for Sachin
By David Bodapati
Bengaluru, 21 Nov 2020: Astride a KTM 450EXC, Suhail Ahmed survived minor hiccups to win the top honours on Saturday while Sachin D bagged a brace in the third round of the Motorsport Inc FMSCI Indian National Rally Sprint Championship for two-wheelers at the closed dirt tracks in Korlahalli, 53-km from here, on Saturday.
Organised by Motorsports Inc, the promoters of the Sprint Nationals, the event attracted 82 entries in 9 classes, and is supported by Red Bull and Hero MotoSports.
Bengaluru rider Suhail clocked the fastest time of the day in Group A up to 800cc class, the ribbon event of the day, beating Sinan Francis of Ernakulam 2.19 seconds, but the Ernakulam rider placed his KTM450EXC in the second to keep the championship lead going into the fourth round on Sunday. “I was bogged down by technical issues and had to manage and finish the stage,” said Suhail, who faced suspension issues.
Suhail Ahmed, who won the fastest rider of the day tag on Saturday. Sachin D, who won a double on Saturday, negotiates a bump in the Star of Karnataka class. In the Group B classes, it was Sachin D from TVS Racing, who had the upper hand winning the 166cc to 260cc Class, astride a TVS Apache with a time of 7min 49.43seconds, the second-fastest time of the day to shoot into the championship lead following two podiums in the first two rounds. Sachin defeated Hero Motosports, Yuva Kumar by a margin of 8.49seconds and Sanjay Somasekhar, also of Bengaluru, took third on a Hero Xpulse, as he finished another 7 seconds behind.
Yuva Kumar of Hero Motosports, showcases his skills on a Hero Xpulse, but had to be content with a second place on Saturday. He collected enough points to stay in title hunt. “It’s a hard and very technical track but I had a good ride and enjoyed the day. Everything went off smoothly today. Hats-off to the organisers, for it is not easy to put together such a show in these days of Corona,” said Sachin at the service park.
In the Star of Karnataka class, Sachin D won clocking 7min 54.24sec and Yuva Kumar once again finished second. “I finished second in both my classes but it was a good day for me. The track was tricky with bumpy terrain and it was a fast stage and I am looking forward to tomorrow’s round,” quipped Yuva of Hero MotoSports.
The big daddies: Devaraj Venkatesh, astride a Himalayan negotiates a corner on way to his win in the Bullet Class Round 3 Sprint Nationals on Saturday. Photo by David Bodapati While Bengaluru’s Pavan BK won the 131 to 165cc Class, Mangalore’s Sudeep Kottary bagged the first place in 261 to 400cc Category and Ernakulam’s Nordin Thomas, put his Yamaha YBX on the top pedestal in `Upto 130cc Class’.
Sudeep was streets ahead as he won by a huge margin with over 47-seconds on Bengaluru-based Sajeesh, also on a KTM Duke. He had to be content with a second place over one minute ahead of Uday Ganguli of Kolkata, astride a KTM 390.
In the Ladies Class, Ryhana Bee, the 2019 National racing champion in her class, continued to dominate the Sprint Rally Nationals as she posted another hard-earned win brushing aside the challenge of Tanika Shanbhag of Satara. Astride a Hero Impulse, the Chennai lass posted a perfect 75 points from three rounds to complete a hat-trick of wins. Arpita VM of Mangalore, who had two podiums in the first two rounds was off-colour today on her Honda Stunner, with Bengaluru’s Dimpy taking the third place today ahead of Arpita. All the top three are riding an Impulse.
“The terrain is pretty technical with rocky pebbles. But I enjoyed the straights where we can gain time. Relatively, it is a hard track when compared to the others, as it requires mental strength to absorb the technicalities of different corners,” said Ryhana, about the 7.75km terrain. The village road from Korlahalli to Melakote amidst the Raagi fields ready for harvest had pebbles, hard rocks and loose soil at different points.
The Bullet class was dominated by Himalayan bikes and the all-Bengaluru podium saw Devaraj Venkatesh on the top step. Mohammed Zaheer came second pushing Vishwas SD to third place.
Provisional final results (Round 3):
Noldin Thomas, who won the Upto 130cc Class, in action on Saturday. Group A:
Upto 800cc: 1. Suhail Ahmed Competition Number #5 (Bengaluru, KTM450EXC) (07 minutes, 48.74 seconds); 2. Sinan Francis #1 (Ernakulam, KTM450EXC) (7: 51.55); 3. Vishwas SD #2 (Bengaluru, Suzuki) (8:09.82);
Group B:
131cc to 165cc: 1. Pavan BK #30 (Bengaluru, Hero Impulse) (8:07.83); 2. Ishan Chandra #29 (Mangalore, Hero Impulse) (8:23.19); 3. Vinay Prasad #24 (Bengaluru Hero Impulse) (8:25.58);
261cc to 400cc: 1. Sudeep Kottary #66 (Mangalore, KTM Duke) (8:38.65); 2. Sajeesh #67 (Bangalore, KTM Duke) (9:26.86); 3. Uday Ganguly #63 (Kolkota, KTM 390) (10:37.97).
Upto 130cc: 1.Nordin Thomas #19 (Ernakulam, Yamaha YBX) (8:53.53); 2. Durgesh J #18 (Mysore, Honda Stunner) (8:55.59); 3. Joseph Jinu #22 (Ernakulam, Yamaha YBX) (9:00.54).
166cc to 260cc: 1. Sachin D #51 (Bengaluru, TVS Apache) (7: 49.43); Yuva Kumar #46 (Bengaluru, Hero Xpulse) (7:58.36); 3. Sanjay Somasekhar #45 (Bengaluru, Hero Xpulse) (8:05.32).
Bullet Class: 1. Devaraj Venkatesh #88 (Bengaluru, Himalayan) (8:23.12); 2. Mohammed Zaheer #87 (Bengaluru, Himalayan) (8:29.94); 3. Vishwas SD #91 (Bengaluru, Himalayan) (8:32.31).
Ladies Class: 1. Ryhana Bee #73 (Chennai, Hero Impulse) (9:44.10); 2. Tanika Shanbhag #72 (Satara, Hero Impulse) (9:53.33); 3. Dimpy A #70 (Bengaluru, Hero Impulse) (11:30.01).
Scooter Class: 1. Karthik Naidu #79 (Bengaluru, TVS N-Torq) (9:10.86); Pinkesh Thakkar #80 (Pune, Aprilla SR125) (9:27.57); 3. Subramanya #83 (Bengaluru, TVS Wega) (9:43.07).
Star of Karnataka: 1. Sachin D #105 (Bengaluru, TVS Apache) (7:54.23); 2. Yuva Kumar #109 (Bengaluru, Hero Xpulse) (8:05.11); 3. Ishan Chandra #102 (Bengaluru, Hero Impulse) (8:11.67).
Clerk of the Course: Jaidas Menon.
Chief Steward: Gautham Shanthappa, Steward: Rakesh D, Club Steward: Uday Kumar.
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MSCC gears up for Rally of Chikmagalur, a National-level TSD event
Chikmagalur, 18 Nov 2020: Motor Sports Club of Chikmagalur (MSCC) will host the Rally of Chikmagalur, a National-level event in Time, Speed, Distance (TSD) format for 4-Wheelers in the Coffee town on December 11 and 12. The rally will offer night sections reminding the good-old long-distance rallies which used to run day-and-night on the hilly treacherous terrain near Baba Budangiri hillocks.
The 250-km rally will begin in Chikkamagaluru around 5pm and will end the next day morning at Horanadu, where the Prize Giving function will be held, after breakfast.
Most of the core team members of MSCC are seen in this file photo. One of the oldest and prestigious motorsports clubs in India, MSCC has a chequered history hosting the ‘Coffee 500′ rally that began in 1982 and used to run in the `closed roads’ with ABC being a vantage point for briefings, parc ferme and PD (Prizegiving ceremony). Many years it ran on the narrow and steep ghat terrain and during nights, usually at the foothills of Sahayadri mountain ranges. The current ‘Indian National Rally Championship’ round which happens annually began with Special Stages that are run in private Coffee Estates from 1996.
Farooq Ahmed, multiple national champion co-driver and current FMSCI vice-president The blend of the scenic beauty and the sounds of the screeching tyres make the fans eagerly look forward to the most-awaited rally. Not just the features mentioned above but the meticulous efforts by the organisers, a bunch of die-hard fans, working as a team day-in and day-out, make it a special event for the participants and the fans alike. It is also one of the rallies in the National Calendar which attracts a huge number of media, usually more than 50 reporters and photographers thronging to the ceremonial start and the PD. In recent years, the Super Special Stage in private school premises has attracted the attention of huge fan following, and is one of the highlights of the event, making it an annual festival.
So much so, the Coffee which 500 became Coffee Day Rally from 1997, after the sponsors started Coffee Day chain in 1996, got the FIA recognition for their good efforts and a Candidate Rally was awarded and the round of Asia Cup was approved and ran in 2015, christened as the Coffee Day India Rally. Ably led by Farooq Ahmed, a champion rallyist himself, the team works like a well-oiled machine.
The FIA later awarded the MSCC a prestigious round of APRC for the year 2016. The MSCC now looks forward to hosting a successful final round of APRC and to cement a permanent spot in the FIA APRC calendar and even look ahead in the coming years but due to the unfortunate demise of the long-standing sponsor’s key man behind the promotion of motorsports, late VG Siddhartha in July 2019, and the arrival of COVID 19 in 2020, the club had to skip the INRC rounds for both the years for different reasons.
However, the club kept their track record clean, of conducting national-level events by organising the South Zone Gymkhana, a qualifying event for entry into the Nationals and for Indian teams. Leaving the coffee estates, MSCC even hosted the event in December 2019 at Meco Kartopia in Bengaluru. But the popular one as ever, is their TSD event.
File photo of Marshals and other volunteers of MSCC, courtesy MSCC With a keen motive to go back to roots and spread motorsports at grassroots level, the club officials decided to organise, this year too, the national-level TSD rally, which are now called as time-regulated rallies. The TSDs are famous for the challenges they offer in navigation and are often seen as a gateway to bigger things in motorsports because they lay a good foundation of basics and nurtures drivers and navigators to graduate smoothly into stage rallies.
A 2018 group photo after the successful conduct of the fourth round of INRC. The following Categories are on offer:
1.Pro-expert
2.Pro-stock
3.All ladies
4.Couple class
5.Corporate class*
6.Veterans class*
7.Novice Class*
8. Star of Chikamaglur*
(* Terms and conditions apply please refer to Supplementary Regulations)
(The entry fee Rs. 7,500 per Car for 2 persons and Rs.11,250 for 3 persons, plus GST)
For details call or WhatsApp Dilip Doshi 9902211792 since the entries are limited on a first-come-first-serve basis. https://www.facebook.com/motorsportsclubofckm/
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K-1000 winners from 1975: KMSC Hall of fame
By David Bodapati
Bengaluru, 16 November 2020: Karnataka is rich in its motorsport history. The state is not only home to many champions of the past but is a cradle of talent and contributed to the Indian motorsport history with many activities. K-1000 rally, the flagship event of the State is a popular and vibrant stage rally that is being organised from 1975. In 1988, it officially joined the calendar of the Indian National Rally Drivers and Co-drivers’ Championship and later, the Nationals were rechristened as Indian National Rally Championship under its current format. K-1000 for the first time shifted to the European Special Stage format in 1996 before which, the rallies were hardcore long-distance endurance events covering many states and usually more than 1000-mile long, and hence the name Karnataka-1000. It is one of the few events that were organised and run successfully by hardcore and passionate motorsports lovers and ran regularly. Some of the other rallies that had multiple editions are the Popular Rally in Kerala, the South India Rally in Chennai, the Charminar Challenge or the Deccan rally and the Coffee Day rally.
INDIAinF1.com has put together all the winners of the K-1000 from 1975, a compilation first undertaken in 2009 by the late Bharat Raj and Annabelle Manwaring, the promoters of INRC from 2009 to 2011. The last 11 years were added and some gaps were filled. The IMG-PSP duo also sourced historic images of Indian rallying and specially of K-1000 from many sources, with the major contribution coming from the Father of Indian Motorsport Photography, the late George Francis. A poster was released to commemorate the 35th K-1000 celebrations as KMSC completed 35 long years of dedicated service to motorsports, then. Now the club is getting ready to host both the 2w and 4w K-1000 rally once again for the 45th year.
Here is a list of the all the winners of K-1000, a jewel in the pride of Indian Rallying. Each round’s report will be added shortly. Or you can check the reports at INRC: Winners’ Hall of Fame here. Currently the list contains only the 4-wheel winners and the 2-w biker champions’ list is work in progress and will be updated soon.
Multiple Asia Pacific Rally champion Gaurav Gill tops the table with six K-1000 wins followed by 7-time INRC champion N Leelakrishnan who bagged the K-1000 five times followed by Naren Kumar, who won it for three times, along with Ravi Gupta, who also had three wins, but it appears he may have navigated for the inaugural edition winner DR Sivaram in 1980, for his second K1000 trophy. Kiran Mody, too had won the K1000 three times.
K-1000 Winners from 1975 No. Year Dates The man… Machine Surface 1 1975 DR Sivaram, D Vinod Sivappa, Feroze Asgar Ali & Shivprasad, Bangalore Ambassador 1850 km of mixed roads… gravel, kutcha, tarmac 2 1976 Ravi Gupta, Devendra Gupta, Bangalore FIAT 3 1977 Undecided 4 1978 Dayanand Mandre, Jagadish Reddy, Hyderabad FIAT 5 1979 Kiran Mody, Dr Rajesh Kakkadia, Hyderabad FIAT 6 1980 DR Sivaram, Kiran Mody, Bangalore/Hyderabad FIAT 7 1981 Arindam Ghosh, Saswati Ghosh, Sk Yeasin Ali, Nani Chanda, Kolkota FIAT 8 1982 BM Ravi, Noel Gojar, Bangalore FIAT 9 1983 Uday Eswaran, Dr Ravi Prakash, Bangalore FIAT 10 1984 Kiran Mody, Damaraju Kumar Rao (DK Rao), Hyderabad Dolphin 11 1985 Mohammed Harris, Deepak, UAE SUBARU* 12 1986 Subash Goel, Rajan Siyal, Chennai FIAT 13 1987 Aug Kamlesh Patel, KD Madan, Chennai 118 NE 14 1988 Kamlesh Patel, KD Madan, Chennai 118 NE 15 1989 Harish Samtani, Rajiv Chaudhary, Chennai Maruti Gypsy 16 1990 Leelakrishnan, Mahendran, Coimbatore Maruti Gypsy 17 1991 Aug 12-13 Leelakrishnan, Mahendran, Coimbatore Maruti Gypsy Gravel 18 1992 Leelakrishnan, Mahendran, Coimbatore Maruti Gypsy 19 1993 Aug 14-15 VInyl Varghese, Anil Devaraj, Team Paarel, Kerala Maruti Gypsy 20 1994 Leelakrishnan, Farooq Ahmed, Coimbatore/Chikmagalur Maruti Gypsy 21 1995 Aug 12-14 Naren Kumar, MK Chander, Coimbatore Esteem, Group N 22 1996 K1000 Ashphalt Samir Thaper, Koka Rao, Chandigarh /Hyderabad Esteem India Mines 23 1997 The Club K1000 Hari Singh, GS Mann, Delhi Esteem 24 1998 24th Castrol K1000 Leelakrishnan, Farooq Ahmed,
Coimbatore/ChikmagalurEsteem 25 1999 25th K1000 Hari Singh, GS Mann, Delhi Esteem 26 2000 MAI 26th K1000 TSD Rally – Not part of the National Championship round. 27 2001 Aug 10-12 Karandeep Singh, Jaidas Menon Baleno 28 2002 Oct 11-13 Naren Kumar, Doraikumar Ramkumar, Coimbatore Honda City Asphalt 29 2003 Nov 14-16 Karandip Singh, Jaidas Menon, Chandigarh/Bng Honda city Gravel 30 2004 Aug 6-8 Naren Kumar, Doraikumar Ramkumar, Coimbatore Baleno Asphalt 31 2005 Aug 12-14 Naren Kumar, D Ramkumar, Coimbatore Baleno Asphalt 32 2006 Aug 11-13 Gaurav Gill, Farooq Ahmed, Delhi/Chikmagalur Cedia Gravel 33 2007 Aug 17-19 Gaurav Gill, Musa Sherif, Delhi/ Mangalore (Kasargod) Cedia Asphalt 34 2008 Aug 8-10 Vikram Mathias, Srinivasa Murthy, Masinagudi (Karnataka) Cedia Asphalt 35 2009 Aug 21-23 Arjun Balu, Sujith Kumar BS, Coimbatore/ Bengaluru Cedia Gravel 36 2010 Dec 3 -5 Arjun Rao Aroor, Satish Rajagopal, Karnataka Cedia Gravel 37 2011 Aug 19-21 Gaurav Gill, Musa Sherif, Delhi/Kasargod Cedia Gravel 38 2012 Sept 21-23 Lohitt V Urs, Sujith Kumar BS, Mysore/ Bengaluru, Privateers Cedia Gravel 39 2013 Nov 9-10 Gaurav Gill, Musa Sherif, Delhi/Kasargod Mahindra XUV 500 Gravel 40 2014 Nov 21-23 Gaurav Gill, Musa Sherif, Delhi/Kasargod Mahindra XUV 500 Gravel 41 2015 Nov 20-22 Pallath Ganesh Abhilash, Anoop Kumar, Kerala/Bangalore Lancer Evo 8 Gravel 42 2016 Dec 17 -18 Amittrajit Ghosh, Ashwin Naik, Kolkata/ Mangalore Mahindra XUV 500 Gravel 43 2017 Jan 19-21, 2018 Gaurav Gill, Musa Sherif, Delhi/Kasargod Mahindra XUV 500 Gravel 2018 NOT HELD Promoters RRPM did not include the event in the Natioinal INRC calendar 44 2019 Nov 22-24 Chetan Shivaram, Dilip Sharan, Bengaluru VW Polo, Team Akshara Gravel 45 2020 -held 2021 Jan Feb 13-14, 2021 Cancelled Gravel *Corrected from BMW to Subaru, thanks to Zuhin, the 2012 IRC winner
