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Category: Domestic
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Gill touches unbelievable speeds, thrills fans; Karna/Nikhil win INRC2; Dean/Shruptha INRC3
Gaurav Gill took a substantial lead on Saturday in the APRC. Photo by Anand Philar Ole Christian Veiby takes a corner at blistering speed after the gearbox was changed in the afternoon reverse run. Image by Srinivasa Krishnan Chikkamagaluru, 25 Nov 2017: The `King of Indian Motorsports’ was at it again. The Speed Maestro touched speeds of over 170 kmph as he enjoyed a lone `straight’ at the picturesque Coffee Estates owned by sponsors Coffee Day in Chikmagalur on Saturday, the first day of the final round of the FIA Asia Pacific Rally Championship .
“I was on 6th for a long stretch and I enjoyed the stage touching high speeds,” said a visibly-pleased Gaurav Gill, who loves his speed. The reigning APRC champion was talking to the reporters at the service park, about his run in Special Stage 1 where he did an average of 63.63 kmph for the stretch of 11.58kms. One veteran driver said, “if you get that kind of an average speed means that Gill was going over 90-kmph consistently for many stretches of these tight and twisty corners.”
Gill and co-driver Stéphane Prévot scored wins in New Zealand and Japan while Ole Christian Veiby and co-driver Stig Rune Skjærmoen succeeded in Australia and Malaysia.
Though Gill is leading by 6 points, whoever wins the Coffee Day India Rallly wins the APRC title this year. “Gaurav and Veiby are allowed to drive without team order for the victory in India and winning the championship, ” said Skoda Motorsport boss, Michal Hrabanek before the rally began. But there was no need for any team orders on Saturday as Veiby, the 21-year-young exciting talent from Norway got into technical issues in the very first stage of the day and lost time on Gill, who by that time was galloping away on his Skoda Fabia R5 like a war horse, with navigator Stephane Prevot, giving the calls accurately on the tricky terrain which is nicknamed as a `Rally of 1000 corners’ by Gill himself, until Veiby renamed it as a `Rally of One million corners’. His first time here at the winding and twisty turns of Chikmagalur estates. In the pre-event press conference, Gill turned to OC and joked, “you are lucky”. And then told the press that the stages were made broader this year. “They opened up the stages and they are much faster and safer,” the current championship leader added.
Only a co-driver can understand the story behind all those umpteen corners one had to drive through. The co-driver prepares pace notes during the recce and say, if each page has about 10 calls, this rally demands a pace notes of over 400 pages which keeps the co-driver busy, and any wrong call will result in an immediate casualty what with the narrow stretches. Different navigators, as they were called in the days of yore, have different styles of preparing notes and different ways of making the calls.
By the end of the day Veiby (OC), Gill’s closest rival and team-mate, despite a late aggression after the gear box change, lost the chance of preventing the Indian from pulling away. Gill created a safe lead of 15min 21.0 seconds, and still not easing off, as is his wont, and is sitting pretty for a grand victorious run on Sunday.
Meanwhile, in the fourth round of the MRF FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship that was run concurrently, Karna Kadur and co-driver Nikhil V Pai in a Volkswagen Polo emerged overall winners, ahead of Arjun Rao (Satish Rajagopal). Karna Kadur, whose ancestral home is at the nearby Kadur, enjoyed the home coming for another great win with Pai calling the pace notes, for a well-deserved victory in INRC2, even if it is by a very close margin of one second, where a charging Arjun Rao, ended at that. Dean, who also has his home in Mangalore, a neighbourhood city, won the INRC3 category with his old-time navigator Shruptha Padival. They slipped to overall third as the results were updated after midnight due to some scratch times, which were awarded for a cancelled stage. The youngster is considered as an up-and-coming talent, who shot into limelight doing great speeds as a teenager, a few years back.
Gill, winner of APRC crowns in 2013 and 2016, enjoyed a six-point lead in the championship over Veiby going into the final round. In order to win the title Veiby has to score seven points more than Gill, which now looks extremely bleak. With four more Special Stages to be run on Sunday covering 64.12 kms, Gill, who leads second-placed PG Abhilash of R3A PGA Motorsports team by 15 minutes, 21.0 seconds, has one hand on the trophy. Veiby is lying third, trailing Abhilash by 02:25.1.
Gill, who turns 36 in six days, was virtually in cruise control mode in his RaceTorque prepared Skoda Fabia R5 after Veiby encountered gearbox and driveshaft problems midway through the day’s first Special Stage. It cost the 21-year old Norwegian massive amount of time with his car losing front-wheel drive and stuck in third gear.
Veiby’s misfortune was to PG Abhilash’s benefit as the Keralite in a Subaru Impreza WRX Sti eased into second place, but remained very much in the sight of a hard-charging Veiby, who after mid-day service saw his team of mechanics change the gearbox in 20 minutes flat. Veiby cut the eight-minute deficit to Abhilash at half-way mark, to a little over two minutes at the end of the day by being the fastest over the last five Stages.
“Somewhere in the day’s first Stage today, I heard some noise and then lost the front-wheel drive. It was very difficult thereafter and worse still, my car was stuck in third gear. My co-driver Stig (Rune Skjarmoen) had to use the handbrake for me. We spun a few times too.
“This is rallying, but I feel the game is not over yet. Anything can happen as there is still a lot of driving left in this rally. Of course, I will push as hard as possible from now on,” said Veiby during the service break.
Despite the healthy advantage, Gill felt he still needed to bring home his car safely on Sunday. “It is a very difficult and long rally. Though I have a big lead, my aim is to bring home the car in one piece. Overall, I am pretty pleased with the car and especially the tyres which are of a new pattern that MRF developed. The tyres offered good grip and I could attack the corners with far more confidence,” said Gill.
Gill, the genial giant, had the advantage of knowing the stages here `nearly by heart’. But he didn’t compete with the Fabia R5 since Rally Japan in mid-September while Veiby in the meantime got a lot of mileage on gravel roads with the same car on World Championship rallies in Spain and the United Kingdom. But he debuts at these estate dirt roads where Gill had his baptism into rallying many years ago.
Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Mike Young, driving the Volkswagen Polo, was forced to retire following a fuel leak and other mechanical issues. “I thought I had good pace today, but the fuel tank developed a leak on SS-6, though I am not sure how because I didn’t hit anything, and I decided to pull out rather than risk a mishap,” he said.
Provisional results:
APRC: 1. Gaurav Gill / Stephane Prevot (Team MRF, Skoda Fabia R5) (02Hrs, 24mins, 22.2secs); 2. PG Abhilash / Srikant Gowda (Team R3A, PGA Motorsports, Subaru Impreza WRX) (02:39:43.2); 3. Ole Christian Veiby / Stig Rune Skjarmoen (Team MRF, Skoda Fabia R5) (02:42:08.3).
MRF FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship – Overall placing): 1. Karna Kadur / Nikhil V Pai (ARKA Motorsports, VW Polo) (01:32:18.3); 2. . Arjun Rao / Satish Rajagopal (VW Polo R2) (01:32:19.3); 3.Dean Mascarenhas / Shruptha Padival (VW Polo) (01:32:54.4).
eom/with inputs from the press release; updated at 10am, 26nov2017
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JS group South Lake TSD rally successfully completes 7 editions
Bengaluru, 13 Nov 2017: After a thrilling battle for top honours Vinay Prasanna and co-driver Ravi Kumar BM logged 18.46 penalty points to narrowly win the annual JS Group 7th South Lake TSD Rally organised by Startline Motorsports here on Sunday.
Balaji Shetty along with navigator Natarajan were close behind in the TSD Challenge class with a penalty of 18.50 to take second behind Vinay and Ravi while the pair of Naveen and Lenin Joseph came third in 20.18. Mohan and Chandran duo won the Stock Amateur category with 40.49 penalty points. The drivers and organisers carried the messages of road safety and protection of lakes on the cars and promotion materials.
Three categories were run in the TSD Endurance class. Akshay and Aprameya won the Corporate class. Supree Sagar along with co-drier Anushree won the couple class while Minaxi and Rajaratna claimed the all-Ladies class.
Provisional results: TSD Challenge: Pro Expert: 1. Vinay Prasanna & Ravi Kumar BM 18.46 penalty points; 2. Balaji Shetty & Natarajan 18.50; 3. Naveen & Lenin Joseph 20.18. Pro Stock: 1. Mohan & Chandran 27.51; 2. Sai Prasad & Arun 37.56; 3. Pavan Kumar & Pradeep Nagaraj 46.02.
TSD Endurance: Stock Amateur: 1. Shiva Kumar & Vignesh 40.49; 2. Manjunath & Shivaprasad 41.37; 3. Sachin & Vinay Prasad 44.09. Corporate: 1. Akshay & Aprameya 20.50; 2. Ponappa & Chengappa 23.20; 3. Prajwal Gowda & Devkanth GM 26.30. Couple: 1. Supreet Sagar & Anushree 15.30; 2. Abbas Anil & Aini Anil 18.37; 3. Suresh B & Manjushree 37.54. All ladies: 1. Minaxi & Rajaratna 15:14; 2. Noopur Agrawal & Nilofer Ibrahim 3:12.00; 3. Fernandes Dominic & Sonia Kaveriappa 3:32.00.
eom
Winners all: Winners of all the categories pose for a group picture after the PD in Bangalore on Sunday. Photo by Startline Motorsports -
Commanding show, including a hat-trick, gets maiden title for Aaroh Ravindra; Rayo Racing tops
Aaroh Ravindra and Aanjan Patodia (right) with their trophies on 15 Oct 2017 in Bangalore. Photo by Rayo Racing Bengaluru : Aaroh Ravindra from Rayo Racing, clinched his maiden National Karting Championship, with a 2nd place finish in Round 5 of the Meco FMSCI National Rotax Karting Championship.
The Mumbai youngster has consistently dominated the championship ever since his victory in round 1 at Hyderabad. He completed a hat-trick of victories at the end of Round 3 and already had a commanding lead of 27 points in the National Championship by then.
Aaroh qualified 2nd as the weekend began, after Nirmal USB of M Sport clinched pole position with a lap time of 54.694, a mere 2 hundredths of a second ahead of Aaroh. Manav Sharma was third. Heat 1 saw Nirmal lead from pole & win the heat, while Aaroh won the 2nd heat, ahead of Nirmal.
The pre final saw Nirmal from Chennai, once again start from pole & win ahead of Aaroh & Manav. Aaroh’s earned enough points in the pre final, to be practically assured of the title, irrespective of the outcome of the final. However, Aaroh was not content with merely finishing.
he final saw Nirmal pulling away as soon as the green flag dropped, while Aaroh fell to third. He regained second, coming out of corner 2 but lost ground immediately to Akash. Soon, it was Rayo Racing 2nd & 3rd as both Aaroh & Aanjan overtook Akash on lap 3. Mid-way through the race, Nirmal picked a puncture which promoted the Rayo Racing duo into 1st & 2nd. Aanjan being quicker, soon passed Aaroh for the lead & won a really close race. Aaroh crossed the line a mere 0.3 seconds behind Aanjan, while local lad Akash finished 3rd, ahead of another Bengaluru lad – Danesh Vakharia from Rayo Racing.
Bengaluru’s Chirag Ghorpade from BPC racing won the junior finals ahead of M Sport Racing boys, Shahan Mohsin from Agra & Yash Aradhya from Bengaluru. Bengaluru boys sealed the Micro Max podium as Ruhaan Alva of Birel Art won the finals ahead of Rohaan Madhesh of Peregrine Racing & Rishon MR from Birel Art.
Aaroh’s domination in the Senior National Championship saw him pick the award for most wins in the entire championship. His worst finish of the season being a 2nd place, he won the National Title with a lead of 33 points & earns himself a ticket to represent India in the World Finals at Portugal in November. Aaroh’s participation in the series came as a result of his sponsorship from Tata Motors, JK Tyres, Rayo Racing & IndiKarting after finishing runner up in the JK Tyre IndiKarting National Series last year. The winner of that series – Aanjan Patodia, finished 3rd overall behind Nirmal USB in spite of not finishing a couple of races. He tied on points with Rayo Racing Teammate – Danesh Vakharia.
Yash Aradhya of M Sport, with 2 victories in the season, won the junior title by 9 points from Chirag Ghorpade & Shahan Mohsin. Arjun Rajiv won the Micro title by 8 points, ahead of Ruhaan Alva & Rishon MR.
“It was an amazing start to the year, with a hat trick of victories. A double runner-up finish in the last 2 rounds was not bad either. It has been hard work by everyone involved & I really want to thank Steve for his efforts, as well as all our sponsors & my family for their support” said an ecstatic Aaroh after the prize distribution ceremony.
He continued, “I have had very limited track time over the last 2 years due to the lack of a budget. The World Finals are going to be tough competing against the 72 best drivers from around the world, but I will be working hard over the next few weeks to prepare in the best possible way.”
As reported earlier, Aaroh Ravindra, Yash Aradhya and Ruhaan Alva, will represent India, in the World Rotax Finals in Portimao, Portugal from 5th to 11th November, as the champions from over 50 countries will vie for the title of World Rotax Champion 2017. Over 300 competitors will race at this prestigious World Finals.
eom/with inputs from Rayo Racing
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Ruhaan Alva, Yash Aradhya, Aaroh Ravindra for World Rotax Grand Finale in Portugal
Bangalore, 15 Oct 2017: Ruhaan Alva (Micro Max), Yash Aradhya (Junior Max) and Aaroh Ravindra (Senior Max) will represent India in the World Rotax Max Challenge Grand Finals at Portugal from November 4-11 according to sources. Portim
ao in Algarve will be the venue for the 16th edition where 288 of the best kart drivers in the world will compete in four categories supported by independent chassis partners.Meanwhile, in the Nationals, Arjun Rajiv of Birel Art India won the Micro Max Championship while Yash Aradhya (MSport) and Aaroh Ravindra of Rayo Racing won the Junior Max and Senior Max Championships respectively. Team Rayo Racing won the team championship while Nirmal Umashankar became the best driver of the year.
Ruhaan Alva, won the final race of the fifth and final round in the Micro Max class at the Meco Kartopia in the Rotax Max Karting National Championship organised by Meco Motorsports under the aegis of Federation of Motor Sports Clubs in India (fmsci) here on Sunday.
However, the 11-year old Bengaluru boy, who recently won the second runners-up place in the Italian EasyKart 60cc championship, was given a third place after the stewards’ ruling following a protest. That did not, however, deny him a second place in the Micro Max championship.
Aaroh Ravindra, Senior Max National Champion. Photos by Srinivasa Krishnan Ruhaan reacts at the Meco Kartopia on Sunday after hearing the news of World finals. Photo by Srinivasa Krishnan, commissioned for INDIAinF1. Ruhaan’s teammate Arjun Rajiv could only finish sixth and fifth in the two races this week-end but that was enough for him to garner a total tally of 416 points, eight more than Ruhaan, to win the Championship crown. Rishon MR, also of Birel Art India, came third for a clean sweep by the Birel team. Both Ruhaan and Rishon had 408 points.
In the Senior Max championship, it was Aaroh Ravindra of Rayo Racing who won the National title with 436 points after he finished second in both the races in the last round here. Nirmal Umashankar of MSport was second with a tally of 403 points while Aanjan Patodia, also of Rayo Racing, got the second runners-up with 388 points.
It was Yash Aradhya of MSport who won the National Championship in the Junior Max category with 432 points edging out Chirag Ghorpade, who won both the pre-finals andn finals this week-end but fell short by six points in his last-round dash with only 423 points. Yash came third in the pre-final and second in the last race of the season. Shahan Ali Mohsin MSport came third with 405 points with a second and third place this week-end.
Championship winners:
Micro Max
- Arjun Rajiv – 416 – Birel Art India
- Ruhaan Alva – 408 – Birel Art India
- Rishon M R – 408 – Birel Art India
Winning Team Champion – Peregrine Racing
Junior Max
- Yash Aradya – 432 – MSPORT
- Chirag Ghorpade – 423 – BPC Racing
- Shahan Ali Mohsin – 405 – MSPORT
Winning Team Champion – MSPORT
Senior Max
- Aaroh Ravindra – 436 – Rayo Racing
- Nirmal Umashankar – 403 – MSPORT
- Aanjan Patodia – 388 – Rayo Racing
Winning Team Champion – Rayo Racing
Maximum Number of Pole Position – Ruhaan Alva
Maximum Number of Wins – Aaroh Ravinda
Best New Corner – Rishon M R
Best Driver of the Year – Nirmal Uma Shankar
Akbar Ebrahim Most Improved Karter of the Year – Rohaan Madhesh
eom/with inputs from official results
edited at 11.15 am on 16 Oct 2017 correcting names following an official revisions
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Bengaluru girl Aishwarya fourth in Raid de Himalaya: Xtreme category Group B bikes
Photos courtesy Aishwarya Pissay Aishwarya in action at Raid de Himalaya 2017 in Group B Xtreme class. Leh (J & K), 13 Oct 2017: Aishwarya Pissay, riding a factory-supported TVS Apache RTR 200, endured the grueling 19th Maruti Suzuki Raid de Himalaya Rally to finish a creditable fourth in the “Xtreme” category for Group B bikes here on Friday.
She is the only female rider to complete the course in the week-long event in her second attempt this year.
The Raid, which has earned notoriety for breaking the hardiest of men and machines, is considered to be among the toughest rallies in the World as the participants have to negotiate treacherous terrain and high altitude mountain passes.
Aishwarya, the 21-year old from Bengaluru and first-ever National champion among girls in both racing and rallying, was in line for a podium finish, but a couple of crashes cost her precious time.
Reflecting on her performance, Aishwarya said: “I am delighted to have finished such a grueling rally, and it was an improvement over my debut last year when I had to retire on the very first day. Today, the gap was too much to make up and I focused on finishing the course, though fourth in Group B.
“It was a very challenging event which tested my mental and physical limits. There were times, especially when I crashed a few times, my body wanted to give up, but I pushed myself to continue. I also had to endure extreme cold and high altitude. So, overall, I am extremely happy to have crossed the finish line.”
After a smooth start to her campaign which was flagged off from Manali on October 8, Aishwarya, who is supported by TVS Racing, had to endure tough moments. In her bid to catch up with front-runners yesterday, she fell heavily. In fact, she covered the last 20 Kms of Stage on just two gears, first and second, and having to bend down to move the gear lever with her hand.
“I had a good start with trouble-free runs on Days 1 and 2 though the terrain was really rough. Only about 25 of the 43 bikes which had taken the start finished Day 2.
“On Day 3, I had some issues with my bike as there was not enough intake of oxygen into the carburetor and the engine kept stalling, but I managed to pull through and was running third in my Group B class.
“I survived a couple of crashes on Day 4 when we did the Leh to Kargil run and dropped one spot to fourth. Yesterday, Day 5, was very stressful. We had a 65Kms of Competitive Section followed by 85 Kms of Special Stage. In the latter half of the run, I fell heavily as I pushed too hard trying to catch up with a couple of bikers ahead of me.
“The bike suffered some damage and kept dragging to the left. Over the last 20 Kms or so, I had to bend down to change the gears with my hand. There were only first and second gears available, but somehow I managed to finish the Stage at the end of which the TVS service crew did a fantastic job of repairing the bike.
“We had to return to Kargil by the same route as the next Stage was cancelled due to technical reasons. I had a 4 am flag-off and I think, I rode for nearly 11 hours, covering some 400-plus Kms!”
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6th championship for Jagan Kumar of TVS Racing: Motorcycle Nationals
National champions (Left to Right) – Sai Rahil Pillarishetty, Aishwarya Pissay, Jagan Kumar, Aravind Balakrishnan and Amarnath Menon on Oct 1 at MMRT. Image by Anand Philar Satyanarayana Raju, winner of the Honda CBR 150 Championship at MMRT on Sunday. Portraits by Srinivasa Krishnan Chennai, October 1: TVS Racing’s mascot Jagan Kumar notched his sixth straight title in the premier Super Sport Indian (165cc) class on a rain-affected day to bring down the curtain on the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2017 at the MMRT track, here on Sunday.
In the girls stock 165cc class, Aishwarya Pissay bagged her first national championship defeating Ryhana Bee in the final race. The 21-year-old thus finished her year in style and is looking forward to move to bigger thingsf in future.
The day’s original programme of seven races looked to be in jeopardy following a massive downpour in the early hours of today. However, the Madras Motor Sports Club officials came up with a herculean effort to get the club circuit (short loop, 2.1 Kms) ready for racing with the full circuit (3.7 Kms) not available due to water-logging. Thus, three of the seven races were cancelled since the championships in those categories were already decided.
The changes had little impact on Jagan Kumar. Going into today’s race, Jagan enjoyed a six-point lead over Honda Ten10 Racing’s Rajiv Sethu, but the expected challenge did not materialize as the latter crashed at Turn-2 in the very first lap. Thereafter, Jagan was on a cruise mode and seemed content to finish second behind Sethu’s team-mate Mathana Kumar who eased past in the last lap. Harry Sylvester (TVS Racing) came in third.
It was a splendid comeback by Jagan who, at one point in the season, trailed Sethu by 33 points but three back-to-back wins, including one yesterday, put the TVS Racing rider’s campaign back on track as he clinched the title in this class, previously known as “Group B”, for the sixth year in a row by a comfortable 24-point margin.
Aravind Balakrishnan (Honda Ten10 Racing) took the title in the Pro-Stock class though he finished a distant eighth in the race won by his team-mate Anish Shetty. Balakrishnan thus finished with 138 points, 13 ahead of Aravind Ganesh (Moto-Rev).
The National champions: Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing , Super Sport Indian 165cc), Aravind Balakrishnan (Honda Ten10 Racing, Pro-Stock), Amarnath Menon (Gusto Racing, Super Sport Indian 300-400cc), Sai Rahil Pillarishetty (Sparks Racing, Novice 165cc), Aishwarya Pissay (Apex Racing, Girls 165cc).
Team championship: Gusto Racing (Super Sport Indian 300-400cc); TVS Racing (Super Sport Indian 165cc); Honda Ten10 Racing (Pro-Stock); Sparks Racing (Novice, 165cc); Apex Racing (Girls, 165cc).
MMSC One-Make Championship winners: Rajiv Sethu (Honda CBR 250), Satyanarayana Raju (Sparks Racing, Honda CBR 150), S Sivanesan (TVS Apache RTR 200 Open), Anup Kumar (TVS Novice) and Nitish Kumar (Yamaha R15 Novice).
The results (Provisional):
Super Sport Indian (165cc) – Race 2 (10 laps): 1. Mathana Kumar (Honda Ten10 Racing) (11mins, 50.428secs); 2. Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) (11:54.499); 3. Harry Sylvester (TVS Racing) (11:57.121).
Pro-Stock (165cc) – Race 2 (10 laps): 1. Anish D Shetty (Honda Ten10 Racing) (12:16.808); 2. Naresh Babu J (12:17.075); 3. S Sivanesan (Team Alisha Abdullah) (12:19.512).
Girls (Stock, 165cc, 8 laps) : 1.Aishwarya Pissay (Apex Racing) (10:21.373); 2. Ryhana Bee A (Speed Up Racing) (10:26.541); 3. Shruthi Nagarajan (Chennai) (10:31.314).
MMSC One-Make Championship (Novice) – Yamaha R15 (Race 2, 8 laps): 1. Nithish Kumar M (Coimbatore) (10:40.813); 2. Sai Rahil Pillarishetty (Hyderabad) (10: 41.037); 3. Akshay VM (Pallagat) (10:41.661).
TVS One-Make Championship (Novice) – Apache RTR 200 (Race 2, 8 laps): 1. KB Rajkamal (Neyveli) (10:14.340); 2. Anup Kumar M (Chennai) (10:14.570); 3. Yashvin Kumar (Chennai) (10:23.061).
eom/AP Media Communications press release
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Rajiv Sethu, Jagan Kumar locked in title fight: Final round of MMSC Motorcycle Nationals
Jagan Kumar file photo by Anand Philar Chennai, 27 Sept 2017: The MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2017 is set for a grandstand finish in view of the intense battles for titles as the fifth and concluding round kick-starts at the MMRT track here this weekend with nearly 200 entrants in fray.
In one of the most closely-fought championships in recent times, the Super Sport Indian (165cc) class will headline the programme which commences on Thursday with the practice sessions, followed by qualifying and 15 races that include One-Make championships involving country’s top manufacturers Honda, TVS and Yamaha, spread over the next three days.
The weekend bash will conclude with the fourth and final round of the MMSC fmsci Indian National Drag Racing Championship for two-wheelers at the same venue with practice session on Saturday afternoon and final runs on Sunday.
The participants will enjoy the comforts of swanky, international standard pits which the Madras Motor Sports Club worked overtime to finish in time for last weekend’s Asia Road Racing Championship.
But much of the focus will be on the track battles. The Super Sport Indian (165cc) promises to be another shootout between Honda Ten10 Racing’s Rajiv Sethu and defending champion Jagan Kumar of TVS Racing who is seeking a hat-trick of titles.
Sethu, in his debut season in this class after clinching the Pro-Stock championship last year, leads the table with 123 points, including three wins, while Jagan, who won four of the eight races thus far, is placed second on 122.
Lurking behind the duo is Sethu’s team-mate Mathana Kumar on 109 points and who came into the reckoning after scoring his only win of the season in the third round besides three other podium finishes. A disappointing Round 4 saw him slip one spot to third on the leaderboard.
In the Pro-Stock class, Aravind Balakrishnan (Honda Ten10 Racing) is well-placed on 126 points ahead of Moto-Rev’s Aravind Ganesh (105) who though without a win, has been scoring consistently to be in the hunt.
Similarly, Amarnath Menon (Gusto Racing) enjoys a healthy 39-point cushion in the Super Sport Indian (300-400cc) class, but needs to keep an eye on Deepak Ravi Kumar (Moto-Rev) who scored a double in the previous round to put himself in title contention.
The Novice (Stock 165cc) category is set for a close finish. Sri Rahil Pillarishetty of Sparks Racing leads with 61 points with team-mate Peddu Sriharsha and RACR’s Anup Kumar tied in second spot with 50 apiece. A further six points adrift of the trio is another Sparks Racing rider Satyanarayana Raju.
The final race in the Girls (Stock 165cc) category will be of academic interest as Bengaluru’s Aishwarya Pissay (Apex Racing) has already sealed the championship with a round to spare as she leads Indore’s Kalyani Potekar (Speed Up Racing) by 34 points with a maximum of 25 available.
About Madras Motor Sports Club
The Madras Motor Sports Club has been the pioneer in developing and promoting motorsport in India since 1953, and we look to further improve in the years to come. It is the club’s endeavor to provide more opportunities for competitors and to this end, it has chalked out a progressive program for 2017. From the days of Sholavaram , MMSC built its own racetrack which was inaugurated in 1979 and secured its FIA Grade-2 international certification in 2015, making it the only club which owns such a facility. The club has organised the Porsche Super Cup, Formula Campos, Formula Asia, Asian touring car championships, Formula 3, Tata Prima Truck racing championship, the Asian 2-wheeler racing championships besides a host of other motorsport events over the years. The club also has active participation for its events from vehicle manufacturers who also use the Madras Motor Race Track (MMRT) extensively for testing their products.
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Gill-Sherif duo wins; Kadur, Ghosh crash out: INRC
Jaipur, 24 Sep. 2017: Speed demon Gaurav Gill and co-driver Musa Sherif asserted their supremacy in the MRF FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship 2017, comfortably winning the third round here on Sunday.The ace duo were fastest in four out of the six special stages and clocked 57 minutes, 23.5 seconds to claim Round 3 of the six-round national championship and won the event with rivals Karna Kadur and Amittrajit Ghosh crashing out.
Gill and Sherif began the march for Team Mahindra Adventure late on Saturday, conquering the championship’s first night stage with élan. They took barely 13:21.1 minutes to complete the 13.9 kilometre Night Hawk stage, zipping through the sharp turns and undulating curves in the dark with ease.
The pair, however, suffered issues in SS 2, the tricky Shiv Shakti 1, taking 6:49.1 long minutes to finish fifth in the stage, yielding the lead to defending champion Karna Kadur of Arka Motorports (6:01.5) and his own teammate Amittrajit Ghosh (6:12.1) for the first time this year.
“I suffered in the second stage as I couldn’t avoid a rock and picked up a puncture,” Gill said, about his that stage.
“But I am glad I came through. This is one of the toughest rallies and the night stage has really got us all excited,” he added.
Karna and Amittrajit’s joy was, however, short-lived. Gill was back in his elements in SS 3, the Flying Machine stage, taking an astounding 12:09.5 minutes to crack the 13.8 kilometres to reclaim the rally lead.
Gill in his XUV was beyond anybody’s reach in the next two stages too, driving in his typically aggressive manner. He needed just 5:55.4 minutes to complete SS 4 and widen his lead. Karna and Amittrajit kept pace till that stage but then disaster struck both of them.
Karna’s car broke down in SS 5 and he tumbled out of contention. Amittrajit too faced a mechanical problem and managed to clock only 18:16.9 minutes, nearly five and half minutes behind Gill to slip to the sixth position. He made up time quite dramatically in the final stage but couldn’t do enough to get on to the podium.
The twin setbacks opened the path for Dean Mascarenhas’ INRC 3 team and Rahul Kanthraj’s INRC 2 outfit to jump into contention.
Mascarenhas and his co-driver Shruptha Padival, in their VW Polo, had an impressive stage to climb all the way to the second position. They hung on to the godsend doggedly, despite being pushed to the fourth place in SS 7.
Kanthraj and navigator Vivek Bhatt stunned the field by winning the final stage, the SS 7, although Gill went easy after being assured of winning the round. That ensured them the third place on the podium.
One stage, the SS 6, had to be cancelled due to an emergency in the village that required the rally to be stopped to let an ambulance with a lady in labour rush to the hospital.
Results: INRC: 1. Gaurav Gill & Musa Sharif (57:23.5); 2. Dean Mascarenhas & Shruptha Padival (1:00:03.1); 3. Rahul Kanthraj & Vivek Y Bhatt (1:02:31.3).
INRC 2: 1. Rahul Kanthraj & Vivek Y Bhatt (1:02:31.3); 2. Younus Ilyas & Harish Kumar (1:20:22.4); 3. Jacob KJ & Manoj Mohanan (1:27:58.5).
INRC 3: Dean Mascarenhas & Shruptha Padival (1:00:03.1); 2. Saddam Ali Saikh & Abhijeet Singh (1:03:07.0); 3. Daraius Shroff & Nitin Jacob (1:03:33.0).
FMSCI 2WD Cup: 1. Chetan Shivram & Rupesh Koley (1:04:11.7); 2. Suraj Thomas & Thomas Paul (1:06:40.0); 3. Sachin Sharma & Sagar Malappa (1:09:53.7).
4WD Open: 1. S. Yadav & V. Kashyap (1:00:57.4); 2. Himangshu Arora & Kunal Kashyap (1:05:25.1); 3. Sanjay Razdan & Karan Aukta (1:07:07.0).
2WD Open: Lakshya Veer Dabbas & Aakshay Suhhag (time not available).
eom/An RRPM press release
About RRPM: Ramakrishna Race Performance Management Pvt. Ltd.(RRPM) is a company formed with the sole intention of promoting “Professional Motorsports” in India and provides all kinds of technical assistance and information required to be at par with the National Level.
RRPM was started in 2003 by Mr Arindam Ghosh, an icon in his own rights with over 40 years rallying and organizational experience. RRPM is proud to be a part of the Federation of Motor Sports Clubs of India (FMSCI), which is the apex body of India.
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Aaroh Ravindra extends championship lead by a point: Meco Karting Nationals
Bengaluru, 24 Sept. 2017: Rayo Racing’s Aaroh Ravindra extended his championship lead by a mere 1 point at the end of Round 4 of the Meco FMSCI National Rotax Karting Championship. The Mumbai lad kept a cool head and finished both the pre – finals and finals in 2nd position.
Earlier in the weekend, it was Bangalore racer Nirmal Umashankar from M Sport Racing who bagged pole position with a time of 54.864 ahead of Manav Sharma of BPC Racing. Aaroh could only manage third.
Heat 1 and 2 saw Nirmal win ahead of Aaroh and Manav. This ensured that Nirmal started on Pole for the Pre-finals. As the green flag was waved, Nirmal got a good start and managed to block Aaroh, who in turn managed to block of Manav. The three racers fought throughout the 18 lap pre-final, but neither racer was able to make a move and the trio finished in the same order. The immensely close finish saw the top three cross the finish line within 0.7 seconds!
The 20 lap final looked as though it would finish in a similar fashion, when the top three started in the same order. The trio quickly pulled away from the rest of the pack and once again none of the racers seemed to be able to mount a challenge in spite of being within the same second. On lap 15, Aaroh made a move on Nirmal into the U bend. However, he was unsuccessful and immediately paid the price as Manav seized second from Aaroh. Soon, Manav made a move for the lead and succeeded in holding position. Aaroh once again made a move on Nirmal and this time was able to make it stick. He soon went after Manav, but was unable to make a move by the chequered flag. Manav hence won his first race of the season, while Aaroh’s second place meant it was the first time this season he has not won the final. Nirmal sealed the third spot, in another extremely close finish that saw the top three within a second. Aaroh’s charge in the last few laps also saw him bag the fastest lap of the race and increase his overall lead in the National Championship by an additional point.
The Junior Category too, witnessed close racing for the top 2 spots. Yash Aradhya of M Sport Racing started on pole in the final ahead of his team mates Sai Sanjay T and Shahan Ali Mohsin. A small mistake by Yash allowed his team mate to overtake and eventually it was Shahan who won ahead of Yash and Chirag Ghorpade from BPC Racing.
The Micro Max Category saw Yashas More start on pole and win the final ahead of his Birel Art team mates, Rishon MR and Arjun Rajiv.
“Although I was fast through the weekend, Nirmal seemed to be just a bit faster than me. Each and every race had all three of us finish extremely close. I wish I could have made my first move stick, in the finals, but second is not bad, although it would have been better to win. I must thank the team for the excellent setup that I had in the final and I am grateful to all my sponsors” said Aaroh after the race.
eom/press release
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Arya Singh, Anindith Reddy emerge champions: MMSC National racing
Chennai, 16 Sept 2017: On a day of twists and turns, Kolkata schoolboy Arya Singh (Formula LGB 1300) and Hyderabad’s Anindith Reddy (MRF F1600) emerged champions even as the battles for titles intensified in the other classes in the fifth and concluding round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Racing Championship at the MMRT track here on Saturday.
In the MRF F1600, championship leader Anindith Reddy from Hyderabad sealed the title which will earn him ticket to the Mazda Road to Indy shootout in the United States later this year. Despite a non-finish following a collision that took the rear wing of his car, Anindith was well placed with a lead of 32 points over today’s winner Sandeep Kumar (Chennai) with two more races to be run on Sunday and a maximum of 25 points at stake.
For Arya Singh, it was a great weekend as he clinched both the National and Rookie crowns in the Formula LGB 1300 class. “I am extremely happy to win both National and Rookie titles. Today, I didn’t have the pace to win the races outright, but otherwise, it has been a great weekend for me,” said an elated Arya Singh who today won one race and was second in the other.
The biggest shocker of the day came in the premier Indian Touring Cars class where defending champion Arjun Narendran (Red Rooster Performance) from Coimbatore won the race after running third for the major part of the eight-lapper.
Championship leader and pole-sitter Deepak Paul Chinnappa (Race Concepts) from Bengaluru who led for six laps and looked set to win, suffered a brake failure to eventually finish seventh.
Narendran’s team-mate Ashish Ramaswamy, also from Bengaluru, who had taken over the lead, made a mistake in the last lap. It allowed Narendran to pass him to win the race.
“I had handling issues with my car and there was no way I could have caught Deepak. But after he spun twice, I moved to second and then passed Ashish in the last lap. I am leading Deepak by 12 points with the last race to be run tomorrow. Fingers crossed!” said Narendran who moved to 169 points to Deepak Paul’s 157 following his fourth win of the season.
Having dominated the Free Practice sessions as well as Qualifying yesterday with the fastest lap times, Saurav Bandyopadhyay (Mumbai) scored his second win of the season in the Volkswagen Ameo Cup ahead of guest racer from China Anning Sun and Sandeep Kumar, but still trails championship leader Karminder Singh (Delhi) by 92 points.
The results (Provisional):
Indian Touring Cars (8 laps): 1. Arjun Narendran (Red Rooster Performance) (15 mins, 24.752 sec); 2. Ashish Ramaswamy (Red Rooster Performance) (15:25.263); 3. D Vidya Prakash (Prime Racing) (15:38.322).
Formula LGB 1300 (National) – Race 1 (7 laps): 1. Arya Singh (DTS Racing) (13:19.668); 2. Deepak Ravikumar (Wallace Sports) (13:24.332); 3. Yash Aradhya (Momentum Motorsport) (13:25.309). Rookie Cup: 1.Arya Singh; 2. Yash Aradhya (Momentum Motorsports); 3. Nabil Hussain (DTS Racing) (13:29.076).
Race 2 (National, 8 laps): 1. Yash Aradhya (Momentum Motorsport) (14:57.852); 2. Arya Singh (DTS Racing) (15:06.503); 3. Rupesh Sivakumar (DTS Racing) (15:08.230). Rookie Cup: 1. Yash Aradhya; 2. Arya Singh; 3. Aanjan Patodia (Momentum Motorsport) (15:19.441).
Indian Junior Touring Cars – Race 1 (8 laps): 1. Kamlesh Parmar (Team N1) (17:11.214); 2. Mikhail Merchant (Team Game Over) (17:14.275); 3. Hisham EKP (DTS Racing) (17:23.706).
Super Stock – Race 1 (8 laps): 1. RP Rajarajan (Performance Racing) (16:24.531); 2. Varun V Anekar (Race Concepts) (16:25.977); 3. Deepak Ravikumar (Quickshift Racing) (16:51.969).
Esteem Cup (Race 2) (8 laps): 1. Narendran Sankaran (Rad Racing) (16:06.645); 2. Anant Pithawalla (Team N1) (16:07.509); 3. Vinod S (Team N1) (16:28.953).
Volkswagen Ameo Cup – Race 1 (8 laps): 1. Saurav Bandyopadhyay (Mumbai) (18:07.383); 2.Anning Sun (Shanghai) (18:08.130); 3. A Sandeep Kumar (Chennai) (18:11.152).
About Madras Motor Sports Club
The Madras Motor Sports Club has been the pioneer in developing and promoting motorsport in India since 1953, and we look to further improve in the years to come. It is the club’s endeavor to provide more opportunities for competitors and to this end, it has chalked out a progressive program for 2016. From the days of Sholavaram , MMSC built its own racetrack which was inaugurated in 1979 and secured its FIA Grade-2 international certification in 2015, making it the only club which owns such a facility. The club has organised the Porsche Super Cup, Formula Campos, Formula Asia, Asian touring car championships, Formula 3, Tata Prima Truck racing championship, the Asian 2-wheeler racing championships besides a host of other motorsport events over the years. The club also has active participation for its events from vehicle manufacturers who also use the Madras Motor Race Track (MMRT) extensively for testing their products.
ends/MMSC/AP Media Communications press release
ao in Algarve will be the venue for the 16th edition where 288 of the best kart drivers in the world will compete in four categories supported by independent chassis partners.
