INDIA in F1

Tag: Madras Motor Sports Club

  • Tijil Rao stuns field to win Formula LGB 1300 Race 2; Arjun Balu begins with a win

    Tijil Rao stuns field to win Formula LGB 1300 Race 2; Arjun Balu begins with a win

    Chennai, July 22, 2023: Bengaluru’s Tijil Rao (Momentum Motorsports) came up with a stunning drive to win Race-2 in the Formula LGB 1300 category after starting from P14 on the opening day of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Car Racing Championship 2023 Round 1 at the Madras International Circuit, here on Saturday. 

    Rao, 20, a Business Management student, made up for a retirement in Race-1 that Raghul Rangasamy (Chennai, MSport) won earlier in the day after coming into contact with another competitor. Starting form P14 on the reverse grid, Tijil scythed through the field for a tremendous victory. 

    “Unfortunately, I was involved in an incident in the first race and so, had to make up for that in the next race. It was fun as I managed to overtake all the 13 cars in front of me and win. I should have more such performances,” said Tijil after finishing ahead of Deepak Ravikumar (Chennai, Ahura Racing) and last year’s champion Viswas Vijayaraj (Nellore, DTS Racing) who started from P11 on the reverse grid.  

    The day’s other winners were Deepak Ravikumar (Chennai, Performance Racing) in the Indian Junior Touring Cars category, Coimbatore veteran Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) in the Indian Touring Cars class, Thrissur’s Diljith TS (DTS Racing) in the Super Stock segment, and Angad Matharoo (Chennai, Redline Racing) who authored a lights-to-flag win in the MRF Saloons (Toyota Ethios) race. 

    While Tijil and Raghul scored good wins, much of the attention was in the Touring Cars race. Driving an under-powered stock car since his regular Honda City in ITC-trim was not ready for the race weekend, Balu quickly dropped to fourth overall after starting from pole position in the combined grid. Showing good pace, Ravikumar did not take long to get a jump on Balu early in the eight-lap race. So did two others, Akkineni Anand Prasad and Srinivas Teja. The three front-runners, taking part in the Indian Junior Touring Cars category, went on to deliver a podium sweep for Team Performance Racing with Ravikumar finishing well ahead of Prasad and Teja. 

    Behind the foursome, there were close battles up and down the grid. Balu’s team-mates Gurunath Meiyappan and Diana Pundole were locked in a tight tussle before the former finished second ahead of the Pune driver in the ITC category. 

    Further back, Dilijth claimed the honours in the Super Stock category ahead of local challenger Jarshan Anand (DB Motorsports) and Delhi’s Justin Singh (Redline Racing). 

    In the first Formula LGB 1300 race, pole-sitter Viswas Vijayaraj and Deepak Ravikumar forged ahead after the initial jostle through first of the eight laps. Viswas was harried by Ravikumar through much of the six laps, including a brief Safety Car period until the two made contact in the closing stages. Ravikumar dropped to ninth where he finished while Raghul passed Viswas who was nursing a damaged camber strut following the incident, to take the lead and eventually win the race. Finishing third behind Viswas was Bengaluru’s Chetan Surineni (MSport) who had started from P6. 

    The results (Provisional – all 8 laps unless mentioned): 

    Indian Touring Cars (Race-1): 1. Arjun Balu (Coimbatore) (15mins, 45.687sec); 2. Gurunath Meiyappan (Chennai) (16:03.174); 3. Diana Pundole (Pune) (16:04.053). All three from Race Concepts. 

    Qualifying (best lap – top 3): 1. Arjun Balu (01:56.126); 2. Rithvik Thomas (01:56.154); 3. Gurunath Meiyappan (01:57.086). 

    Indian Junior Touring Cars (Race-1): 1. Deepak Ravikumar (Chennai) (15:37.461); 2. Akkineni Anand Prasad (Chennai) (15:37.923); 3. Srinivas Teja (Chennai) (15:38.747). All three from Performance Racing. 

    Qualifying (best lap – top 3): 1. Deepak Ravikumar (01:55.197); 2. Srinivas Teja (01:55.341); 3. Akkineni Anand Prasad (01:56.670). 

    Super Stock (Race-1): 1. Dilijith TS (Thrissur, DTS Racing) (16:51.283); 2. Jarshan Anand (Chennai, DB Motorsports) (17:03.385); 3. Justin Singh (Delhi, Redline Racing) (17:08.050). 

    Qualifying (best lap – top 3): 1. Diljith TS (02:04.728); 2. Jarshan Anand (02:05.110); 3. Justin Singh (02:06.132). 

    Formula LGB 1300 (Race-1): 1. Raghul Rangasamy (Chennai, MSport) (16:36.969); 2. Viswas Vijayaraj (Nellore, DTS Racing) (16:39.114); 3.  Chetan Surineni (Bengaluru, MSport) (16:40.603). Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Tijil Rao (Bengaluru, Momentum Motorsports) (19:18.886); 2. Deepak Ravikumar (Chennai, Ahura Racing) (19:31.153); 3. Viswas Vijayaraj (19:31.557). 

    Qualifying (best lap – top 3): 1. Viswas Vijayaraj (01:52.719); 2. Deepak Ravikumar (Chennai, Ahura Racing) (01:52.809); 3. Raghul Rangasamy (01:53.060). 

    MRF Saloons (Toyota Etios) (Race-1): 1. Angad Matharoo (Chennai) (16:38.754); 2. Zahan Commissariat (Mumbai) (16:39.058); 3. Jaiprashant Venkat (Coimbatore) (16:47.584). All three from Redline Racing. 

    Qualifying (best lap – top 3): 1. Angad Matharoo (02:03.052); 2. Diana Pundole (Pune, Redline Racing) (02:03.076); 3. Zahan Commissariat (02:03.458). 

  • MRF MMSC Indian National Car Racing Championship 2023 to begin on Saturday

    MRF MMSC Indian National Car Racing Championship 2023 to begin on Saturday

    Chennai, 20 July 2023: The 2023 season of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Car Racing Championship will commence at the Madras International Circuit here over the weekend. The two-day event (July 21-22) with a nine-race card has attracted over 50 entries. 

    The touring and saloon cars will be headlining the season-opener. The ever-popular touring cars will be contested across three classes – the premium Indian Touring Cars, Indian Junior Touring Cars and Super Stock. Races in these three categories will be run concurrently from a combined grid. 

    Two other categories are the MRF Saloons (Toyota Etios) and the Formula LGB 1300 which saw some of the closest races last season. 

    There will be three races for all the classes, offering a maximum of 75 championship points. 

    Organising committee chairman and MMSC vice-president Vicky Chandhok said: “We welcome the participants to the new season that we expect to be as competitive and well-fought as in the previous years.  

    “Having said that, it is heartening to note that the entries include a few women drivers who, going by last season’s performance, are capable of holding their own competing against their male counterparts. 

    “As promoter of the championship, the MMSC is thankful to the main sponsor, MRF Tyres, who have been associated with us for many years.” 

    New timing equipment: Meanwhile, the MMSC will be deploying MYLAPS timing equipment as part of upgrading process. “We plan to give a transponder for each competitor for the weekend against a deposit which they can return after the event. The move is a reflection of MMSC’s endeavours to constantly upgrade facilities and equipment,” said Chandhok.

    There will be live streaming of the races on various social media platforms. 

  • Sachin double at MMSC Sprint rally; Rehana bags Ladies class

    Sachin double at MMSC Sprint rally; Rehana bags Ladies class

    Chennai, June 25, 2023: Bengaluru’s Sachin D capped himself with glory by winning titles in two categories as riders from Karnataka dominated with a haul of six in the MMSC Two-Wheeler Sprint Rally Series 2003 Powered by Vamcy Merla which concluded at the Madras International Circuit here today.

    Sachin took the honours in Group B (Up to 260cc) winning all four rounds that were held over two consecutive weekends and the Open (Up to 750cc) with two wins and as many podiums.

    The organisers, Madras Motor Sports Club, ran the event on a dirt track specially prepared for the event and measuring about six Kms. While Round 1 was held on June 17, the remaining three rounds were run on June 24-25.

    Former National racing champion Rehana Reya from Chennai, astride an Xpulse for the first time, remained unbeaten over four rounds to claim the title in the Women’s class.

    “The terrain was fast in the last round after a slushy third round and I enjoyed the dry run. It was fun to race on such a speedy terrain. MMRT looked very different for me this time as I am riding for the first time on the unique rally track and not on the Tarmac. The organisers never disappoint the riders as they provided a challenging terrain with a portion of Tarmac where I was able to gain much traction. The experience helped me to clock a better timing of 4min 57sec. I am also happy to be in the top-10 with the boys in the Overall classification,” said Rehana Reya. She also thanked Vamcy Merla and MMSC for providing a good platform for the riders to experience more seat time in the Sprint rally format.

    I put my hands on newly set up machine for this race, I never rode a Xpulse before this was a good opportunity to give it a try riding my race spec bike on this track , I felt I’m learning to improve and getting better on the bike , all thanks to my tuner VINODH and team 56 racing for good work ..
    mostly I want to thank vamcy Merla sir for giving us such a great platform for all the good riders in our motorsport community with all the trust and confidence .Iam very happy I’m able to represent VM foundation.
    Looking forward for my next race to perform better ..

    The competition in the Teenagers Class produced a nail-biting finish with Chennai’s Rakshit S Dave topping the category despite finishing fourth in the final round which his closest rival, Shreyas Hareesh (Bengaluru) won. Rakshit finished with 70 points to Shreyas’ 68.

    Chikmagaluru’s Asad Khan (Group D, up to 260cc) and Abrar Pasha from Shivamogga (Group B, up to 165cc) also won all four rounds in their respective categories to emerge champions.

    Suhail Ahmed from Bengaluru topped the Group A (up to 750cc) category winning two rounds over the weekend while Uttarkhand’s Akhand Pratap Singh pouched the title in the Group B up to 400cc class with an all-win record.

    Notching three wins in four rounds, Bengaluru’s Naresh VS bagged the series title in the Royal Enfield category.

    MMSC Vice-President Vicky Chandhok said: “MMSC is grateful to Vamcy Marla for sponsoring the event that was held over two weekends. We also thank all the competitors for their involvement.”

    The Series champions:

    Open (Up to 750cc): Sachin D (Bengaluru)

    Group A (up to 500cc): Suhail Ahmed (Bengaluru, Alisha Racing).

    Group B (up to 165cc): Abrar Pasha (Shivamogga).

    Group B (260cc):D Sachin (Bengaluru).

    Group B (400cc): Akhand Pratap Singh (Uttarkhand).

    Group D (260cc): Asad Khan (Chikmgaluru).

    Royal Enfield: Naresh VS (Bengaluru).

    Teenagers: Rakshit S Dave (Chennai).

    Women: Rehana Reya (Chennai).

  • MRF slick tyres for bike races; stage set for Round 2 of National Championship at MMRT

    MRF slick tyres for bike races; stage set for Round 2 of National Championship at MMRT

    File photo. Action in the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship. Photo: Anand Philar

    Chennai, 4 July 2018: The MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship will be shifting gears here this weekend when the second round is held at the MMRT track which will witness a total of 16 races across various categories. The programme also includes the first round of the MMSC fmsci Indian National Drag Racing Championship 2018 on Sunday.

    Races will be held in the premier Super Sport Indian 165cc class besides the Pro-Stock (301-400cc and 165cc), Novice (Stock, 165cc) and Girls (Stock, 165cc) categories. Further, two of country’s leading bike manufacturers, Honda and TVS, will be running their own One-Make Championships in association with the MMSC, in the Open and Novice categories.

    The most significant development is that for the first time ever in the National championship slick tyres will be used in races. MRF will be supplying slick tyres for the Super Sport Indian 165cc and Pro-Stock 301-400cc categories. This is a path-breaking move as the MRF slick tyres are expected to see improved lap timings in view of the better traction, especially through the corners, they afford than the conventional tyres.

    File Photo by Anand Philar

    While the focus will yet again be on the “big boys” in the Super Sport Indian 165cc class, there is much to rejoice in the fact that the Novice category, a move initiated by MMSC last season to promote racing at the grass-root level, has yet again attracted over 40 entries, requiring two heats and qualifying sessions followed by a point-scoring race to identify the winner.

    Similarly, the “Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup 2018 organised by MMSC” one-make championship comprising two categories – Open (CBR 250) and Novice (CBR 150). Honda, in its efforts to spot and nurture aspiring youngsters, have focussed the talent hunt among riders in the 13-17 years age group for the CBR 150 grid. The Open class has some of the top riders in the country who have raced in various international series.

    The scenario is much the same in the TVS One-Make Championship 2018 organised by MMSC which will have three categories – Open (Apache RR 310), Novice and Girls (Apache RTR 200) – with strong presence of experienced riders in the Open class.

    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.