Red Rooster’s Arjun races into lead, eyes fourth title in Chennai

CHENNAI: Arjun Narendran (Red Rooster Performance) displaced Deepak Paul Chinnappa (Race Concepts) at the top of the Indian Touring Cars championship to takea 12-point lead going intothe final race that will bring the MR F Indian National Racing Championship to a close this weekend.

Narendran, who hails from Coimbatore, is confident of securing a fourth championship title on the trot, but was humble enough to acknowledge that luck played a part in his victory in the penultimate race on Saturday.

“Until the last lap I thought Deepak was going to win, which would have given him a huge lead, but I was lucky. His brakes failed and then Ashish Ramaswamy (Red Rooster Performance) let me through because he wasn’t competing for the title,” Narendran said. Championship leader and pole-sitter Chinnappa led for six laps and looked on course to opening up a 17-point lead at the top before suffering a brake failure condemning him to seventh position. The race also saw veteran racer, D Vi dy aP rak ash( Prime Racing) secure third position. The 70- year old participant, who was the oldest driver to grace the circuit, was met by cheers at the finish line.

“Hats off to him, he is 70 years old and has completed 40 years of racing. To be racing at this pace at this age is no joke. I don’t think anybody else on the grid is as passionate as him. He shows up week after week, he drives, and even tunes his own cars,” said Narendran. Reflecting on his own performance, the 23-year old said: “We just didn’t get the handling right because the engine is really strong this weekend. The tyres aren’t at their best, they last long but theyare notsuitingus unlike other cars .” In other events of the day, Kolkata schoolboy Arya Singh (Formula LGB 1300) and Hyderabad’s Anindith Reddy (MRF F1600) emerged champs.