Reddy, Chinnappa emerge victorious
Anindith Reddy from Hyderabad overcame a bad start to win the MRF FF1600 race as Bengaluru’s Deepak Paul Chinnappa of Race Concepts scripted his third consecutive victory in the premier Indian Touring Cars class in the MRF national racing championship in Sriperumbudur on Saturday.
While Reddy made the best of the opportunities that came his way to move from third to first, Chinnappa, after easing past pole-sitter and defending champion Arjun Narendran of Red Rooster Performance, maintained a consistent pace to win.
Also tasting victories on the day were A.S. Prabhu (Red Rooster Performance) in the Indian Junior Touring Cars class, team mate Sudanand Rajan (Esteem Cup) and Deepak Ravi Kumar of Quickshift Racing in the Super Stock category after original winner Varun Anekar was docked 30-second penalty for “dangerous driving”.
Reddy, after slipping to third at the start of the eight-lap race, managed to fight his way back into the lead after front-runner Raghul Ramaswamy was docked a drive-through penalty for a jump start. Reddy then hung on to the slender lead to win from Chennai lads Korada and Sandeep Kumar.
“It was a tough race. I had a bad getaway and lost two places behind Raghul and Chetan. However, in the very lap itself, Chetan made a mistake going into the back “D” and it allowed me to move up one spot. In the next lap, Raghul went in for a drive-through penalty for jump start and I broke clear.
“Thereafter, I concentrated on keeping my track position and only once Chetan came close which was when I set my fastest lap. I am happy that it all came together today and it should be fun in the next race on Sunday with the reverse grid start,” said Anindith after chalking up his third win in five outings in the championship whose winner at the end of the season earns a right to participate in the Road To Indy shootout in the United States.
Chinnappa had a great start and eased into the lead by Turn 1 and then drove extremely well to keep Narendran at bay. The duo was separated by mere inches most of the eight laps while pulling away from the field. Chinnappa, while clocking the fastest lap (01:54.228) of the race defended his line very capably to prevent Narendran from passing him.