Jagan leads 1-2 finish for TVS Racing
Also scoring an impressive win was Aishwarya Pissay of Apex Racing in the girls (Stock up to 165cc) category
Defending champion Jagan Kumar of TVS Racing put in a commanding performance to score a crucial win in the third round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship at the MMRT track, in Chennai on Saturday and moved up two spots to third on the leaderboard.
Jagan (62 points) though had to fight hard for his second win of the season that put him behind the front-running Honda Ten10 riders leader Rajiv Sethu (90), who secured a third-place finish and Mathana Kumar (66) in the championship stakes in a race that was cut to a four-lap sprint following a red-flag stoppage due to an oil spill on the start-finish straight and was re-started.
Jagan, beginning from pole position, slipped to third due to a poor start. However, the red flag stoppage provided him a second chance while Sethu’s bike bled speed and Mathana retired with an electrical problem.
It set Jagan free and he was followed home by team mate Harry Sylvester and Sethu.
“I am very relieved that I won today, though I was not happy with my pace. In Friday’s practice, I did 1:57 (one minute, 57 seconds) lap and today, I was two seconds off that lap pace. I had some issues with the bike but I think I will not tinker with it for tomorrow’s second race,” said Jagan.
Also scoring an impressive win was Bengaluru’s Aishwarya Pissay (Apex Racing) in the girls (Stock up to 165cc) category to further consolidate her position at the top of the leaderboard with 65 points.
Aishwarya overcame a poor start to clinch a dominating win to move to 65 points, ahead of Indore’s Kalyani Potekar (51) who was docked 10 seconds penalty for causing collision that took out Alisha Abdullah on the start straight and was placed third behind local girl Shruthi Nagarajan (Honda Ten10 Racing).
Aravind Balakrishnan, courtesy a fine victory in the prostock (up to 165cc) category, caught up with leader and his Honda Ten10 Racing team mate Mithun Kumar who finished a distant fifth. Both are on 83 points with the second race of the round to be run on Sunday.
In the Super Sport Indian 300400cc class, Kozhikode’s Amarnath Menon (Gusto Racing) saw his four-win streak ending in a cloud of dust as he crashed on the last lap during a hot chase of Chennai’s Dinesh Kumar of Team Alisha Abdullah.
Despite the non-finish, Menon was still comfortably placed at the top with 100 points, well clear of other contenders Deepak Ravikumar (51, Moto-Rev) and Vivek Pillai (75, Rockers Racing) who finished second and third respectively.