Sethu leads Honda charge at MMRT
Rajiv Sethu successfully led a Honda assault on TVS Racing’s supremacy to score a brilliant victory over defending champion Jagan Kumar in the premier Super Sport Indian 165cc class as the fourth round of the Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship concluded at the Madras Motor Racing Track in Chennai on Sunday.
The victory notwithstanding, Jagan, the TVS Racing team’s spearhead, garnered crucial 18 points for his second- place finish today that consolidated his position at the top of the championship table with a tally of 148 ahead of team mate K. Y. Ahamed ( 128), winner of the first race yesterday and who finished fourth behind Honda Ten10 Racing’s Mathana Kumar in the second outing on Sunday.
The other highlight of the day was the grand double by Prabhu Arunagiri ( Team Alisha Abdullah) in the Pro- Stock 301400cc category which is set for a grandstand finish in the final round in December.
Only five points separate the top three – Satyanarayana Raju of Gusto Racing ( 119), team- mate Amarnath Menon ( 118) and Arunagiri ( 114).
Hyderabad’s 19- year old collegian Karthik Mateti ( Sparks Racing) chalked up a dominating win in the Novice ( Stock 165cc) race to take a 16- point lead in the championship. Another rider from Hyderabad, 20- year old Rahil Pillari Shetty, also from Sparks Racing, followed suit with a season’s maiden win in the highly competitive Pro- Stock 165cc category where Bengalurubased techie Anish Shetty ( Honda Ten10 Racing), who finished second today, continues to head the leaderboard with 131 points to Kevin Kannan’s ( Rockers Racing) 115.
The focus today was on the Super Sport race which turned out to be Hitchcockian thriller with pole- sitter Sethu and Jagan playing the lead roles. Sethu lost his track position early in the first lap with gearing problem which allowed Jagan to move into the front. However, Sethu, who had finished fifth in yesterday’s Race 1 after a crash, fought back to regain the lead midway through the eight- lap race and then hung on grimly to score his third win of the season. Jagan was just one- tenth of a second adrift at the finish, but well ahead of Mathana Kumar who held off Ahamed.
“At Turn- 3 in the first lap, the gears tended to slip and I had to firmly put my foot down on the pedal to avoid any more slippage. Jagan went past me, but later, I managed to pass him on the straight. Thereafter, it was a close fight and I had a scary moment in the penultimate lap when I almost lost balance in the Bridge Complex, but managed to hold it together for the win,” said Sethu.