Setback for Tharani

Round 3 and 4 of the MMSC championship saw clear championship contenders for most of the classes

WWHILE THE MRF FF1600 was absent at the Kari Motor Speedway, Coimbatore, the other categories did run alongside the opening round of the 2016 Volkswagen Vento Cup. However it was a packed weekend at the next round of the championship at the MMRT circuit, in Chennai which has been freshly resurfaced.

MRF FF1600

The formula series was absent in Coimbatore and gave the drivers a rest, to come back to racing in Chennai. In round four, Vikash Anand continued his stunning form from the previous round by securing pole position for the races. 2015 VW Vento Cup champ, Anindith Reddy, qualified second with Sandeep Kumar and Raghul Rangasamy completing row two. Defending champion and current championship leader, Karthik Tharanisingh, had a crash in qualifying and damaged his suspension in the process and hence qualified last.

Vikash had a tough time in the first race of the weekend as he was harried throughout by the trio behind him. However, after many lead changes, he opened up a gap of over three seconds to win the race from Sandeep. Reddy finished hot on Sandeep’s tail.

Reddy won the second race by a country mile from Rangasamy. Sandeep finished ten seconds after Rangasamy in third.

Vikash completed a double over the weekend. Reddy and Rangasamy completed the podium.

Tharani made the most of his lowly starting position and finished seventh, fourth and fourth in the weekend’s three races keeping his championship hopes alive.

FLGB 1300

Kolkata’s Arya Singh made his debut in

the rookie series in Coimbatore and was fastest from the word go. He was the quickest during Saturday’s qualifying session. However, in the first race he had a coming together with Alex Bora forcing them both to retire. Tejasram won the race comfortably as Raghul Rangasamy too suffered a failed engine.

Arya bounced back to win the second race from Rangasamy and Tejasram by a huge margin of 8.4 seconds.

The four of them battled hard in the fourth race wherein Tejasram won by 0.137 seconds from Alex Bora. Arya held off the charging Rangasamy for third.

In the following weekend in Chennai, Rangasamy was miles ahead of the competition. He was a second and a half faster than Arya, and Tejasram and Alex Bora were even further off.

They finished the first race in the above order with quite a big gap between Arya and Tejasram.

While Rangasamy won the race with ease yet again. Alex did however manage to come second ahead of Arya and Tejasram. But it was found that Alex had jumped at the start. Hence he was slapped with a ten second time penalty and lost out his second place.

Rangasamy sits in prime position to win the championship this year. Alex, Tejasram and Arya have got their work cut out if they want to snatch the title away from Raghul.

Touring Cars

Arjun Narendran clean sweeped the proceedings at his home race in Coimbatore. He qualified on pole and won all three races of the weekend.

His nearest championship rival, Deepak Paul Chinnapa, had a tough time at Kari. He did qualify third but had to retire from the first race. He finished fourth in the next race and managed to come on the final step of the podium in the last race.

Narendran continued his stunning form in Chennai as well by winning two races and finishing second in the last race.

Arjun began the weekend by being the fastest man in qualifying. He converted his pole to win race one from Chinnapa by just over two seconds. Arjun’s teammate Ashish Ramaswamy came third.

The victory in the second race of the weekend helped him strengthen his championship credentials and he was helped by his teammate and team owner N Leelakrishnan, who finished second. Chinnapa could do no better than finish third.

In a close battle for the win, Chinnapa did manage to secure his first victory of the weekend from Narendran by 1.34 seconds. Ramaswamy finished third.

Ananth Pithawalla has been the man to beat in the IJTC class with a couple of victories and podiums under his belt. Pithwalla has kept his contenders at bay and has managed to deliver consistent peformances.

The next round of the championship takes place again at the MMRT circuit, for the final time this year from 19-21 August.