Top honours for Ravikumar, Sarath Kumar
Deepak Ravikumar (TVS Racing) and Sankar Sarath Kumar (Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing) survived a day of drama and crashes to post wins in the Pro-Stock 301400 cc and Pro-Stock 165 cc categories as the first round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2019 commenced at Kari Motor Speedway in Coimbatore on Saturday.
Starting sixth, Ravikumar, nursing injuries suffered in last week’s testing, overcame pain to score a deserved win in the premium ProStock 301-400cc race after pole-sitter Prabhu Arunagiri (Team Alisha Abdullah) and Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) crashed in the second lap of the 10-lap race.
While Arunagiri retired, Jagan Kumar, who had started second from the grid, got up and continued to finish eighth.
In second place behind Ravikumar was TVS Racing’s K.Y. Ahamed, followed by Gusto Racings Satyanarayana Raju, who was nursing a collar-bone fracture. Earlier, the two outstanding riders in the Pro-Stock 165cc race were the eventual winner Sarath Kumar and thirdplaced Jagan Kumar.
The 26-year old Sarath overcame a poor start that pushed him to sixth before he fought his way to the front for a comfortable win by over five seconds.
Behind him, seven-times Super Sport National champion Jagan, starting from the pit-lane after the bike chain snapped in the formation lap, requiring quick repairs, cut through the field to finish third behind team-mate Ahamed
Ahamed also did extremely well after starting eighth on the grid following this mornings qualifying session.
The day started with Sparks Racings Vijay S taking the honours in the Stock 165cc (Novice) race that was red-flagged after just two laps following crashes.
Varoon (Idemitsu Honda Talent Cup, CBR 150), Anish Samson (TVS 200 RR, Novice), Lani Zena Fernandez (TVS 200 RR Girls) and Anand R (TVS 310RR Open) were the other winners.