Chennai’s Vikash Anand continued his good form as he scored his second win of the weekend in the third race of the MRF F1600 class in the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Racing Championship, at the MMRT, here on Sunday.
Anand struggled in the second and finished a distant sixth after a couple of off-track excursions while Hyderabad’s Anindith Reddy took the honours. However, Anand managed to gather himself and score a lights-to-flag victory starting from pole in the third and final race of the weekend. Anand had a decent start and came under pressure from Anindith in the opening laps before he pulled away from the pack.
Bengaluru’s Deepak Paul Chinnappa (Race Concepts ENEOS) denied title favourite Arjun Narendran from Coimbatore (Red Rooster Racing) a clean sweep in the Indian Touring Cars class by winning the third outing this weekend.
Starting second, Chinnappa eased past pole-sitter Ashish Ramaswamy (Red Rooster Racing) when the lights went off and built up a commanding lead. Meanwhile, Narendran, who had won both the previous races, did well to move to third after starting last on the grid and then went past Raghul Ramaswamy to slot in behind Chinnappa, but could not gain another place. Ramaswamy finished third.
The Indian Junior Touring Cars race saw a straight battle between the two championship contenders Ananth Pithawalla from Mumbai (Team N1) and Keith D’Souza (UNIMEK Racing) with the former coming through while Deepak Ravikumar, a private entrant, topped in the Super Stock category that was run concurrently with the IJTC grid.
Round two rescheduled
The second round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Racing Championship which was to be held here on the July 23-24 weekend has been rescheduled to allow sufficient time for curing of the freshly resurfaced MMRT track.
The track was recently resurfaced, but following this weekend’s MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Racing Championship (four-wheelers), the top layer peeled off at a few corners.
Announcing the rescheduling here on Sunday, Vicky Chandhok, vice-president MMSC, said: “The car races this weekend saw the top surface of the track peeling off and we need to carry out necessary repairs. In the interest of the two-wheeler competitors, it was best to reschedule the event. The fresh dates will be announced later.
“We have spoken to all the manufacturers and the privateers involved in the two-wheeler races and they were all very supportive of our decision and understood the reasons for rescheduling the second round.”
The results (Provisional): MRF F1600: Race two - 10 laps: 1. Anindith Reddy (Hyderabad) 18mins, 47.123secs; 2. Raghul Rangasamy (Chennai) 18:56.753; 3. Sandeep Kumar (Chennai) 19: 07.235.
Race three - 8 laps: 1. Vikash 15:34.366; 2. Anindith 15:38.277; 3. Raghul 15:41.771. Indian Touring Cars: Race three - 8 laps: 1. Deepak Paul Chinnappa (Race Concepts ENEOS) 16:29.580; 2. Arjun Narendran (Red Rooster Performance) 16:30.919; 3. Ashish Ramaswamy (Red Rooster Performance) 16:41.682. Indian Junior Touring Cars: Race two - 8 laps: 1. Ananth Pithawalla (Team N1) 17:48.538; 2. Keith D’Souza (UNIMEK Racing) 17:51.754; 3. R. Srihariram (Red Rooster Performance) 18:37.810.
Super Stock: Race two - 8 laps: 1. Deepak Ravikumar (Pvt) 18:26,830; 2. Dean Mascarenhas (Race Concepts) 18:32.320; 3. Chandresh Tolia (Team Game Over) 18:37.404.
F1300 Rookie Championship: Race two - laps: 1. Raghul Rangasamy (WSRF) 16:23.799; 2. Arya Singh (Momentum Motorsports) 16:28.025; 3. C. Tejas Ram (WSRF) 16:30.914.
Volkswagen Vento Cup: Race two - 10 laps: 1. Ishaan Dodhiwala (Hyderabad) 21:39.143; 2. Li Huiwei (China) 21:41.809; 3. Sirish Chandran (Pune) 21:52.109. Race three - 8 laps: 1. Niranjan Todkari (Pune) 17:05.060; 2. Keith D’Souza (Goa) 17:05.816; 3. Ishaan Dodhwala (Hyderabad) 17:14.866.
