Top honours for Suhail Ahmed; Double for Sachin

By David Bodapati

Bengaluru, 21 Nov 2020: Astride a KTM 450EXC, Suhail Ahmed survived minor hiccups to win the top honours on Saturday while Sachin D bagged a brace in the third round of the Motorsport Inc FMSCI Indian National Rally Sprint Championship for two-wheelers at the closed dirt tracks in Korlahalli, 53-km from here, on Saturday.

Organised by Motorsports Inc, the promoters of the Sprint Nationals, the event attracted 82 entries in 9 classes, and is supported by Red Bull and Hero MotoSports.

Bengaluru rider Suhail clocked the fastest time of the day in Group A up to 800cc class, the ribbon event of the day, beating Sinan Francis of Ernakulam 2.19 seconds, but the Ernakulam rider placed his KTM450EXC in the second to keep the championship lead going into the fourth round on Sunday. “I was bogged down by technical issues and had to manage and finish the stage,” said Suhail, who faced suspension issues.

In the Group B classes, it was Sachin D from TVS Racing, who had the upper hand winning the 166cc to 260cc Class, astride a TVS Apache with a time of 7min 49.43seconds, the second-fastest time of the day to shoot into the championship lead following two podiums in the first two rounds. Sachin defeated Hero Motosports, Yuva Kumar by a margin of 8.49seconds and Sanjay Somasekhar, also of Bengaluru, took third on a Hero Xpulse, as he finished another 7 seconds behind.

“It’s a hard and very technical track but I had a good ride and enjoyed the day. Everything went off smoothly today. Hats-off to the organisers, for it is not easy to put together such a show in these days of Corona,” said Sachin at the service park.

In the Star of Karnataka class, Sachin D won clocking 7min 54.24sec and Yuva Kumar once again finished second. “I finished second in both my classes but it was a good day for me. The track was tricky with bumpy terrain and it was a fast stage and I am looking forward to tomorrow’s round,” quipped Yuva of Hero MotoSports.  

While Bengaluru’s Pavan BK won the 131 to 165cc Class, Mangalore’s Sudeep Kottary bagged the first place in 261 to 400cc Category and Ernakulam’s Nordin Thomas, put his Yamaha YBX on the top pedestal in `Upto 130cc Class’.

Sudeep was streets ahead as he won by a huge margin with over 47-seconds on Bengaluru-based Sajeesh, also on a KTM Duke. He had to be content with a second place over one minute ahead of Uday Ganguli of Kolkata, astride a KTM 390.

In the Ladies Class, Ryhana Bee, the 2019 National racing champion in her class, continued to dominate the Sprint Rally Nationals as she posted another hard-earned win brushing aside the challenge of Tanika Shanbhag of Satara. Astride a Hero Impulse, the Chennai lass posted a perfect 75 points from three rounds to complete a hat-trick of wins. Arpita VM of Mangalore, who had two podiums in the first two rounds was off-colour today on her Honda Stunner, with Bengaluru’s Dimpy taking the third place today ahead of Arpita. All the top three are riding an Impulse.

“The terrain is pretty technical with rocky pebbles. But I enjoyed the straights where we can gain time. Relatively, it is a hard track when compared to the others, as it requires mental strength to absorb the technicalities of different corners,” said Ryhana, about the 7.75km terrain. The village road from Korlahalli to Melakote amidst the Raagi fields ready for harvest had pebbles, hard rocks and loose soil at different points.

The Bullet class was dominated by Himalayan bikes and the all-Bengaluru podium saw Devaraj Venkatesh on the top step. Mohammed Zaheer came second pushing Vishwas SD to third place.

Provisional final results (Round 3):

Group A:

Upto 800cc: 1. Suhail Ahmed Competition Number #5 (Bengaluru, KTM450EXC) (07 minutes, 48.74 seconds); 2. Sinan Francis #1 (Ernakulam, KTM450EXC) (7: 51.55); 3. Vishwas SD #2 (Bengaluru, Suzuki) (8:09.82);

Group B:

131cc to 165cc: 1. Pavan BK #30 (Bengaluru, Hero Impulse) (8:07.83); 2. Ishan Chandra #29 (Mangalore, Hero Impulse) (8:23.19); 3. Vinay Prasad #24 (Bengaluru Hero Impulse) (8:25.58);

261cc to 400cc: 1. Sudeep Kottary #66 (Mangalore, KTM Duke) (8:38.65); 2. Sajeesh #67 (Bangalore, KTM Duke) (9:26.86); 3. Uday Ganguly #63 (Kolkota, KTM 390) (10:37.97).

Upto 130cc: 1.Nordin Thomas #19 (Ernakulam, Yamaha YBX) (8:53.53); 2. Durgesh J #18 (Mysore, Honda Stunner) (8:55.59); 3. Joseph Jinu #22 (Ernakulam, Yamaha YBX) (9:00.54).

166cc to 260cc: 1. Sachin D #51 (Bengaluru, TVS Apache) (7: 49.43); Yuva Kumar #46 (Bengaluru, Hero Xpulse) (7:58.36); 3. Sanjay Somasekhar #45 (Bengaluru, Hero Xpulse) (8:05.32).

 Bullet Class: 1. Devaraj Venkatesh #88 (Bengaluru, Himalayan) (8:23.12); 2. Mohammed Zaheer #87 (Bengaluru, Himalayan) (8:29.94); 3. Vishwas SD #91 (Bengaluru, Himalayan) (8:32.31).

Ladies Class: 1. Ryhana Bee #73 (Chennai, Hero Impulse) (9:44.10); 2. Tanika Shanbhag #72 (Satara, Hero Impulse) (9:53.33); 3. Dimpy A #70 (Bengaluru, Hero Impulse) (11:30.01).

Scooter Class: 1. Karthik Naidu  #79 (Bengaluru, TVS N-Torq) (9:10.86); Pinkesh Thakkar #80 (Pune, Aprilla SR125) (9:27.57); 3. Subramanya #83 (Bengaluru, TVS Wega) (9:43.07).

Star of Karnataka: 1. Sachin D #105 (Bengaluru, TVS Apache) (7:54.23); 2. Yuva Kumar #109 (Bengaluru, Hero Xpulse) (8:05.11); 3. Ishan Chandra #102 (Bengaluru, Hero Impulse) (8:11.67).

Clerk of the Course: Jaidas Menon.

Chief Steward: Gautham Shanthappa, Steward: Rakesh D, Club Steward: Uday Kumar.