Jaden Pariat delights on the bounce; Tarushi takes maiden podium: MMSC car Nationals

Chennai, 21 July 2024: Two teenagers, Jaden Rahman Pariat (MRF Formula 2000) and Abhay Mohan (MRF Formula 1600) continued their assault on the titles with splendid victories on Sunday at the Madras International Circuit here as the curtains came down on the third round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Car Racing Championship 2024 – Powered by STORM-X.

While 17-year-old Jaden from Shillong came up with two super-aggressive drives for a double on Sunday to add to his five wins in the previous two rounds in February, while Bengaluru’s 16-year Abhay Mohan, in only his first season in single-seater racing, completed a sweep of nine consecutive victories, including a triple crown this weekend. Both are in good space to clinch the championship titles in their respective categories with one more round remaining.

Jaden also won the Indian Oil special award for clocking the fastest lap (01min, 33.155secs) of the weekend across all categories.

Elsewhere, Mumbai’s Biren Pithawalla (N1 Racing) also achieved a triple without facing much of a challenge to remain unbeaten in the Indian Touring Cars category. Hatim Shabbir from Chennai (Performance Racing) also won all the three races in the highly- competitive Indian Junior Touring Cars class to come within three points of leader and team-mate Srinivas Teja.

Redline Racing’s Justin Singh from Gurugram drove well enough to win two of the three races this weekend in the Super Stock category which provisionally placed him six points behind championship leader Bala Prasath (DTS Racing) from Coimbatore who won the other race in the triple-header.

Meanwhile, DTS Racing’s Viswas Vijayaraj from Nellore extended his championship lead to 63 points by completing a treble in the Formula LGB 1300 category, showcasing his skills and maturity in no uncertain terms. His best outing came in Race-2 today that he won after starting from P5 on the reverse grid.

Pune’s Diana Pundole, a mother of two, picked up sufficient points in the three MRF Saloons (Toyota Etios) races over the weekend to lead the points table though she failed to win any of the outings. Chikkamagaluru’s 20-year, final year student of St. Joseph’s University, Bengaluru, Tarushi Vikram also enjoyed a good weekend, with a P3 finish in one race and top-five in the other two that has provisionally placed her third in the championship. Fighting with boys on equal footing, Tarushi won a podium place with admirable skill. The Chikkamagaluru driver, earlier took part in the Rally Star Cup.

In the Polo Cup that witnessed fierce competition up and down the grid, Lonavla’s Dhruv Chavan and Aditya Patnaik from Mumbai shared the honours by winning two races apiece.

Provisional results (all 10 laps unless mentioned):

MRF F2000 (Race-2): 1. Jaden Rahman Pariat (Shillong) (15min, 48.421sec); 2.  Chetan Surineni (Bengaluru) (16:13.812); 3. Akhil Agarwal (Mumbai) (16:23.584).

Race-3 (8 laps): 1. Jaden Rahman Pariat (Shillong) (12:45.676); 2.  Chetan Surineni (Bengaluru) (13:00.405); 3. Akhil Agarwal (Mumbai) (13:07.807).

MRF F1600 (Race-2): 1. Abhay Mohan (Bengaluru) (17:26.053); 2. Zahan Commissariat (Mumbai) (17:29.637); 3. Monith Kumaran (Chennai) (17:31.157).

Race-3 (8 laps): 1. Abhay Mohan (13:55.948); 2. Monith Kumaran (14:05.481); 3. Saishiva Sankaran (Pune) (14:07.197).

Indian Touring Cars (Race-2): 1. Biren Pithawalla (Mumbai, Team N1) (19mins, 07.820secs); 2. Deepak Ravikumar (Chennai, Team Performance Racing) (19:13.510). Note: Only 2 finishers.

Race-3 (8 laps): 1. Biren Pithawalla (15:29.920); 2. Deepak Ravikumar (15:31.302); 3. Anant Pithawalla (Mumbai, N1 Racing) (15:38.100).

Indian Junior Touring Cars (Race-2): 1. Hatim Shabbir (Chennai, Team Performance Racing) (19:36.631); 2. Yug Italiya (Mumbai, N1 Racing) (19:48.982); 3. Dean Mascarenhas (Mangaluru, DB Motorsports) (20:01528).

Race-3 (8 laps): 1. Hatim Shabbir (15:41.300); 2. Srinivas Teja (15:44.905); 3. Yug Italiya (15:56.309).

Super Stock (Race-2): 1. Bala Prasath (Coimbatore, DTS Racing) (20:58.260); 2. Justin Singh (Gurugram, Redline Racing India) (20:58.386); 3. Angad Matharoo (Chandigarh, pvt) (21:04.759).

Race-3 (8 laps): 1. Justin Singh (16:49.050); 2. Angad Matharoo (17:04.842); 3. Bala Prasath (17:05.324).

MRF Saloons (Toyota Etios) Race-2: 1. Kesara Godage (Sri Lanka, Redline Racing India) (20:53.702); 2. Anirudha Aravind (Chennai, Redline Racing India) (21:00.207); 3. Tarushi Vikram (Chikkamagaluru, Redline Racing) (21:03.048).

Race-3 (8 laps): 1. Kesara Godage (16:39.241); 2. Anirudha Aravind (16:40.086); 3. Diana Pundole (Pune, Redline Racing India) (16:41.460)

Polo Cup (Race-2): 1. Dhruv Chavan (Lonavla) (19:27.389); 2. Ojas Surve (Mumbai) (19:29.874); 3. Aditya Patnaik (Mumbai) (19:30.348).

Race-3 (8 laps): 1. Aditya Patnaik (Mumbai) (15:36.664). 2. Dhruv Chavan (Lonavla) (15:38.699); 3. Ojas Surve (Mumbai) (15:39.687). Race-4: 1. Dhruv Chavan (19:29.079); 2. Aditya Patnaik (19:30.259); 3. Ojas Surve (19:30.834).

Formula LGB 1300 (Race-2): 1. Viswas Vijayaraj (Nellore, DTS Racing) (18:53.663); 2. Diljit TS (Thrissur, DTS Racing) (19:01.197); 3. Neev Datta (New Delhi, MSport) (19:02.725).

Race-3 (8 laps): 1. Viswas Vijayaraj (15:09.240); 2. Diljith TS (15:09.684); 3. Bala Prasath (Coimbatore, DTS Racing) (15:10.103).