Alimon wins top class; Debut victory for Shreyas; Double for Bharath: Drag Nationals
Soundari "Sindy' Ananthraj of AS Motorsport wins Girls class
Chennai, 28 Dec 2022: Bengaluru’s Alimon Saidalvi, astride a Kawasaki Ninja H2, raced to victory in the Feature race, the Unrestricted category, while Rockers Racing’s Bharath Raj scored a double in the second round of the MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Drag Racing Championship 2022 at the Madras International Circuit, here on Wednesday.
Earlier, the 12-year old inaugural MiniGP India champion, Shreyas Hareesh, who made his debut in the Drag Nationals here, won the 2-Stroke upto 165cc Super Sport class beating a strong field of 29 riders. Astride a Yamaha RX 135, the Rockers Racing rider, clocked an impressive 12.615 seconds for the 402-metre dash. Fellow-Bengalureans Prashanth (12.748) and Aiyaz Rem (12.931) came in second and third respectively to make it an all-Bengaluru affair.
Bharath Raj, 33, an engineer at Ola Electric from Chennai, also from Rockers Racing, defeated Mohammed Arfath of Bengaluru to win the Super Sport Indian upto 165cc class clocking 14.395 seconds. Later, Raj topped his favourite 361-550cc class, astride a KTM RC390, edging past teammate Mohammed Shakir. Anish Shetty finished third. Raj, who won the 361-550cc for the last two years said: “I am happy to be on the top step of the podium once again. But no time to rest as we will be going all out in the next two rounds.”
In the Unrestricted class, Alimon clocked a blistering 08.022 seconds for the 302-metre sprint to pip Mumbai’s Saurabh Parab (08.073s) and Hyderabad’s Md Riyaz (08.178s).
Earlier, Riyaz, riding a Suzuki Hayabusa, scored a notable victory over fancied Hemanth Muddappa (Mantra Racing) from Bengaluru in the 1051-1650cc category with Mujahid Pasha, also from Bengaluru, finishing third.
Muddappa drew some consolation by claiming the top spot in the support race (851-1050cc) ahead of Saurabh Parab (Mumbai) and Riyaz.
Reigning champion Soundari “Sindy’ Ananthraj of AS Motorsports took the honours in the Girls (4-Stroke, Stock 165cc) category, edging out Mumbai’s Sarah Khan of Axor Sparks Racing and Lani Zena Fernandez (RACR) from Puducherry.
The Round 3 of the championship will be held on Thursday while the Round 4, which is the final round, is scheduled for Friday, also at the MIC.
Round-2 Provisional results (all 4-Stroke Super Sport unless mentioned):
Unrestricted: 1. Alimon Saidalvi (Bengaluru) (08.022secs); 2. Saurabh Parab (Mumbai) (08.073); 3. Md Riyaz (Hyderabad) (08.178).
1051-1650cc: 1. Md Riyaz (Hyderabad) (08.108); 2. Hemanth Muddappa (Mantra Racing, Bengaluru) (08.144); 3. Mujahid Pasha (Bengaluru) (08.220).
851-1050cc (Support race): 1. Hemanth Muddappa (Mantra Racing, Bengaluru) (08.012); 2. Saurabh Parabh (Mumbai) (08.013); 3. Md Riyaz (Hyderabad) (08.228).
551-850cc: 1. Saurabh Parab (Mumbai) (08.424); 2. Sidharth Parmar (Mumbai) (08.561); 3. Hemanth Muddappa (Mantra Racing, Bengaluru) (08.774).
361-550cc (Super Sport Indian): 1. Bharath Raj (Rockers Racing, Chennai) (12.033); 2. Mohammed Shakir (Rockers Racing, Chennai) (12.332); 3. Anish Shetty (PRN Motorsports, Bengaluru) (12.348).
166-225cc (Support race); 1. Srikantha P (Bengaluru) (13.276); 2. Badhusha M (Chennai) (13.721); 3. Madhan Kumar R (Chennai) (14.393).
Upto 165cc (Super Sport Indian): 1. Bharath Raj (Rockers Racing, Chennai) (14.395); 2. Mohammed Arfath (Bengaluru) (14.621); 3. Badhusha M (Chennai) (14.880).
2-Stroke 131-165cc: 1. Shreyas Hareesh (Rockers Racing, Bengaluru) (12.615); 2. Prashanth (Bengaluru) (12.748); 3. Aiyaz Rem (Bengaluru) (12.931).
2-Stroke Upto 130cc: 1. Abdul Shaikh (Bengaluru) (13.296); 2. Prashanth (Bengaluru) (13.381); 3. Mohamed Rafiq (Bengaluru) (13.565).
GIRLS (165cc, Novice): 1. Soundari ‘Sindy’ Ananthraj (AS Motorsports, Chennai) (16.340); 2. Sarah Khan (Axor Sparks Racing, Mumbai) (16.421); 3. Lani Zena Fernandez (RACR, Puducherry) (16.453).
