Anish Shetty, Deepak Ravikumar post maiden wins

Chennai, 12 Sept 2021: Bengaluru-based Anish Damodara Shetty (Race Concepts) pulled off a well-deserved win, if a bit fortuitous, his first of the season in the premier Prostock 301-400cc category as the second round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2021 concluded at the MMRT, here on Sunday.

Also scoring his maiden win of the 2021 season was Deepak Ravikumar who led a 1-2 finish for TVS Racing with championship leader Jagan Kumar in tow ahead of Idemitsu Honda SK69 Racing’s Senthil Kumar. The lead Honda rider, Rajiv Sethu, who was eyeing a possible win, crashed after making contact with Senthil in the last lap and eventually finished a distant ninth which fetched him one point.

Earlier, Chennai’s Ryhana Bee (RACR) and Thrissur lad Allwin Xavier (Sparks Racing) won in the Girls and Novice (Stock 165cc) categories, respectively.

The Prostock 301-400cc race was action-packed. With several front-runners, including championship leader Rajini Krishnan (RACR) crashing out in the latter part of the eight-lap race, the door was open for Anish Shetty, astride a KTM RC390, to seize the opportunity to win from TVS Racing’s KY Ahamed, the defending champion, and Hyderabad’s Rahil Shetty (Gusto Racing).

Rajini, winner of three consecutive races, crashed at the last corner on the sixth lap soon after surviving a contact on the back sweep with TVS Racing’s Deepak Ravikumar whose challenge thus ended.

Despite the poor result, Rajini continues to occupy the top spot in the championship stakes with 75 points while Anish Shetty (63) moved to second position, followed by Rahil Shetty (58).

The expected TVS vs Honda battle in the Prostock 165cc race flickered for a while with Jagan, Rajiv and Ravikumar swapping lead. The trio was bunched close together with Senthil lurking in their shadow. With a couple of the eight laps left, Ravikumar forged ahead while behind him, Rajiv and Senthil tangled which took out the former, leaving Jagan to snatch P2 while Senthil completed the podium.

The result still left Jagan in the championship lead with a tally of 93 points, well clear of Ravikumar (67) and Rajiv Sethu (56).

Earlier, Ryhana Bee chalked up her second consecutive win in the Girls category, while pushing front-runner Lani Zena Fernandez (Speed Up Racing) from Puducherry to second place. Mumbai’s Jagruthi Penkar (Sparks Racing) completed the podium. Defending champion Ann Jennifer (Sparks Racing), who had won all four races last season, crashed again as she did in last month’s first round and is still to open her account.

Meanwhile, Chennai riders Kavin Quintal (NSF 250R) and Kevin Kannan (Hornet 2.0) notched their fourth straight win while Bokaro Steel City’s Prakash Kamath (Honda CBR 150) achieved a double  in the Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup One-make Championship organised by the MMSC.

Kolhapur’s 12-year old Jinendra Kiran Sangave also recorded his fourth consecutive win in the TVS Rookie category.

The results (Provisional – all 6 laps unless mentioned):

National Championship:

Prostock 301-400cc (Race-2 – 8 laps): 1. Anish Damodara Shetty (Race Concepts, Bengaluru) (15mins, 09.769secs); 2. Ahmed KY (TVS Racing, Chennai) (15:10.171); 3. Rahil Shetty (Gusto Racing, Hyderabad) (15:10.310).

Pro-Stock 165cc (Race-2, 8 laps): 1. Deepak Ravikumar (TVS Racing, Chennai) (15:51.435); 2. Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing, Chennai) (15:51.828); 3. Senthil Kumar (Idemitsu Honda SK69 Racing) (16:10.248, incl 15-sec penalty for jump start).

Novice (Stock 165cc) Race-2: 1. Allwin Xavier (Sparks Racing, Thrissur) (13:01.182); 2. Alwin Sundar (AS Motorsports, Chennai) (13:01.218); 3. Anfal Akdhar (Rockstar Racing, Thrissur) (13:03.516).

Girls (Stock 165cc, 5 laps): 1. Ryhana Bee (RACR, Chennai) (10:58.929); 2. Lani Zena Fernandez (Speed Up Racing, Puducherry) (11:01.217); 3. Jagruti Penkar (Sparks Racing, Mumbai) (11:18.622).

One-Make Championship organized by Madras Motor Sports Club:

Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup – NSF 250R (Race-2, 8 laps): 1. Kavin Quintal (Chennai) (14:52.563); 2. Sarthak Chavan (Pune) (15:01.558); 3. Geoffrey Reviven Emmanuel (Chennai) (15:08.141).­­

CBR 150 (Race-2): 1. Prakash Kamath (Bokaro Steel City) (13:15.766); 2. Johann Reeves Emmanuel (Chennai) (13:28.042); 3. Theopaul Leander (Chennai) (13:28.204).

Hornet 2.0 (Race-2): 1. Kevin Kannan (Chennai) (13:28.694); 2. Balaji G (Chennai) (13:29.169); 3. Alwin Sundar (Chennai) (13:29.435).

TVS Apache Open (RR310, Race-2): 1. Amarnath Menon (Calicut) (11:51.317); 2. Navaneeth Kumar (Puducherry) (11:51.778); 3. KK Anandhu (Chennai) (11:52.872).

Rookie (RTR 200, Race-2): 1. Jinendra Kiran Sangave (Kolhapur) (12:56.019); 2. Vignesh Gowd (Hyderabad) (13:02.618); 3. Jagathishree (Chennai) (13:02.922).