Chiranth Vishwanath takes pole in both pro-stock classes: MMSC bike Nationals
Chennai, 6 Sept. 2024: Chiranth Vishwanath, the 17-year-old from Bengaluru who is in the middle of his breakthrough season, came up with two stunning rides to grab pole positions in both the premier Pro-Stock categories as the fourth and penultimate round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2024 – Powered by STORM was off to a thrilling start at the Madras International Circuit, here on Friday.
For Chiranth, it was his maiden pole position in the Pro-Stock 301-400cc Open category, and he followed it up by taking P1 in the Pro-Stock 165cc Open class for a rare double. His arch-rival and TVS Racing team-mate Sarthak Chavan, also 17, from Pune, will line up in P2 behind Chiranth in both the categories. Incidentally, Chiranth emulated Sarthak’s double pole that the Pune star had secured in Round 1 in June.
The qualifying sessions dished out exciting fare with all pole-sitters leaving it very late before delivering the hot laps for P1 slots. Chennai teenager Abdul Basim (Rockers Racing) took pole position in the Novice (Stock 165cc) category as did another local rider, 25-year-old Kaushik Subbiah Ganesan (RACR Castrol Power1 Ultimate) in the Stock 301-400cc Novice class in the National Championship.
Chiranth’s best performance on the day came in the PS 301-400cc qualifying session where he came up with a sizzling lap with a little more than a minute left to upstage Sarthak who finished ahead of veteran and Chennai ace Rajini Krishnan (RACR Castrol Power1 Ultimate).
In P4 and P5 were TVS Racing’s Deepak Ravikumar and Alwin Sundar (Gusto Racing India), respectively, with less than a second separating the top five.
Late in the evening, Chiranth was back in the saddle, this time in the Pro-Stock 165cc Open class qualifying session that he won with another standout performance. Yet again, Sarthak was pushed to P2 with multiple National champion Jagan Kumar making it a front row sweep for TVS Racing.
TVS India One-Make Championship
Coimbatore’s Senthil Kumar, the championship leader in the Open (Apache RR 310) category, warmed up for the weekend’s double-header by qualifying for the pole position. Completing the front row were Manoj Yesuadiyan from Chennai and another Coimbatore rider Raj Kumar C. Less than one second separated the trio.
In the Girls (Apache RTR 200) category, Pune’s Saimah Ajaz Baig qualified for pole position edging out Sarah Khan (Mumbai) and Aisvariya V (Coimbatore), in another thrilling qualifying session that saw the top three finishing within a second of each other.
Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup
Shyam Sundar from Chennai came out on top in the qualifying session in the NSF 250R category, followed by Bengaluru’s Prakash Kamat and Siddesh Sawant (Kolhapur). Another Bengalurean, Savion Sabu was at P4, less than a second behind the top three.
The results (Qualifying – Top 3 best laps):
National Championship:
Pro-Stock 301-400cc Open: 1. Chiranth Vishwanath (Bengaluru, TVS Racing) (01min, 48.968secs); 2. Sarthak Chavan (Pune, TVS Racing) (01:49.155); 3. Rajini Krishnan (Chennai, RACR Castrol Power1 Ultimate) (01:49.787).
Pro-Stock 165cc Open: 1. Chiranth Vishwanath (01:54.129); 2. Sarthak Chavan (01:54.346); 3. Jagan Kumar (Chennai) (01:54.512) (all three TVS Racing).
Novice (Stock 165cc): 1. Abdul Basim RS (Chennai, Rockers Racing) (02:06.684); 2. Tasmai Cariappa (Mysuru, Motul Sparks Racing) (02:07.222); 3. Lal Nunsanga (Mizoram, Motul Sparks Racing) (02:08.810).
Stock 301-400cc (Novice): 1. Kaushik Subbiah Ganesan (Chennai, RACR Castrol Power1 Ultimate) (02:00.063); 2. Raj Kumar (Coimbatore, RDX Torque Racing) (02:00.554); 3. Savion Sabu (Bengaluru, Madrabbit Racing) (02:00.723).
Idumitsu Honda India Talent Cup (NSF 250R): 1. Shyam Sundar (Chennai) (01:52.221); 2. Prakash Kamat (Bengaluru) (01:52.399); 3. Siddesh Sawant (Kolhapur) (01:52.503).
TVS India One-Make Championship:
Open (Apache RR310): 1. Senthilkumar C (Coimbatore) (01:55.462); 2. Manoj Yesuadiyan (Chennai) (01:55.522); 3. Raj Kumar C (Coimbatore) (01:56.103).
Girls (Apache RTR 200): 1. Saimah Ajaz Baig (Pune) (02:13.648); 2. Sarah Khan (Mumbai) (02:14.045); 3. Aisvariya V (Coimbatore) (02:14.188).
