Deepak Chinnappa beats the `champ’ to clinch a fine victory

Chennai, 17 July 2016: Bengaluru’s Deepak Paul Chinnappa (Race Concepts ENEOS) denied title favourite Arjun Narendran from Coimbatore (Red Rooster Racing) a clean sweep in the Indian Touring Cars class by winning the third outing in the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Racing Championship, at the MMRT track, Sriperumbudur, near hear on Sunday. However, Arjun clinched the Championship title with a round to spare as he amassed points with a difference of over 50, the maximum that can be gained in the next round. It has to be remembered that Arjun gained from the last race in Coimbatore where potential contender was dashed off the field. The veteran was let off with a paltry Rs.10,000 penalty.

Equally impressive performances came from Chennai competitor Vikash Anand who scored a double in the MRF F1600 class as also Raghul Rangasamy who won both the races in the F1300 Rookie Championship while Mumbai’s Ananth Pithawalla (Team N1) won the Indian Junior Touring Cars race and private entrant Deepak Ravikumar took the honours in the Super Stock category.

Starting second, Chinnappa eased past pole-sitter Ashish Ramaswamy (Red Rooster Racing) when the lights went off and built up a commanding lead. Meanwhile, Narendran, who had won both the previous races, did well to move to third after starting last on the grid and then went past Ramaswamy to slot in behind Chinnappa, but could not gain another place. Ramaswamy finished third.

“I had a good start and managed to build a big lead. I was concerned about preserving the tyres which were wearing out fast, and over the last few laps, I had to brake at least 150 metres earlier than normal, but the early lead helped me to maintain my track position to win,” said the 29-year old Chinnappa who thus chalked up his second win in eight starts this season.

For Vikash Anand, it was an up-and-down day. After having won the first race on Saturday, Anand struggled in the second and finished a distant sixth after a couple of off-track excursions while Hyderabad’s Anindith Reddy took the honours. However, Anand managed to gather himself and win the third race for a double.

The Indian Junior Touring Cars race saw a straight battle between the two championship contenders Ananth Pithawalla from Mumbai (Team N1) and Keith Desouza (UNIMEK Racing) with the former coming through while Deepak Ravikumar, a private entrant, topped in the Super Stock category that was run concurrently with the IJTC grid.

Raghul Rangasamy expectedly won the F1300 Rookie Championship race to complete a double despite going off the track when leading midway through the eight-lapper.

Meanwhile, Ishaan Dodhiwala and Niranjan Todkari emerged winners in the two Volkswagen Vento Cup races in contrasting styles. Dodhiwala came up with a fine move to get past front-runner and guest driver from China Li Li Huiwei on the last lap while Todkari enjoyed a lights-to-flag win.

The results (Provisional):

MRF F1600 (Race 2 – 10 laps): 1.Anindith Reddy (Hyderabad) (18mins, 47.123secs); 2.Raghul Rangasamy (Chennai) (18:56.753); 3.Sandeep Kumar (Chennai) (19: 07.235). Race-3 (8 laps): 1. Vikash Anand (Chennai) (15:34.366); 2. Anindith Reddy (Hyderabad) (15:38.277); 3. Raghul Rangasamy (Chennai) (15:41.771).

Indian Touring Cars (Race-3, 8 laps): 1. Deepak Paul Chinnappa (Race Concepts ENEOS) (16:29.580); 2. Arjun Narendran (Red Rooster Performance) (16:30.919); 3. Ashish Ramaswamy (Red Rooster Performance) (16:41.682).

Indian Junior Touring Cars (Race-2, 8 laps): 1.Ananth Pithawalla (Team N1) (17:48.538); 2.Keith DeSouza (UNIMEK Racing) (17:51.754); 3.R Srihariram (Red Rooster Performance) (18:37.810).

Super Stock (Race-2, 10 laps): 1.Deepak Ravikumar (Pvt) (18:26,830); 2.Dean Mascarenhas (Race Concepts) (18:32.320); 3.Chandresh Tolia (Team Game Over) (18:37.404).

F1300 Rookie Championship (Race 2 – 8 laps): 1.Raghul Rangasamy (WSRF) (16:23.799); 2.Arya Singh (Momentum Motorsports) (16:28.025); 3.C Tejas Ram (WSRF) (16:30.914).

Volkswagen Vento Cup (Race-2, 10 laps): 1.Ishaan Dodhiwala (Hyderabad) (21:39.143); 2.Li Huiwei (China) (21:41.809); 3.Sirish Chandran (Pune) (21:52.109). Race-3 (8 laps): 1.Niranjan Todkari (Pune) (17:05.060); 2.Ketith DeSouza (Goa) (17:05.816); 3.Ishaan Dodhwala (Hyderabad) (17:14.866).

About Madras Motor Sports Club

The Madras Motor Sports Club has been the pioneer in developing and promoting motorsport in India since 1953, and we look to further improve in the years to come. It is the club’s endeavor to provide more opportunities for competitors and to this end, it has chalked out a progressive program for 2016. From the days of Sholavaram , MMSC built its own racetrack which was inaugurated in 1979 and secured its FIA Grade-2 international certification in 2015, making it the only club which owns such a facility. The club has organised the Porsche Super Cup, Formula Campos, Formula Asia, Asian touring car championships, Formula 3, Tata Prima Truck racing championship, the Asian 2-wheeler racing championships besides a host of other motorsport events over the years. The club also has active participation for its events from vehicle manufacturers who also use the Madras Motor Race Track (MMRT) extensively for testing their products.

eom/AP Media Comm press release