Divy Nandan, Sai Sanjay share honours in MRF F2000
Touring Cars win for Arjun Balu; Viswas Vijayraj has it easy in Formula LGB 1300
Chennai, 7 Jan 2023: Gurugram’s Divy Nandan and Salem lad Sai Sanjay notched double podium apiece with a win and a third place in the two MRF F2000 races that headlined the opening day of the second round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Car Racing Championship 2022 at the Madras International Circuit here on Saturday.
Divy Nandan, 20, who enjoyed a great start in the first race for a comfortable win, finished the day with a third-place finish in the next outing starting from P6. Sai Sanjay, also 20, made amends for a disappointing first race with a fine win in the next starting from P4.
Also tasting success today was Nellore’s 24-year old Viswas Vijayraj (DTS Racing) in the Formula LGB 1300 category, with a pole-to-flag effort.
Earlier, 10-times National champion Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) powered to another fluent win in the premier Indian Touring Cars category as he led a Coimbatore sweep of the podium spots, sparing over seven seconds to Arjun Narendran (Arka Motorsports) while 77-year old D Vidya Prakash (Performance Racing), the oldest man in the championship, finished third.
The ITC along with Indian Junior Touring Cars and the Super Stock classes, was run in a combined grid of 27 cars that saw as many as four drivers penalized for jump start resulting in a couple of podium finishers getting demoted.
Local veteran Gurunath Meiyappan (Race Concepts) took the honours in the IJTC class with Narendran S (Redline Racing), also from Chennai, topping the Super Stock category.
Meanwhile, Viswas Vijayaraj chalked up a dominating win from pole to flag in the Formula LGB 1300 category race, easily holding off second-placed Mamallapuram veteran Raghul Rangasamy (MSport) while local ace Deepak Ravikumar (Momentum Motorsports) came in third with a last-lap pass on Bengaluru youngster and team-mate Tijil Rao.
Justin Singh (Gurugram) and Angad Mathroo (Chandigarh) won a race apiece in the MRF Saloon Cars (Toyota Etios) category.
MRF F2000 (Race-1, 8 laps): 1. Divy Nandan (Gurugram) (12mins, 42.224secs); 2. Mohamed Ryan (Chennai) (12:42.715); 3. Sai Sanjay T (Salem) (12:43.385).
Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Sai Sanjay T (16:01.632); 2. Chirag Ghorpade (Bengaluru) (16:03.564); 3. Divy Nandan (16:08.073).
Indian Touring Cars (Race-1, 10 laps): 1. Arjun Balu (Coimbatore, Race Concepts) (19:04.128); 2. Arjun Narendran (Coimbatore, Arka Motorsports) (19:11.427); 3. Vidya Prakash (Coimbatore) (20:07.604).
Indian Junior Touring Cars (Race-1, 10 laps): 1. Gurunath Meiyyappan (Chennai, Race Concepts) (19:32.970); 2. Deepak Ravikumar (Chennai, Performance Racing) (19:36.462); 3. Akkineni Anand Prasad (Chennai, Performance Racing) (19:52.477).
Super Stock (Race-1, 9 laps): 1. Narendran S (Chennai, Redline Racing) (19:07.337); 2. Ritesh Rai (Chennai, Performance Racing) (19:07.867); 3. Angad Mathroo (Chandigarh, Pvt) (19:41.701).
Formula LGB 1300 (Race-1, 8 laps): 1. Viswas Vijayraj (Nellore, DTS Racing) (15:06.989); 2. Raghul Rangasamy (Mahabalipuram, MSport) (15:10.325); 3. Deepak Ravikumar (Chennai, Momentum Motorsports) (15:13.839).
MRF Saloon Cars (Toyota Etios, Race-1, 8 laps): 1. Justin Singh (Gurugram, Redline Racing) (16:34.046); 2. Diana Pundole (Pune, Redline Racing) (16:34.050); 3. Angad Mathroo (Chandigarh, Redline Racing) (16:58.560). Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Mathroo (20:55.583); 2. Jai Prashanth Venkat (Coimbatore, Redline Racing) (21:13.776); 3. Zahan Commissariat (Mumbai, Redline Racing) (21:14.940).
