Double for Arjun Balu, Rithvik Thomas in saloon cars; Amendola wins MRF Challenge title

David Bodapati February 16, 2020

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Yuven Sundaramoorthy, winner of Race-4 in MRF Challeng on Sunday. Photo by Anand Philar

Chennai, 16 Feb 2020: Belgium’s Michelangelo Amendola did not win any of the three races run today, but picked up sufficient points from two third-place finishes and a sixth, to emerge the new champion in the FIA-approved MRF Challenge which concluded at the MMRT, here today.

Earlier,16-year old Indian-American Yuven Sundaramoorthy, with family roots in Madurai, gave the crowd plenty to cheer about by winning one race while British teenager Louis Foster and Australia’s Dylan Young took the honours in the other two races of the day.

A third place finish in Race-5 today ensured the 18-year Amendola the title in his third attempt as he opened up an unassailable 34-point lead over his nearest rival Young, going into the last race of the day. Amendola finished with 247 points, including five wins over three rounds, to Young’s 223 (3 wins) while Britain’s Joshua Mason (176) was placed third in the championship.

Meanwhile, Race Concepts drivers, Arjun Balu from Coimbatore and Bengaluru’s Rithvik Thomas notched a double each in the Indian Touring Cars and the Super Stock categories, respectively, of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Car Racing Championship (Round-1).

Rejoicing his championship success with his immediate family, Amendola, who had scored a double yesterday, said: “I am absolutely delighted that I finally won the MRF Challenge championship in my third season. Last season, I finished fourth in the championship and in 2017, I was sixth. So, I was determined to win the title this time. Now that I have won it, I am looking at a few options, but all depends on budgets and sponsorship. Motor racing is not very popular in Belgium, but I am hopeful.”

The day began with Foster capitalising on a Turn-2 incident on Lap-1 that led to a brief Safety Car period, moving from third to first. Foster then hung on to finish ahead of Sundaramoorthy with Amendola in third place. Young’s championship hopes virtually ended when he lost two spots to come in sixth.

In the next race, Sundaramoorthy, starting on pole on the reverse grid, was off to a good start and though he lost a bit going into Turn 10, he managed to hold off Jordanian Manaf Hijjawi for his second win of the season with Young trailing home in third place.

“It feels great to win here in Chennai, virtually my home race! But I made it difficult for myself by making a couple of mistakes early in the race, especially when I went in too hot in Turn-10, went sideways and lost a bunch of space. I am absolutely delighted to score my second win this season after Dubai,” said Sundaramoorthy who turns 17 on February 22.

Young, starting from reverse grid pole, also won the day’s last race untroubled, comfortably nursing his early lead to chalk up his third win of the season.

ARJUN BALU REIGNS SUPREME

Balu destroyed the combined 29-car saloon cars field for a grand double. The grid was a mix of ITC, Super Stock and the Volkswagen Ameo (support race) that took its final bow after three seasons to be replaced by the turbo-charged Polo in the next round this summer.

Balu, like in Race-1 yesterday, was simply unstoppable though he started today eighth on the combined reverse grid. Within two laps, he sliced his way past six cars and then pole-sitter D Vidyaprakash of Prime Racing (subsequently disqualified for “technical infringement”, to take the lead that kept stretching corner to corner.

“At the start, I was keen to get to the front and not get stuck in mid-grid. Once into the lead, I was able to extend the lead before I decided to ease off big time as there was no need to push any more. It was a fairly comfortable race for me, but again, thanks to Race Concepts for preparing such a great racing car,” said Balu.

The results:

MRF Challenge (all 15 laps unless mentioned) – Race-4: 1. Yuven Sundaramoorthy (USA) (22mins, 53.075secs); 2. Manaf Hijjawi (Jordan) (22:54.066); 3. Dylan Young (Australia) (23:03.255). Fastest Lap: Sundaramoorthy (01:30.323). Race-5: 1. Louis Foster (UK) (25:38.368); 2. Sundaramoorthy (25:41.064); 3. Michelangelo Amendola (Belgium) (25:45.004). Fastest Lap: Foster (01:31.053). Race-6 (14 laps): 1. Young (21:33.558); 2. Valdemar Eriksen (Denmark) (21:34.874); 3. Amendola (21:36.464). Fastest Lap: Sundaramoorthy (01:31.080). Final Championship standings (top 3): 1. Amendola (247 points); 2. Young (223); 3. Joshua Mason (GBR, 176).

National Championship (12 laps) – Indian Touring Cars (Race-2): 1. Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) (23:12.264); 2. Keith D’Souza (FB Motorsports) (23:28.371); 3. Sunil Ranjith (Race Concepts) (+1 lap).

Super Stock (Race-2): 1. Rithvik Thomas (Race Concepts) (24:13.207); 2. Raghul Rangasamy (Performance Racing) (24:20.261); 3. Alisha Abdullah (Race Concepts) (24:51.419).

Support races – MRF F1600 (Race-2, 10 laps): 1. Vishnu Prasad (Chennai) (20:17.408); 2. Raghul Rangasamy (Mamallapuram) (20:18.087); 3. Karthik Tharani (Chennai) (20:19.272). Race-3: 1. Sohil Shah (Bengaluru) (16:35.718); 2. Raghul Rangasamy (16:42.174); 3. Vishnu Prasad (16:42.437).

Volkswagen Ameo Super Race (Race-2, 12 laps): 1. Anmol Singh Sahil (Ghaziabad) (23:19.588); 2. Anindith Reddy (Hyderabad) (23:22.637); 3. Dhruv Mohite (Kolhapur) (23:23.267).

ABOUT MRF TYRES

Motorsports in India is synonymous with MRF. In fact, the development and popularity of various forms of the sport could be directly attributed to the pioneering efforts of the company, be it racing, rallying, motocross or karting. To encourage motorsport enthusiasts MRF has spared no resources in offering World-class facilities. Being the largest promoters of motorsports in India, MRF has the added advantage of being able to use the racetrack to test the tyres. MRF also supplies tyres to various other championships in the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

MRF is the only tyre company in India to have developed Formula car tyres, world- class rally tyres for tarmac and dirt, motocross tyres and also karting tyres. Today, the company caters to almost all segments of the tyre industry and is proud to be the manufacturer of the largest range of tyres. Heavy-duty truck and bus tyres, passenger car tyres, two-wheeler tyres and farm tyres are just some of the tyres that MRF manufactures.

The one thing that puts MRF head and shoulders above its competition is the fact that MRF is the only tyre company in India without any foreign technical collaboration. The company is where it is today, thanks mainly to its know-how and its ability to develop indigenous technology. With this technology, MRF now supplies original equipment tyres to multinational manufacturers such as Honda, Hyundai, Renault, Nissan, Mahindra, Tata, Volkswagen, Toyota, Suzuki and Ford. In total, MRF exports to more than 90 countries. MRF has been the undisputed leader in the tyre industry for more than three decades now, notwithstanding the competition from various multinational and Indian tyre brands.