Hemanth Muddappa of Mantra Racing sets National Drag record at Amby Valley

Amby Valley (Maharashtra), 7 Dec 2021: Multiple National Drag Racing champion Hemanth Muddappa of Mantra Racing notched up another feature in his cap with a National record in the above 600cc unrestricted open foreign bikes category in the mega FMSCI licensed Drag event, the 9th edition of The Valley Run (TVR) organised for two-wheelers and four-wheelers by Elite Octane that attracted a record over 500 entries at the Amby Valley airstrip in Lonavala on Sunday.

The 31-year Coorgi based in Bengaluru, beat the National record for this category held by Andhra Pradesh’s Satyanarayan Raju record of 9.522sec set last year at the same event and track.

Mumbai’s Atharva Achrekar on a Kawasaki zx10R won the 851 to 1050cc in 10.083sec beating Avinash Y, who clocked 10.155. Iqbal Sheikh won the third position in a time of 10.182 in a grid of 34 bikes.

But in the 1050cc to 1650cc event, Hemanth Muddappa took his second gold clocking 9.684 to become the only rider to dip under 10-sec mark. He beat Vignesh Purushotham who timed 10.035 to second and Hafiz Ulla Khan finished third in 10.235. All three from Bengaluru swept the top three places on a Hayabusa in a grid of 17 bikes.

Hemanth Muddappa won the Ribbon Event, the Foreign Open Unrestricted class for bikes above 600cc, zooming to the gold in 9.508 as he stripped off a good one-10th of a second from his last year’s gold time of 9.677seconds,  which is considered a mountain in drag racing.  The fitness freak astride his black Suzuki Hayabusa built by Mantra Racing beat a host of riders and the quarter mile record that stood in the name of Vizag racer. Iqbal Sheikh of Mumbai finished second in 9.829 while Vaibhav Mhatre came third in 10.038. Both were also riding a Suzuki GSX.

“It always take a lot out of me to prepare such events. This is a mega event with hundreds of bikes and the track has an international standard with the approved exact quarter-mile distance of 400.2 metres. I am glad to beat this record, thanks to my beauty of a machine prepared by Sharan of Mantra Racing,” said a beaming Muddappa, who topped a grid of 30 riders in this class.

Muddappa, who became the 2020 National Drag Champion for the fourth successive year in the top two classes also beat his own National record this year again on October 3 at the FMSCI National Drag Championship in the 850cc to 1049cc class. With this record today, the Sharan (Mantra Racing) and Hemanth Muddappa combination holds the Drag records at all circuits in India.

“Yes, it is an FMSCI recognised event and he holds the record now for all the circuits,” confirmed Pratap Jayaram, chairman, FMSCI Drag Commission.

In the two-wheeler section which received an overwhelming response of over 300 participants in 14 different classes, the top three classes saw some stunning machines thrill the crowds. The event was run by Elite Octane Inc, a Mumbai-based Motorsports Club affiliated to FMSCI.

Eleven other classes were also held for bikes and prizes were given away till late night on Sunday.