HK Pradeep bags top honours in MRF Supercross Round 1

Bangalore 15 May 2011: Team TVS Racing put up a spirited fight at the first leg of the MRF National Supercross Championship despite suffering a setback even before the first round of the competition. The initial leg, held at Bangalore today, did not see participation of Team TVS Racing’s flamboyant lead rider C S Santosh who had crashed on his Apache RTR 250 fx motorcycle during the practice rounds. A sombre TVS Team however took up the challenge and finished the day in style by taking podium positions in every race in which they participated. H K Pradeep who was adjudged the best rider of the day after winning the Class I Foreign Open – Group A 250 cc – 500 cc race.

It was excitement from the word go. The first race of the day, Foreign Open Group A 250cc – 500 cc saw privateer C D Jinan from Kerala taking the lead initially in the first lap. But his glory was short lived as he fell while negotiating a sharp curve towards the middle of the first lap giving competitor privateer Veer Patel from Vadodara the chance to snatch the lead, followed closely by HK Pradeep in second place and Aravind K P in third place, both from Team TVS Racing. But as fate would have it, Veer Patel’s motorcycle stalled in lap 5 giving H K Pradeep and Aravind K P the opening to move into first and second place. Aravind K P then engaged in a closely fought endeavour to take the lead and win the race. Veer Patel came in third.

In second moto however, Aravind overcame a slow start to finish ahead of privateer Veer Patel, but was not able to get the better of team mate H K Pradeep who finished first. Both Veer Patel and Aravind K P overtook C D Jinan in the first turn itself and continued until the end of the race finishing in second and third positions respectively. In all 11 riders participated in each of the motos.

Team TVS Racing excelled in the Class III Indian Experts Group C up to 260 cc race as well, winning not only one, two and three but also four five and six. The only perceivable competition came from that of privateer CD Jinan, who was placed third at the end of the second lap. But in his enthusiasm to push his machine to the limits, he fell in lap 3 giving TVS riders just the room they were looking for. Both motors of Class III Indian Experst Group B upto 260 cc was again dominated by Team TVS Racing riders with teammates Aravind KP and Pradeep HK finishing first and second and fellow team mate Pramod Joshua finishing a distant third. The Class II Novice Group C upto 260cc was won by privateer Anil Kumar from Bangalore, while Basheer Ahmed of Team TVS Racing and Privateer Syed Dastagiri of Shimoga stood second and third respectively.

The locals impressed in a closely run race with almost nine to ten riders jostling for space around corners to overtake one another. Madhu S took top honours winning the race, followed by Shabaz Khan.

The next leg of the championship will take place in Comibatore next Sunday, 22nd May 2011