KY Ahamed clinches a thriller; Rajini, Balappa score a double

Chennai, 10 July 2022: While Rajini Krishnan and Sarvesh Balappa pouched their fourth straight win, KY Ahamed won an absolute thriller that lit up the second round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2022 which concluded at the Madras International Circuit, here on Sunday. But INDIAinF1’s hero of the day is Md Samrul Zubair of Hyderabad who came only second but his ride from 33rd on the grid to a valiant podium is the story of the day.

The Race’ists Motorcycle Club in Hyderabad is formed by a group of enthusiastic riders a few years back led by champion riders like Karthik Mateti, Peddu Sriharsha and Rahil Pillarisetty. Of-late they have been a regular feature on the podium in different classes.

Starting P9 for the eight-lap race in the popular Pro-Stock 165cc Open race, Petronas TVS Racing star Ahamed, who endured two crashes on Saturday, showed poise and aggression to rise like a phoenix as he snatched a dramatic win from Pacer Yamaha’s Mathana Kumar and Rajiv Sethu of Idemitsu Honda SK69 Racing, with just one-tenth of a second separating the trio at the finish line. The eventual outcome was in suspense as the three front-running riders exchanged lead after two other contenders, Deepak Ravikumar, also of Petronas TVS Racing, and Prabhu Arunagiri of Pacer Yamaha, retired in the second half of the race. Ahamed then pulled out a last-gasp win in a photo-finish that would be remembered for long.

Meanwhile, in the premier Pro-Stock 301-400cc Open category, Rajini Krishnan, the founder of RACR Castrol Power1, riding Yamaha R3 with a lighter frame than last year’s, was simply unstoppable while posting a fluent win that underlined his class and calibre, as he destroyed the field. His victory margin was over 10 seconds in the eight-lap race with the Petronas TVS Racing duo of KY Ahamed and Deepak Ravikumar coming in second and third, respectively. It was Rajini’s fourth win on the trot this season, following his double in the first round at Coimbatore last month.

Ryhana Bee, after a disappointing first round in Coimbatore last month, bounced back to win the National Championship Girls race (Stock 165cc) to put her campaign on track. She took the top honours ahead of Bengaluru’s Aditi Krishnan (Winverve Apex Racing Academy) who moved up a spot after second-placed Lani Zena Fernandez (Speed Up Racing) was docked a 15-second penalty which dropped her to fourth behind Axor Sparks Racing’s Jagruti Penkar from Mumbai. Lani was penalised for “causing avoidable collision” that involved early race leader Ann Jennifer (Alpha Racing) who finished fifth.

Hubballi’s Sarvesh Balappa (Axor Sparks Racing) continued his dream run as he finished the weekend with a double on the back of his two wins in the first round to remain unbeaten in the Novice (Stock 165cc) category. Finishing second was Md Samrul Zubair (Hyderabad) of Raceists Motorcycle Racing Club who started the race from P33 and worked his way up. His team-mate P Vignesh Goud, also from Hyderabad, was third.

Also scoring four consecutive wins were Sarthak Shrikant Chavan (Pune) and Raheesh Mudassar Khatri (Mumbai) in the NSF 250R and Novice (CBR 150) categories of the Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup, besides Bengaluru schoolboy Chiranth Vishwanath in the Rookie class of the Petronas TVS One-Make Championship.

Provisional results (all 6 laps unless mentioned):

National Championship – Pro-Stock 301-400cc Open (Race-2, 8 laps): 1. Rajini Krishnan (Chennai, RACR Castrol Power1) (15mins, 15.889secs); 2. KY Ahamed (Chennai, Petronas TVS Racing) (15:26.410); 3. Deepak Ravikumar (Chennai, Petronas TVS Racing) (15:26.729).

Pro-Stock 165cc Open (Race-2, 8 laps): 1. KY Ahamed (Chennai, Petronas TVS Racing) (15:55.678); 2. Mathana Kumar (Trichy, Pacer Yamaha) (15:55.722); 3. Rajiv Sethu (Chennai, Idemitsu Honda SK69 Racing) (15:55.726).

Novice (Stock 165cc) Race-2: 1. Sarvesh Balappa (Hubballi, Axor Sparks Racing) (13:06.383); 2. Md Samrul Zubair (Hyderabad, Raceists Motorcycle Club) (13:08.978); 3. P Vignesh Goud (Hyderabad, Raceists MC) (13:10.293).

Girls (Stock 165cc, 5 laps): 1. Ryhana Bee (Chennai, Pacer Yamaha) (11:01.483); 2. Aditi Krishnan (Bengaluru, Winverve Apex Racing Academy) (11:51.191); 3. Jagruti Penkar (Mumbai, Axor Sparks Racing) (11:18.793).

Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup – NSF 250R (Race-2, 10 laps): 1. Sarthak Shrikant Chavan (Pune) (18:45.396); 2. Mohsin Paramban (Malappuram) (18:55.514); 3. Shyam Sundar (Chennai) (18:55.663).

Novice (CBR 150, Race-2): 1. Raheesh Mudassar Khatri (Mumbai) (12:54.900); 2. Shyam Babu (Chennai) (13:27.093); 3. Harshith V Bogar (Bengaluru) (13:27.429).

Support race – Hornet 2.0 (Race-2): 1. G Balaji (Chennai) (13:32.712); 2. Kayan Zubin Patel (Mumbai) (13:32.851); 3. Romario John (Chennai) (13:38.944)

Petronas TVS One-Make Championship – Open (RR 310, Race-1): 1. Mohan Babu P (Chennai) (11:47.933); 2. S Vivek Pillai (Chennai) (11:48.064); 3. Manoj Yesuadiyan (Chennai) (11:48.694). Race-2: 1. S Vivek Pillai (Chennai) (11:54.105); 2. Mohan Babu P (Chennai) (11:54.125); 3. Kannan S (Chennai) (11:56.367).

Rookie (Apache RTR 200, Race-2): 1. Chiranth Vishwanath (Bengaluru) (12:25.916); 2. Shreyas Hareesh (Bengaluru) (12:35.302); 3. Abdul Basim RS (Chennai) (12:35.447).