Maiden MRF F1600 win Bengaluru for teenager Yash Aradhya: Indian Racing Nationals

David Bodapati August 19, 2018

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Yash Aradhya (centre), winner of Race-3 in MRF F1600 class flanked by second-placed Goutham Parekh (left) and Raghul Rangasamy at MMRT on Sunday. Photos by Anand Philar

Chennai, 19 Aug 2018: The schoolboy from Bengaluru Yash Aradhya marked his first season in the MRF F1600 class with a maiden win in the fourth round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Racing Championship at the MMRT here on Sunday.

Aradhya, who celebrated his 17^th birthday last Friday, started Race-3 from third position on the grid, but within two laps, hit the front, getting past pole-sitter Goutham Parekh and Sandeep Kumar before defending his position to score a fine win. Earlier, Parekh comfortably won the in Race-2 of the MRF F1600.

After this weekend’s triple-header, Raghul Rangasamy (134), following his win in Race-1 yesterday, leads the MRF F1600 championship, ahead of Parekh (129), Ashwin Datta (110) and Sandeep Kumar (109). The winner of the championship will earn a ticket to the Mazda Road To Indy shootout in the United States later this year.

Arjun Narendran, the eventual winner of the Indian Touring Cars race (14) and Arjun Balu (39) locked in a tussle

The second race of the Indian Touring Cars class witnessed another tight battle between last year’s champion Arjun Narendran (Arka Motorsports) and Arjun Balu (Race Concepts). The two Coimbatore drivers were locked in a titanic fight with Narendran, who had finished second behind Balu in yesterday’s first race, managing to avenge that defeat, but not before the two came together twice in the eight-lap race. Balu, who led initially after starting from pole position, ran wide after a contact with Narendran who then survived another brush towards the end of the race.

With another two races to be run in the final round of the championship next month, Bengaluru’s Ashish Ramaswamy (Arka Motorsports) continues to lead with 131 points following two podium finishes this weekend while Balu is placed second on 111, followed by Nikanth Ram of Arka Motorsports (98) and Narendran (93).

Another Bengaluru entry, 27-year old Varun Anekar completed a double in the Super Stock category of saloon cars to lead the championship in this category with five wins in six starts. Nikunj Vagh (Surat) and Biren Pithawalla (Mumbai) of Team N1, won the Indian Junior Touring Cars and the Esteem Cup races, respectively.

Bengaluru’s Shubhomoy Ball and Dhruv Mohite from Kolhapur, split the two Volkswagen Ameo Cup races today. Mohite, thus, extended his lead in the championship, having scored five wins from eight starts.

The results (Provisional, all 8 laps unless mentioned):

MRF F1600 (Race-2, 7 laps): 1. Goutham Parekh (Chennai) (11mins, 55.958secs); 2.Sandeep Kumar (Chennai) (11:59.036); 3. Arya Singh (Kolkata) (11:59.807). Race-3: 1. Yash Aradhya (Bengaluru) (13:38.672); 2. Goutham Parekh (Chennai) (13:39.045); 3. Raghul Rangasamy (Chennai) (13:39.335).

Indian Touring Cars (Race-2): 1. Arjun Narendran (Arka Motorsports) (15:18.697); 2. Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) (15:18.972); 3. Ashish Ramaswamy (Arka Motorsports) (15:27.011).

Turbo (Race-2): 1. Karthik Tharani (VW Motorsport) (15:26.584); 2.Rayomand Banajee (VW Motorsport) (15:40.368); 3.Ishaan Dodhiwala (VW Motorsport) (15:48.720).

Super Stock (Race-2): 1. Varun Anekar (Race Concepts) (15:47.827); 2.Srinivas Teja (Performance Racing) (16:25.497); 3. RP Rajarajan (Performance Racing) (16:25.743).

Indian Junior Touring Cars (Race-2): 1. Nikunj Vagh (Team N1) (16:46.717). 2. Chris Desouza (Unimek Racing ) (16:59.674); 3. Prabu AS (Arka Motorsports) (17:22.050).

Esteem Cup (Race-2): 1. Biren Pithawala (Team N1) (16:45.958); 2. Raghul Rangasamy (Performance Racing) (16:56.231); 3. R Shyam (Prime Racing) (17:22.349).

Volkswagen Ameo Cup (Race-2): 1. Shubhomoy Ball (Bengaluru) (15:40.496); 2.Affan Sadat Safwan Islam (Chittagong) (15:41.536); 3. Dhruv Mohite (Kolhapur) (15:41.784). Race-3: 1. Dhruv Mohite (Kolhapur) (15:38.206); 2. Saurav Bandyopadhyay (Mumbai) (15:45.963); 3. Shubhomoy Ball (Bengaluru) (15:48.007).