Chennai, 6 Aug 2017: Mathana Kumar of Honda Ten10 Racing finally emerged from the shadows of his peers while chalking up his maiden win of the season in the premier Super Sport Indian (up to 165cc) class as the third round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship concluded at the MMRT track here on Sunday.
Mathana, 25-year old from Trichy, with three second-place finishes in five outings this season, came good in Race-2 and the 25 points he garnered took him 91 points, just 14 behind team-mate Rajiv Sethu even as defending champion Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) squandered a double by crashing on the last lap.
Aravind Balakrishnan, also of Honda Ten10 Racing, dominated the Pro-Stock (up to 165cc) class by completing a fine double which took him to the top of the leaderboard while Gusto Racing’s Amarnath Menon from Kozhikode scored his fifth win in six outings in the Super Sport Indian (300-400cc) class.
Anup Kumar M of RACR team took the honours in the highly-competitive Novice (Stock up to 165cc) race in a near-photo finish ahead of Sparks Racing duo of Satyanarayana Raju (Sparks Racing) and Sri Rahil Pillarishetty.
The Super Sport Indian (up to 165cc) race was one of fluctuating fortunes. Jagan, winner of the first race on Saturday, initially led a tightly-packed bunch of five riders that also included Sethu, Mathana, and TVS Racing mates KY Ahamed and Sylvester.
Jagan looked good for another win until a problem with his bike saw him drop down the grid and later crashed on the last lap, but picked himself up to finish fifth. By then, Mathana had moved to the front with Sylvester in hot pursuit. Sethu survived a contact with Ahamed who fell and retired, to come in third.
“I am very happy to score my first win of this season. I have had issues with the bike, but I was determined to win today. I kept myself in the front-running bunch and then passed Jagan, Rajiv and Ahamed, and then led all the way to the finish,” said Mathana.
The Super Sport Indian 300-400cc race was as dramatic with front-runner Dinesh Kumar (Team Alisha Abdullah) went into a water puddle at Turn-1 and crashed. It allowed Menon to move ahead along with Anthony Peter. The pair traded positions once before Menon took a decisive lead on the last lap and win a close race.
“I had a bad start, but I managed to stay with Dinesh until he crashed at Turn-1. Thereafter, it was a close fight with Anthony Peter who overtook me once, but I regained my track position. It was very tight when we crossed the finish line. It is a huge relief for me after having crashed during practice, qualifying and the first race yesterday. So, I was keen to bring the bike home safely and glad that I did it,” said Menon.
The results (Provisional):
Super Sport Indian (up to 165cc) Race 2, 9 laps: 1: Mathana Kumar (Honda Ten 10 Racing) (18:06.287); 2. Harry Sylvester (TVS Racing) (18:06.744); 3. Rajiv Sethu (Honda Ten 10 Racing) (18:15.142).
Super Sport Indian (300-400cc) 9 laps: 1. Amarnath Menon (Gusto Racing) (17:51.839); 2, Antony Peter (Kingdom Motorsports) (17:51.945); 3. Deepak Ravi Kumar (Moto-Rev) (17:52.117).
Pro-Stock (up to 165cc) Race 2, 9 laps: 1. Aravind Balakrishnan (Honda Ten 10 Racing) (18:56.859); 2. Aravind Ganesh (pvt.) (19:04.364); 3. Naresh Babu (RACR) (19:08.598).
Stock (up to 165cc) Novice  – Final (6 laps): 1: Anup Kumar M (RACR) (13:15.938); 2. Satyanarayana Raju (Sparks Racing) (13:15.940); 3. Sri Rahil Pillarishetty (Sparks Racing) (13:16.195).
One-Make Championship – Honda CBR250 (Open) Race 1, 6 laps: 1: Harikrishnan Rajagopal (Honda Ten 10Racing) (12: 27.667); 2. Rajiv Sethu (Honda Ten 10Racing) (12: 27.808); 3. Abhishek Vasudev (pvt.) (12:28.253). Race 2 (9 laps): 1. Rajiv Sethu (Honda Ten 10 Racing) (18:37.642); 2. Harikrishnan Rajagopal (Honda Ten 10 Racing) (18:37.738); 3. Amit Richard Topno (Pro Lap Racing) (18:38.064).
CBR 150 (Novice) Race 2, 6 laps: 1. Satyanarayana Raju (Hyderabad) (13:27.240); 2. Vysakh Sobhan (Kerala) (13:27.560); 3. Amala Jerald A (Chennai) (13:28.413).
TVS Apache RTR200 (Open) Race 2, 6 laps: 1: Sivanesan S (Chennai) (13:13.935); 2. Kannan Karnan (Chennai) (13:14.000); 3. Yuvaraj S (Chennai) (13:14.020). Novice (Race 2, 6 laps): 1. Anup Kumar M (Chennai) (13:19.447); 2. Romario J (Chennai) (13:23.279); 3. Shankar Guru A (Chennai) (13:24.762).
eom/AP Media Communications release
