Rajendra triumphs at MRF Rally of Coimbatore; TVS dominates

Coimbatore, 17 July 2022: Former champion Rajendra RE spearheaded a stunning bounce back by Petronas TVS Racing team into strong contention with a solid overall victory even as the team made a clean sweep of the top-five positions in the MRF Rally of Coimbatore, the third round of the God Speed Racing MRF MoGrip fmsci National Rally Championship-2W 2022 organised by Coimbatore Auto Sports Club (CASC) here on Sunday.

Sarath Mohan, became the top privateer, taking sixth behind the TVS riders and Aishwarya Pissay, made light of the competition with another easy victory in the Ladies Class, switching easily into local rally mode after another round of high-performance training in Europe, the second this year. Satara lass, Tanika Shanbagh, who upgraded herself to a higher class to gain experience on a super bike, rode the Husqvarna with confidence finishing overall 18 among a field of 100 bikes that took the start. While 14 failed to finish the rally, Tanika, competing on par with men, is making strides improving her timing every round.

Sarath Mohan bagged the sixth overall place astride a Husqvarna and won the gold in his class as he clocked the third fastest time after Rajendra and Imran Pasha, both from the stables of TVS. The talented biker puts in tremendous efforts into his preparations but was bogged down on Sunday due to clutch issues. He overcame a serious accident last year and recovered to mount his challenge once again. He is a strong contender to win his maiden National title in Class 1A, the Superbike Expert Group A category this year. “Yes, I have to get my bike set-up right. Today, I had to go only at 60 per cent of my usual self due to clutch issues. On the fourth stage I got into my own and was having fun but in no time the rally was over,” said the Kerala rider, who trains with Dakar star, Harith Noah, back home.

Rajendra, the Shimoga-born 2019 Overall champion, who could only get 12 points from a fourth place in Round 1, bagged full 25 points to place himself in a fighting distance with table topper and teammate Abdul Waheed Tanveer, who despite increasing the pace to win the last two stages, could only finish second in Class 1. Rajendra’s blistering pace in the first two stages, provided him a buffer of over 20 seconds. The former champion began with a bang topping SS1 in the Kethanoor farms to log a 15-sec lead that helped him finish Overall first with ease and grace.

The Class may have only four riders, but the competition was high as all the four National champions (in different years) finished within three seconds. All four missed second round due to Team Orders, but it would not affect any of them in this class as all belong to Petronas TVS Racing, which bagged top honours with Imran Pasha, the Class V winner taking the fifth spot.

World Cupper Aishwarya Pissay, was back in her elements posting a facile win in the Ladies class and logged 38th place in the Overall ranking for a creditable performance in Round 3, which saw a record number of over 100 bikers vying for honours.

SuperSport 130cc Group B – Class 2

Chalass K Bose, put his #62 Stunner on the top of the pack beating Vinoth Kumar (also on a Stunner) of Erode by a whisker and another Kerala rider has to be content with a third place astride a Gladiator. With this win, the Kottayam champ took a 13-point lead over his nearest rival Anoop Manjappa, who could finish only fourth.

Adnan suffers loss, but keeps Overall lead

Meanwhile, championship leader Adnan Ahmed saw former champion Imran Pasha race away to a comfortable lead. But later Imran’s TVS mate Sachin too pipped Adnan by less than two-seconds. However, Adnan’s 15 points today for his third-placed finish still keep him atop the rankings with a 5-point lead over Pasha, who has 50 points (2 wins).

Venu Ramesh, at his best in Supersport 400cc Group B

The story of this Coimbatore veteran is all about passion and experience. Venu Ramesh Kumar, the oldest rider in the field, continues to defy age with his commitment and dedication to fitness teaching a lesson or two to youngsters half his age. He won comfortably by a mile beating the Bengaluru duo of Amog Nag and Mohammed Zaheer to second and third places respectively. Venu, who also takes part in four-wheeler rallies, keeps himself fit taking part in competitive cycling activities.

Naresh bags Bullet class

Naresh VS, another rider, popular as Bruce Lee among the biking family, chalked out an easy win brushing aside the two Kerala riders, Arun Joy and Shajeer Ishmail in the Bullet class.

Sasi Kumar, on an Impulse, bagged Class 3, the Supersport 165cc Group B while local rider Sabarish won the Superstock 450cc Group D. Vishnu Prakash, also on an Impulse won the local Class 10, a non-championship class.

TVS continues to dominate Scooter class

Petronas TVS Racing continues to dominate the Scooter class with Syed Asif Ali and Shamim Khan making it 1-2 for the Hosur factory team while Subramanya T finished third.

Provisional Results (Ro 3 Cbe):

Class 1:

1. #5 Rajendra RE (Petronas TVS Racing; Shimoga) RTR 450; 57:59.624;

2. #2 Abdul Waheed Tanveer  (Petronas TVS Racing; Bengaluru) RTR 450;  58:19.178;

3. #3 Samuel Jacob (Petronas TVS Racing; Udupi) RTR 200; 1: 00:38.045;

4. #4 R Nataraj (Petronas TVS Racing; Mysore) RTR 450; 1: 00:51.112;

Class 10:

1. #91 Vishnu Prakash S (Privateer – Pvt; Coimbatore) Impulse; 01:11:01.450;

2. #99 Ricarius Venchaslaus (Pvt; Coimbatore) Impulse; 01:11:56.250;

3. #96 Shailesh Kumar (Pvt; Coimbatore) Impulse; 01: 12:14.340; (Including 10 sec penalty)

4. #100 Aswin JK (Pvt; Coimbatore) Xpulse; 01:13:13.370;

5. # CV Vignesh (Pvt – Coimbatore) XPulse; 01:13:15.100; (Including 1 min penalty)

(Legend: Pvt= Privateer; #= Bike number/ Competition Number)

Class 1A:

1. #6 Sarath Mohan (Pvt – Mallapuram) Husqvarna; 01: 03: 08.160;

2. #10 Anish Shetty (PRN Motorsport – Hubbali) KTM 390; 01:03:56.013;

3. #9 Jatin Jain (Pvt. Nagpur) KTM 450; 01:07:00.381;

4. #7 Sinan Francis (Pvt.Vennala/Kerala) KTM 450; 01:07:09.419;

5. #8 Tanika Shanbag (Pvt. Satara) Husqvarna;  01:08:49.726;

Class 2:

1. #62 Chalass K Bose (Pvt – Kottayam) Stunner; 01:14:48.638;

2. #66 Vinoth Kumar (Pvt – Erode) Stunner; 01:14:54.987;

3. #70 Hari Krishnan (Pvt – Kerala) Gladiator; 01:17:21.170;

4. #63 Anoop Manjappa (Pvt – Bengaluru) Stunner; 01:24:16.627;

5. #67 Raj Bharath (Pvt – Bengaluru) Stunner; 01:25:06.845;

Class 3:

1. #35 Sasi Kumar (Pvt -Coimbatore) Impulse; 01:08:29:813;

2. #34 Francis PV (Pvt – Chikkamagaluru) Impulse; 01:08:44.737; (Including 10 sec Penalty);

3. #45 Vikram Sekar (Pvt – Coimbatore) Impulse; 01:10:27:488;

4. #39 Varun Kumar (Pvt. – Bengaluru) Impulse; 01:10:44:532;

5. #43 Nirmal E Paret (Pvt – Kottayam) Impulse; 01:11:14:540;

Class 4:

1. #12 Imran Pasha (Petronas TVS Racing – Mysore) RTR 200; 01:01:45:030;

2. #15 Sachin D (Petronas TVS Racing – Mysore) RTR 200; 01:03:56:323;

3 #1 Adnan Ahmed (Pvt -Mangaluru) Xpulse; 01:03:58.053;

4. #17 Banteilang Jerwa (Pvt -Shillong) Xpulse; 01:05:08.075;

5. #16 Yuva Kumar (Hero MotoSports Team Rally) Xpulse; 01:05:39.889;

Class 5:

1. #29 Venu Ramesh Kumar (Pvt – Coimbatore) KTM390; 01:09:16.089;

2. #30 Amogh Nag (Pvt – Bengaluru) KTM390; 01:10:21.107;

3. #27 Mohammed Zaheer (Pvt – Bengaluru) KTM-Adv; 01:10:30.994;

4. #28 Ashwin Anantha Raju (Pvt – Bengaluru) KTM390; 01:16:28.343;

5. #32 Russel Jossy (Pvt – Mumbai) KTM390; 01:17:20.579;

Class 6:

1. #48 Naresh VS (Pvt – Bengaluru) Royal Enfield; 01:08:53.423;

2. #49 Arun Joy (Pvt – Kerala) Royal Enfield; 01:11:24.222;

3. #51 Shajeer Ishmail (Pvt – Ernakulam) Royal Enfield; 01:13:59.864;

4. #52 Mahesh Kumar (Pvt – Kochi) Royal Enfield; 01:14:01.538;

5. #50 Sreekanth Komana (Pvt – Kochi) Royal Enfield; DNF

(Only 5 riders in this class took the start)

Class 7:

1. #73 Aishwarya Pissay (Petronas TVS Racing – Bengaluru) RTR 200; 01:12:23.225;

2. #72 Fazeela (Pvt – Ernakulam) Impulse; 01:14:58.092;

3. #75 Sameera Dahiya (Pvt – Bengaluru) Xpulse; 01:32:54.076;

4. #74 Deeksha Srivastava (Pvt – Pune) Impulse; 01:33:41.643;

5. #76 Jeena Joy (Pvt -Muvattupuzha) Xpulse; 01:45:32:747.

Class 7:

1. #60 Syed Asif Ali (Petronas TVS Racing – Bhopal) NTorq; 01:11:02:998;

2. #55 Shamim Khan (Petronas TVS Racing – Bhopal) NTorq; 01:11:06:548;

3. #57 Subramanya T (Pvt – Bhopal) NTorq; 01:14:02:631;

4. #54 Goutham N (Pvt – Bengaluru) NTorq; 01:15:55:088;

5. #61 Elango (Pvt – Erode) NTorq; 01:18:18:147;

Class 9

1. #77 Sabarish (Pvt – Coimbatore) Xpulse; 01:09:41:935;

2. #78 Arun T (Pvt – Bengaluru) RTR200; 01:10:22:870;

3. #80 Saravana Kumar (Pvt – Coimbatore) Xpulse; 01:11:48:576;

4. #79 P Rakesh Kumar (Pvt – Coimbatore) RTR200; 01:13:18:295; (Including one minute liaison penalty);

5. #85 Jagadeesh (Pvt – Coimbatore) Xpulse; 01:13:39:059;