Chennai, 22 Jan 2017: Young Rajiv Sethu of Honda Ten10 Racing clinched the title in the Pro Stock 165cc category after scoring a grand double over the weekend in the fifth and final round of the MRF MMSC Fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship which concluded at the MMRT track, Sriperumbudur, near here on Sunday.
Locked in a tight tussle for the title with team-mate and championship leader Hari Krishnan Rajagopal going into the final round, Sethu, returning from a major hip injury, kept his wits about him to win both the races to clinch the title. Hari Krishnan was under pressure to stay in front and had a disastrous weekend as he failed to pick up any points.
Also scoring a double in the National championship was Jagan Kumar of TVS Racing who continued his fine form while retaining title in the top-end Super Sport Indian 165cc class to finish the season with five wins from 10 starts.
Jagan, though, had to work hard for his second win this weekend as he was pushed for much of the six-lapper until he managed to get his nose in front in the latter half to take the chequered flag before doing a lap of honour to celebrate his fifth National title in a row.
Equally dominating was Auroville-based Spaniard Ami van Poederooijen of Rockstar Racing in the Super Sport Indian 300-400cc class as he completed a double for seven wins, six of them in a row. He had sealed the championship on Saturday after winning the first of the two races, but that did not stop him from further underlining his dominance by topping the second outing today.
The concluding day’s proceedings witnessed its quota of close and exciting racing, especially in the MMSC One-Make Championships as Meka Vidhuraj (Suzuki Gixxer Cup Open), Joseph Mathew (Gixxer Cup Novice), Kannan Karnan (TVS Apache RTR200 Open), Yashas RL from Bengaluru, who won all the three races over the weekend (TVS Novice), Mathana Kumar (Honda CBR 250) and Anish Shetty from Hubballi (Honda CBR 150) clinched the titles in their respective categories.
Provisional results: (All 6 laps unless mentioned)
National Championship – Super Sport Indian (300-400cc): 1. Ami Van Poederooijen (Rockstar Racing) (12mins, 19.918secs); Amarnath Menon K (Rockstar Racing) (12:30.675); 3. Abhishek V (Rockstar Racing) (12:34.792).
Super Sport Indian (165cc): 1. K Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) (12:20.839); 2. S Kannan Subramaniam (TVS Racing) (12:20.878); 3. Harry Sylvester (TVS Racing) (12:21.161).
Pro Stock 165cc: 1. Rajiv Sethu (Honda Ten 10 Racing) (12:54.164); 2. Mithun Kumar PK (Honda Ten 10 Racing) (12:54.986); 3. D Dinesh Kumar (RACR) (12:55.286).
MMSC One-Make Championship – Honda CBR 250 (Open): 1. Hari Krishnan Rajagopal (Honda Ten10 Racing) (12:44.938); 2. Mathana Kumar S (Honda Ten10 Racing) (12:45.576); 3. Ananth Raj P (Pro Lap Racing) (12:48.902). CBR 150 Novice (4 laps): 1. Piyush Ranjan (Patna) (09:11.729); 2. Anish D Shetty (Hubballi) (09:11.765); 3. Soorya PM (Chennai) (09:12.070).
TVS Apache RTR 200 (Open): 1. Arun Muthukrishnan (Chennai) (13:34.470); 2. Kannan Karnan (Chennai) (13:34.991); 3. Shyam Shankar (Chennai) (13:43.346). Novice (4 laps): 1. Yashas RL (Bengaluru) (09:07.614); 2. Hari Prasath R (Chennai) (09:09.367); 3. Peddu Sriharsha (Chennai) (09:10.905).
Suzuki Gixxer Cup (Open): 1. Aaron Gunawardena (Sri Lanka) (13:37.638); 2. R Rajinikanth (Chennai) (13:37.715); 3. Vivian Gladwin (Kanpur) (13:38.097). Novice (4 laps): 1. Joseph Mathew (Chennai) (09:16.665); 2. Amarnath Rajan (Chennai) (09:17.987); 3. Alexander AS (Chennai) (09:19.629).
