Chennai, 8 July 2017: Rajiv Sethu of Honda Ten10 Racing, showing maturity far beyond his 18 years, came up with a stunning ride to win the premium Super Sport Indian (up to 165cc) class race in the second round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Morocycle Racing Championship at the MMRT track, near here on Saturday.
Aravind Balakrishnan, only 22, brought more cheer to Honda Ten10 Racing team by topping the Pro-Stock class that was run on a combined grid with the Super Sport Indian (165cc) while Kerala’s Amarnath Menon (Gusto Racing) scored a dominant win, his third in as many outings, in the 300-400cc category.
In the Girls (Stock, up to 165cc) category, Ryhana Bee, the 23-year old from Chennai studying shipping and logistics, pulled off a fine win over pole-sitter Aishwarya Pissay (Apex Racing Academy) with a late-braking manoeuvre at Turn-4 mid-way through the five-lap race.
Aishwarya, winner of the first-ever National championship race for girls in Coimbatore last month, eventually came in third behind Madhya Pradesh’s Kalyani Potedar (Team Speed Up Racing).
Sethu, starting from pole position, yielded ground to reigning National champion Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) early in the six-lap race. However, in the third lap, Jagan dropped out of contention due to a technical problem with his bike and Sethu needed no second invitation to forge ahead. He gradually increased the lead to win from TVS Racing’s KY Ahamed and Prabhu Arunagiri (RACR) with about three seconds to spare.
“Early in the race, I had some problems with the bike and had no choice but to allow Jagan to pass me, but when he dropped out, I moved in front and did not look back. The team did an excellent job in giving me a winning bike,” said Sethu on notching his second in three outings.
Further down the field, another intense battle raged in the Pro-Stock class after pole-sitter Mithun Kumar (Honda Ten10 Racing) was shifted to the back of the combined grid for having missed the warm-up lap due to mechanical problems.
It left Aravind Balakrishnan and Aravind Ganesh (Team MotoRev) to fight for top honours. The duo kept trading leads before Balakrishnan got his nose in front to win with little to spare.
In sharp contrast, Menon, though starting second on the grid behind Deepak Ravikumar (Team MotoRev), was in a league of his own in the 300-400cc class race once he got into his stride that saw him move up from third to first and then extend his lead with each lap for another commanding win. Vivek Pillai (Rockers Racing) finished second while Ravikumar came in third.
The results (Provisional):
National Championship – Super Sport Indian (Up to 165cc) (6 laps): 1. Rajiv Sethi (Honda Ten 10 Racing) (12 mins, 02.236secs); 2. KY Ahamed (TVS Racing) (12:05.154); 3. Prabhu Arunagiri (RACR) (12:07.398).
Super Sport Indian (300-400cc) ( 6 laps): 1. Amarnath Menon (Gusto Racing) (11:56.238); 2. Vivek Pillai (Rockers Racing) (11:59.744); 3. Deepak Ravikumar (Team MotoRev) (12:03.661).
Pro-Stock (Up to 165cc) (6 laps):1. Aravind Balakrishnan (Honda Ten10 Racing) (12:50.292); 2. Aravind Ganesh (Team MotoRev) (12:50.712); 3. Naresh Babu (RACR) (12:50.912).
Girls (Stock, Up to 165cc) (5 laps): 1. Ryhana Bee (Speed Up Racing) (11:43.645); 2. Kalyani Potekar (Team Speed Up Racing) (11:46.130); 3. Aishwarya Pissay (Apex Racing Academy) (11:46.783).
One-Make Championship – Honda CBR 150 (Novice – 5 laps): 1. Amala Jerald (Chennai) (11:28.014); 2. Vysakh Sobhan (Kerala) (11:28.196); 3. Mahesh Murali (Thiruvananthapuram) (11:28.226).
TVS Apache RTR200 Open (6 laps): 1. Prabhu V (Chennai) (13:20.820); 2. Sivanesan S (Chennai) (13:20.867); 3. Yashas RL (Bengaluru) (13:26.414). Novice (6 laps): 1. Peddu Sri Harsha (Hyderabad) (13:49.082); 2. Shankar Guru A (Chennai) (14:01.893); 3. Venkatesan I (Chennai) (14.06.260).
Support Races (Girls – 5 laps) – Honda: 1. Ryhana Bee A (Chennai) (11:51.658); 2. Shruthi (Chennai) (11:56.585); 3. Kalyani Potekar (Madhya Pradesh) (11:58.728). TVS (5 laps): 1. Soundari A (Chennai) (11:55.836); 2. Aishwarya Pissay (Bengaluru) (11:56.091); 3. Priyamvada Saradhi (Bengaluru) (12:36.799).
eom/AP Media Comm. press release
