Sahan Ali cuts Chirag’s lead with commanding win; Ruhaan dominates F1300

Chennai, 21 Jan 2022: Agra’s Shahan Ali Mohsin won a battle of the teenagers while Rayo Racing’s Ishaan Dodhiwala from Hyderabad avoided a first-corner incident to triumph as the third round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Car Racing Championship 2021 sparked to life at the MMRT, here on Friday.

The day began with some commanding display by 15-year old Bengalurean, Ruhaan Alva of MSport, who showed good racecraft while comfortably pocketing the pole position and was the only car to go under 1min 51-sec mark. He set the pace beginning with a best Sector I time before the Red Flag and went on to post the fastest lap of the day in F1300. Meanwhile, Tijil Rao, who had clutch issues jumped into the pits without setting his best time.

Later in the evening, the multiple-National karting champion, Ruhaan, won Race 1 with ease and grace leading from pole to flag in the Safety Car-interrupted race as he gave no chance to the Momentum Motorsports duo Deepak Ravikumar and Tijil Rao, who finished in that order. Tijil Rao, also from Bengaluru, however, made the most of the disadvantage in the morning, by zooming from 19th to podium in the 20-car field. Ruhaan logged the fastest lap, thus completing a triumphant treble on Friday. A pole, a win and the best lap.

Shahan, 17, enjoyed a good start from pole position and went on to pip two 16-year old Bengalureans Chirag Ghorpade and Rishon Rajiv, for his third win of the season. The victory took the Agra teenager’s tally to 109 points in the championship, just 14 short of leader Chirag. The Agra racer too is a multiple Indian Karting champion, who switched over to the Formula cars. Amidst board exams, he took part in the last round and lost points in two races as he had a puncture and technical issues and was trailing by 21 points to Chirag. Thus the victory helped him reduce the margin and with two more races on Saturday in this round, the MRF 1600 class, is interestingly poised. Rishon Rajiv, the reigning Junior National Karting champ, too graduated to cars and did well to complete the podium. Shahan too completed a treble, a pole, a win, and the fastest lap.

Earlier, in the Indian Touring Cars race, Dodhiwala steered clear of a Turn-1 incident involving championship leader Arjun Balu of Race Concepts and Jeet Jhabakh of Rayo Racing to chalk up a fluent win, his first of the season. Balu and Jhabakh, who tried to pass taking the inside line, came together and went off the track while Dodhiwala slipped through into the lead. Balu recovered quickly and all but caught up with Dodhiwala before being forced to ease off due to rising engine temperature each time he pushed.

Eventually, Dodhiwala, who came into this round as a replacement for absentee team-mate Anindith Reddy, won handily ahead of Balu who, however, continues to lead the championship table. The Stewards, after a post-race investigation, docked third-placed Jhabakh a 15-second penalty for “causing an avoidable collision”.

It was a lights-to-flag victory for Ruhaan who fully capitalized on his pole position start and was never really challenged through the eight-lapper which was interrupted by a Safety Car period due to an on-track incident.

Behind Ruhaan, who had missed the previous round due to an international karting commitment, raged a tight fight for the other podium spots. Viswas Vijayaraj (DTS Racing) and Mohd Ryan (MSport), running second and third, spun off after a contact. It allowed Deepak Ravikumar (Momentum Motorsport) to move into second position from fourth and defend his spot to the chequered flag, ahead of team-mate Tijil Rao, the teenager from Bengaluru who put in a great performance to move from P19 to P3. The victory took Ruhaan from eighth and fourth in the championship standings.

Also chalking up victories today were Bengaluru’s Varun Anekar of Race Concepts (Indian Junior Touring Cars) and Chennai’s Deepak Ravikumar of Performance Racing (Super Stock) while Oshan Kothadiya from Pune drove a near-flawless race for his maiden win of the season in the Volkswagen Polo category.

Haryana’s Justin Singh and Mumbai veteran Fahad Kutty, who started P11 on the reverse grid, won a race apiece, in the MRF Saloon Cars (Toyota Etios) category.

For live streaming of the races, please follow the link https://youtu.be/0OithC0iLLo

The results (provisional – all 8 laps unless mentioned):

MRF F1600 (Race-1): 1. Shahan Ali Mohsin (Agra) (13mins, 31.446secs); 2. Chirag Ghorpade (Bengaluru) (13:32.719); 3. Rishon Rajiv (Bengaluru) (13:33.917).

Indian Touring Cars (Race-1): 1. Ishaan Dodhiwala (Rayo Racing, Hyderabad) (15:26.029); 2. Arjun Balu (Race Concepts, Coimbatore) (15:42.328); 3. Jeet Jhabakh (Rayo Racing, Hyderabad) (16:06.177, incl 15-second penalty).

Indian Junior Touring Cars (Race-1): 1. Varun Anekar (Race Concepts, Bengaluru) (16:01.284); 2. K Srinivas Teja (Performance Racing, Chennai) (16:13.396); 3. Charen Chandran (Pvt, Coimbatore) (16:29.012).

Super Stock (Race-1): 1. Deepak Ravikumar (Performance Racing, Chennai) (16:11.010); 2. Rithvik Thomas (Race Concepts, Bengaluru) (16:19.707); 3. RP Raja Rajan (Performance Racing, Chennai) (16:23.196).

Formula LGB 1300 (Race-1): 1. Ruhaan Alva (MSport, Bengaluru) (19:08.955); 2. Deepak Ravikumar (Momentum Motorsport, Chennai) (19:14.841); 3. Tijil Rao (Momentum Motorsport, Bengaluru) (19:15.168).

Volkswagen Polo (Race-1): 1. Oshan Kothadiya (Pune) (15:57.549); 2. Sandeep Kumar (Chennai) (16:01.665); 3. Saurav Bandyopadhyay (Thane) (16:02.115).

MRF Saloon Cars (Toyota Etios – Race 1, 10 laps): 1. Justin Singh (Red Line Racing, Haryana) (16:47.458); 2. Fahad Kutty (Red Line Racing, Mumbai) (16:48.378); 3. Anand Prasad (Red Line Racing, Chennai) (16:49.775).

Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Fahad Kutty (Red Line Racing, Mumbai) (21:09.211); 2. Bala Prasath (Quest Motorsport, Coimbatore) (21:12.259); 3. Angad Matharoo (Red Line Racing, Chandigarh) (21:13.716).