Sai Rahil wins championship on debut; Jagan takes the fight to the last race: 2w Nationals
Chennai: Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing), who celebrated his 29th birthday a few days back, gifted himself with a victory to take a six-point lead on the Super Sport Indian (165cc) leaderboard in the fifth and final round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship at the MMRT track, here on Saturday.
Meanwhile, 21-year old from Kozhikode Amarnath Menon (Gusto Racing) clinched the title in the Super Sport Indian (300-400cc) class with a race in hand while 19-year old Commerce student from Hyderabad, Sai Rahil Pillarishetty, racing in his first season, bagged the championship in the Novice (Stock, 165cc) class.
Going into today’s race, Jagan trailed Rajiv Sethu (Honda Ten10 Racing) by one point and the victory took the TVS Racing star’s tally to 147. Sethu, who had led briefly when Jagan ran wide in the third lap, finished second to concede lead in the championship standings. KY Ahamed (TVS Racing) came in third.
“I am happy to win today. The bike felt good. I made a small mistake in the back ‘D’ when I ran wide and Sethu moved past me. But I overtook Sethu soon after and in the last two laps, opened up a good lead,” said Jagan who is seeking his third straight title.
For 18-year old Sethu, also from Chennai, it was so near yet so far. He did well to get to the front and even clocked the fastest lap of the race (01min, 57.964secs), bettering his qualifying time (01:58.987), but missed a gear at Turn-9 when on the attack in the penultimate lap and it allowed Jagan to open up a winning lead.
“Obviously, I am very disappointed. I had better pace today than in qualifying, but one mistake when I was on a charge, cost me. Tomorrow, I hope to do better. The pressure will be on Jagan since he is in the lead,” said Sethu.
Earlier, Amarnath Menon rode a relaxed race and collected just enough points to seal the championship with a fourth-place finish behind winner Deepak Ravi Kumar (Moto-Rev), Vivek Pillai (Rockers Racing) and Shreyas Sannake from Miraj.
Menon, who had started the season with five victories in six races, collected 12 points today, to take his aggregate to 167 while Ravi Kumar, his third win in a row, moved up to 141. Thus, second race tomorrow, with a maximum offering of 25 points, will be of only academic interest.
For Sai Pillarishetty, it turned out to be a glorious debut season. He finished third in the concluding race of the Novice (Stock, 165cc) class, behind Anup Kumar (RACR) and his Sparks Racing team-mate Peddu Sriharsha, also from Hyderabad. The podium and 15 points took Pillarishetty’s tally to 76, eight clear of Sriharsha.
In the Pro-Stock category, seven points separate leader Aravind Balakrishnan (Honda Ten10 Racing) and Aravind Ganesh (Moto-Rev) after they finished sixth and fourth, respectively, with one more race to be run on Sunday. S Sivanesan (Team Alisha Abdullah),
Naresh Babu J (RACR) and Kannan Karnan (Rockers Racing) took the podium spots in that order.
The results (Provisional):
Super Sport Indian (165cc) – Race 1 (6 laps): 1. Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) (11mins, 53.965secs); 2. Rajiv Sethu (Honda Ten10 Racing) (11:57.114); 3. KY Ahamed (TVS Racing) (12:06.530).
Pro-Stock (165cc) – Race 1 (6 laps): 1. S Sivanesan (Team Alisha Abdullah) (12:47.252); 2. Naresh Babu J (RACR) (12:47.740); 3. Kannan Karnan (Rockers Racing) (12:57.695).
Super Sport Indian (300-400cc) – Race 1 (6 laps): 1. Deepak Ravi Kumar (Moto-Rev) (11:47.513); 2. Vivek Pillai (Team Rockers Racing) (11:54.266); 3. Shreyas Sannake (Miraj) (12:02.177).
Novice (Stock, 165cc) (6 Laps): 1. Anup Kumar M (RACR) (13:04.723); 2. Peddu Sri Harsha (Sparks Racing) (13:06.988); 3. Sai Rahil Pillarishetty (Sparks Racing) (13:14.288).
MMSC One-Make Championship (Novice) – Honda CBR 150 (Race 1, 5 laps): 1. Amala Jerald (Chennai) (11:04.351); 2. Vysakh Sobhan (Kerala) (11:04.414); 3. Satyanarayana Raju (Hyderabad) (11:05.354).
TVS Apache RTR 200 (Race 1, 6 laps): 1. Anup Kumar (Chennai) (13:19.668); G Balaji (Chennai) (13:19.991); 3. Shankar Guru A (Chennai) (13:20.282).
Yamaha R15 Novice (Race 1, 6 laps): 1. Sai Rahil Pillarishetty (Hyderabad) (13:48.089); 2. Nithish Kumar M (Coimbatore) (13:48.512); 3. Aswin Kumar (Chennai) (13:57.651).
eom/AP Media Comm. press release
