Samuel Jacob begins 2024 campaign on a winning note; Tanika tops Ladies class
Nashik, 7 April 2024: Samuel Sajan Jacob of Petronas TVS Racing began the season on a winning note snatching the Overall victory from teammate Rajendra RE in the MRF Rally of Nashik, the first round of the MRF Mogrip fmsci Indian National Rally Championship for two-wheelers here on Sunday.
“I am feeling really happy wining the first round of Indian National Rally Championship. A winning beginning after a long break is always welcome and I thanks all the Petronas TVS Racing team for all the support and specially for the wonderful bike. I have trained very hard for this win and am happy to get the overall victory. The stages were full of tarmac, yes for about 60 per cent of the terrain and the rest is broken tarmac and I like it as it was a fast track,” said Jacob after the rally.
While Petronas TVS Racing riders bagged three classes, with Imran Pasha (Supersport 260 Group B) and Syed Asif Ali (Scooters) also winning their classes, the lady rider from Satara, Tanika Shanbagh, kept the flag flying for Hero Motosports. Apart from winning the Ladies class, the two-time National champion finished Overall 30 in the field of 90 bikes. The TVS riders, however, swept the top class winning all the podium places in the Superbike Pro-Expert Group A with multiple national champion Aishwarya Pissay finishing fourth after the boys.
The first round of the bike Nationals organised by AW Events and promoted by Godspeed Racing attracted 90 entries and 85 bikes finished the rally with five logging a DNF which included Arjun Joy and Karthik Naidu. Zeitmesser provided the live timings to the thousandth of a second.
Former champion R Nataraj of Bengaluru won the Superbike Expert Group A Class 2 defeating compatriot Amogh Nag while Asad Khan of Chikkamagaluru finished third.
Shivamogga’s Abdul Reheman won the Supersport 165cc Group B class while Rajesh Narajan Swamy won the Supersport 400cc class. Bengaluru’s Suhail Ahmed won the SS 550cc class and Arshad Muhammed of Thrissur won the 450cc Group D class. Amarendra Sathe of Pune won the Star of Karnataka local class.
Provisional Final Results: (#Bike number) (All privateers unless mentioned)
Class 1: Superbike Pro-Expert Group A:
1. #2 Samuel Jacob (Udupi, Petronas TVS Racing) (25 minutes, 03.831 seconds);
2. #3 Rajendra RE (Bengaluru, Petronas TVS Racing) (25:12.092);
3. #1 Abdul Waheed Tanveer (Bengaluru, Petronas TVS Racing) (25:32.225);
4. #4 Aishwarya Pissay (Bengaluru, Petronas TVS Racing) 29:41.198.
Class 2 Superbike Expert Group A:
1. #5 Nataraj R (Bengaluru) (26:53.905);
2. #6 GS Amogh Nag (Bengaluru) (27:43.780);
3. #7 Asad Khan (Chikkamagaluru) (27:51.600).
Class 3 Supersport 165cc Group B:
1. #15 Abdul Reheman (Shivamogga) (29:29.776);
2. #14 Bharat L (Bengaluru) (29:31.202);
3. #89 Arshad Ali AT (Kannur) (29:41.877).
Classs 4: Supersport 260 Group B:
1. #26 Imran Pasha (Mysore, TVS) (26:07.655);
2. #30 T Arun (Hassan, Hero Motosports) (26:34.469);
3. #29 Yuva Kumar (Bengaluru, Hero Motosports) 26:45.720.
Class 5: Supersport 400cc Group B:
1. #42 Rajesh Narajan Swami (Pen) (28:03.998);
2. #45 Anish Shetty (Bengaluru) (28:58.518);
3. #41 Akhand Pratap Singh (Rorkee) (29:29.648).
Class 6: Supersport 550 Group B:
1. #52 Suhail Ahmed (Bengaluru) (28:44.853);
2. #47 Naresh VS (Bengaluru) (29:40.304);
3. #48 Darshan Chaure (Nashik) (30:52.412);
Class 7: Scooters up to 210cc Group B:
1. #56 Syed Asif Ali (Bengaluru, TVS) (29:59.732);
2. #59 Venkatesh Shetty (Mumbai, Aprilia SR 150) (32:11.799);
3. #60 Goutham N (Bengaluru) (32:27.604).
Class 8: Women’s Class Group B:
1. #62 Tanika Shanbhagh (Hero MotoSports, Satara) (30:11.762);
2. #65 Somyya Chaudhary A (New Delhi) (31:31.733);
3. #64 Remya Ravi (Thiruvananthapuram) (35:10.889).
Class 9: Super Stock up to 450cc Group D:
1. #69 Arshad Muhammed (Thrissur) (29:53.709);
2. #72 Udayakumar M (Coimbatore) (30:15.197);
3. #68 Shivam Thakur (Kullu) (30:30.249).
Class 10 Star of Karnataka:
1. #85 Amarendra Sathe (Pune) (31:59.690);
2. #83 Lokesh Anik Bhosale (Pune) (32:29.292);
3. #84 Kishore Jadhav (Pune) (32:36.992).
Overall: (top-10 riders)
1. #2 Samuel Jacob (Udupi, Petronas TVS Racing) (25 minutes, 03.831 seconds);
2. #3 Rajendra RE (Bengaluru, Petronas TVS Racing) (25:12.092);
3. #1 Abdul Waheed Tanveer (Bengaluru, Petronas TVS Racing) (25:32.225);
4. #26 Imran Pasha (Mysore, TVS) (26:07.655);
5. #30 T Arun (Hassan, Hero Motosports) (26:34.469);
6. #29 Yuva Kumar (Bengaluru, Hero Motosports) 26:45.720.
7. #5 Nataraj R (Bengaluru) (26:53.905);
8. #27 Sachin D (Bengaluru, TVS) 926:56.007);
9. #32 Banteilang Jyrwa (TVS) (26:56.905);
10. #28 Sabarish R (Coimbatore) (27:32.179).
