TVS’ Rajendra wins K1000; Sarath Mohan, top privateer

Bengaluru, 14 Aug 2022: Former National champion  Rajendra RE of Petronas TVS Racing notched up a hard-fought second consecutive victory beating teammate and defending champion Abdul Wahid Tanveer in the K1000 2-wheeler rally, the fourth round of the GodSpeed Racing fmsci MRF Mogrip National 2w Rally Championship 2022 organised by Karnataka Motor Sports Club here at the Tribal Adventure Cafe on Sunday.

While Tanveer began the season with a victory at Chikmagaluru, Rajendra bounced back with a fine victory at Coimbatore in Round 3, and with this K1000 win, he took a narrow 1-point lead on the championship table with two rounds to go. All the TVS riders missed Round 2 due to new technical regulations.

Rajendra, the Shivamogga talent, started cautiously as some parts of the Special Stages remained slushy but still clocked the fastest times in all the six Special Stages. However, despite having about 8-second lead, he threw caution to winds and clocked a blistering 7min, 12.207sec in the final Special Stage to make over 12 seconds that left Tanveer clueless. Nataraj, finished a distant third. Samuel Jacob and Imran Pasha (SS 260cc) completed the top-5 sweep for TVS.

Sarath Mohan and Naresh VS are the only riders who have won all the four rounds, thus far, and are well on their way to National Championship honours.

Kerala’s Sarath Mohan, astride a Husqvarna FE450, became the top privateer, taking sixth place in the overall standings, behind Petronas TVS Racing team, who once again made a clean sweep of all the top five places. Sarath, the 25-year talent from Mallapuram, won the Superbike Expert Class 1A beating state mate Sinan Francis (KTM 450) of Kochi by a huge margin. In fact, his big lead helped him overcome the time he lost going off-route due to a missing ‘bunting’ in the stages and a road penalty later. Still he was fastest in all the stages. “I missed the route and lost about two minutes in the Banana farms. But I am quite happy to continue my winning streak,” said the talented rider, who aims to shift to longer cross-country rallies abroad by 2024. Mithun Gopal of Thiruvananthapuram, on a Suzuki RM450, won the bronze to make the class an all-Kerala affair.

Bengaluru’s Naresh VS conquered the Royal Enfield Class 6 astride a Himalayan. Naresh was fastest in all the six stages taking a healthy five-minute lead before his nearest rival Mahesh Kumar suffered a 1min, 40-sec road penalty. Sajeer Ismail from Ernakulam came third.

Bengaluru’s Aishwarya Pissay, the 2019 World Cup Baja winner, took back the championship lead in the Ladies class with a facile victory. With Aishwarya missing Round 2, Fazeela of Ernakulam, took the title lead after Round 3, but today she lost over six minutes in the very first Special STage and had to be content with a fourth place. Bengaluru’s Sameera Dahiya came second on an Impulse and Deeksha Shrivasta, the reigning Sprint champion, finished third.

Imran Pasha of Mysore won the Supersport 260cc Group B class comfortably despite easing off in the last stages where teammate Banteilang Jyrwa clocked the fastest times. However, the TVS talent and former champion did a creditable job taking the overall fifth position on his RTR200 punching above his weight to beat more powerful bikes. Mangalore’s Adnaan Ahmed who won Round 2 at home, finished third.

Bengaluru’s Anoop Manjappa on a Stunner defeated Chalass Bose (Kottayam) despite a 1min 10sec penalty in the Supersport 130cc class. Chikkamagaluru rider Sudarshan B on a Gladiator finished third. However, Bose, the Kottayam rider, leads the table by a narrow six-points by virtue of his two wins and two second places while Anoop, has two wins and a second and could only finish fourth in Coimbatore, losing precious points.

But Gidyun Benjamin, who clocked fastest times in all the six stages, lost to Sasi Kumar K in the Supersport 165cc Group B class due to a road penalty of 2min 50seconds. Varun Kumar came third. Sasi Kumar, breathes easy as he now tops the table with 83 points as, Francis PV, the table topper going into Round 4, had a terrible crash and suffered a leg fracture.

Mumbai’s Russel Jossy on a KTM 390 clocked fastest times on all the stages except SS4 but his nearest rival Amog Nag lost over 4min Liaison penalty and just managed to beat veteran Venu Ramesh Kumar by about 11 seconds. Coimbatore’s Venu, a regular in the rally scene for over a decade bagged another podium and still leads the Supersport 400cc Group B championship standings going into the final two rounds. Assam’s Hansraj Saikia, who came fifth, is second behind Venu in the standings.

Sanjay Somasekhar won the Superstock Group D upto 450cc class beating Naveen Somasekhar, also of Bengaluru while C Pradeep took the third place.

Pinkesh Thakkar of Aprilia JB Racing topped the standings winning the Scooter class while BK Pawan won the Star of K1000 title.

Of the 87 entries, a total of 76 bikes finished the rally while 10 “Did Not Finish” (DNF) and one rider Harish Eranty could not take the start on time.

Provisional Results (Ro 4 K1000):

Class 1: Superbike Pro-Expert:

1. Rajendra RE (Petronas TVS Racing; Shimoga) RTR 450; 51:21.156;

2. Abdul Waheed Tanveer  (Petronas TVS Racing; Bengaluru) RTR 450;  51:41.457;

3.  R Nataraj (Petronas TVS Racing; Mysore) RTR 450;  53:00.815;

4. Samuel Jacob (Petronas TVS Racing; Udupi) RTR 200;  53:04.462;

5. Imran Pasha (Petronas TVS Racing – Mysore) RTR 200; 55:55:636;

6. Sarath Mohan (Pvt- Mallapuram) Husqvarna;  57: 03.707;

Class 1A:

1. Sarath Mohan (Pvt- Mallapuram) Husqvarna;  57: 03.707;

2. Sinan Francis (Pvt- Vennala/Kerala) KTM 450; 01:00:36.723;

3. Mithun Gopal (Pvt- Trivandrum ) Suzuki RM450; 01:13:42.547;

Class 2:

1.  Anoop Manjappa (Pvt – Bengaluru) Stunner; 01:06:44.802; (including 1min, 10sec penalty);

2.  Chalass K Bose (Pvt – Kottayam) Stunner; 01:07:21.388;

2.  Sudharshan B (Pvt. Chikkamagaluru) Gladiator 01:09: 01.048; (including 1min, 20sec Penalty);

Class 3:

1. Sasi Kumar (Pvt -Coimbatore) Impulse; 01:00:11:700;

2. Gidyun Benjamin (Pvt – ) 01:01:02. 528; (including 2min, 50sec penalty);  

3.  Varun Kumar (Pvt. – Bengaluru) Impulse; 01:02:47:117;

Class 4:

1. Imran Pasha (Petronas TVS Racing – Mysore) RTR 200; 55:55:636;

2. Banteilang Jerwa (TVS -Shillong) Xpulse; 57:51.299;

3. Adnan Ahmed (Pvt -Mangaluru) Xpulse; 58:34.018; (incl. 1.30sec penalty)

Class 5:

1. Russel Jossy (Pvt – Mumbai) KTM390; 01:02: 06.696; (20sec penalty);

2. Amogh Nag (Pvt – Bengaluru) KTM390; 01:07:28.620; (4min, 10sec penalty);

3.  Venu Ramesh Kumar (Pvt – Coimbatore) KTM390; 01:07:39.403;

Class 6:

1. Naresh VS (Pvt – Bengaluru) Royal Enfield; 01:02:32.481;

2. Mahesh Kumar (Pvt – Kochi) Royal Enfield; 01:09:26.454;

3. Shajeer Ishmail (Pvt – Ernakulam) Royal Enfield; 01:10:14.099;

Class 7:

1. Aishwarya Pissay (Petronas TVS Racing – Bengaluru) RTR 200; 01:07:24.068;

2. Sameera Dahiya (Pvt – Bengaluru) Xpulse; 01:24:17.364;

3. Deeksha Srivastava (Pvt – Pune) Impulse; 01:31:13.909;

4. Fazeela (Pvt – Ernakulam) Impulse; 01:45:09.443;

Class 8:

1. Pinkesh Thakkar (Aprilia JB Racing)Aprilia; 01:06:27:709;

2.  Karthik Naidu (Petronas TVS Racing –Bengaluru) NTorq; 01:06:29:973;

3. Subramanya T (Pvt – Bhopal) NTorq; 01:06:46:747;

Class 9

1. Sanjay Somashekar (Pvt – Bengaluru) Xpulse; 01:00:25:746;

2. Naveen Somashekar (Pvt – Bengaluru) Xpulse; 01:06:14:891;

3. C Pradeep (PRN Motorsports – Bengaluru) Xpulse; 01:06:37:032;

Class 10: Star of K1000

1. BK Pawan (Pvt.- Bengaluru) Xpulse;  01:03:47.017;

2.  Gowtham Rao R (Pvt. Bengaluru) Impulse; 01:04:02.918;

3. L Bharath (Pvt. Bengaluru) Impulse; 01:10:27.572.