Vishwadev double again at BIC; The MBA graduate aims to take a shot at Asian Road Racing next year

David Bodapati September 27, 2015

361 2 minutes read

New Delhi, 27 Sept 2015

Meka Vidhuraj in full flow en route to winning the Suzuki Gixxer Cup (Open) race in the MMSC Race Fest held at the Buddh International Circuit, Greater Noida, on Sunday. Image by Anand Philar

: Vishwadev Muraleedharan, a 23-year old MBA graduate from Coimbatore, completed a fine double to clinch the rider’s title in the Suzuki Gixxer Cup (Novice) category of the MMSC One-Make Championship at the Buddh International Circuit, Greater Noida, on Sunday, the concluding day of the MMSC Race Fest.

Also clinching the championship in their respective categories were: Ananth Raj (Suzuki Gixxer Cup (Open), Kannan S (TVS Apache RTR 180, Open), Akhanda Pratap Singh (TVS Apache RTR 180 Novice) and Sarath Kumar of Ten10 Racing (Honda CBR 250).

Muraleedharan, who topped both the races in his category this weekend, ended the season with six wins for a tally of 212 points, ahead of Kerala’s Amarnath Menon (184).

“Obviously, I am extremely happy to win the championship in my very first full season of racing. It was very competitive right through the season, but I put in consistent performances to win the title.

“I plan to move to the Asian Road Racing Championship next year, but a lot will depend on securing sponsorship,” said Muraleedharan who finished his first full season with six wins from 10 starts.

Also achieving a double this weekend was Aravind Balakrishnan in the Honda CBR 150 (Novice) category as he caught up with championship leader Sivanesan S who, after finishing second in the first race on Saturday, crashed in the second outing. Going into the fifth and final round of the series to be run in December, Aravind and Sivanesan are tied on 141 points.

Joining the list of double winners was Kannan S in the TVS Apache RTR 180 (Open) category as he finished the season with 116 points, just six ahead of Aravind Ganesh.

Akanda Pratap Singh, despite finishing sixth in the truncated three-lap race for TVS Apache RTR 180 (Novice) class following an on-track incident, still won the championship with 110 points, pipping Satish Kumar by a mere three points.

In the day’s last race, Sarath Kumar of Ten10 Racing sealed the championship by completing a double in the Honda CBR 250 category to stretch his lead to 65 points over Sumit Lucas Toppo (Prolap Racing) with a round to spare.

Provisional results:

Honda CBR 250 (Open) – 8 laps: Sarath Kumar (Ten10 Racing) 1 (12:53.191); Sumit Lucas Toppo (Prolap Racing) 2 (12:53.525); Dinesh Kumar D 3 (12:58.084). Honda CBR 150 (Novice) – 6 laps: Aravind Balakrishnan 1 (10:18.487); Piyush Ranjan 2 (10:18.655); Anish Shetty 3 (10:18.866).

Suzuki Gixxer Cup (Open) – 8 laps: Meka Vidhuraj 1 (14:00.875); Kamlesh P Thakur 2 (14:01.098); Ananth Raj 3 (14:03.081). Championship winner: Ananth Raj (181 points). Novice – 6 laps: Vishwadev Muraleedharan 1 (10:35.468); Simranjeet Singh 2 (10:46.438); Sebastian J 3 (10:46.480). Championship winner: Vishwadev Muraleedharan (212 points).

TVS Apache RTR 180 (Open) – 8 laps: Kannan S 1 (13:49.083); John Paul 2 (14:06.145); Arun Muthukrishnan 3 (14:08.589). Championship winner: Kannan S (116 points). TVS Apache RTR 180 (Novice) – 3 laps: Malsawmdawgliana 1 (05:20.345); Udipta Kumar Rath 2 (10:39.283); Satish Kumar L 3 (10:39.540). Championship winner: Akhanda Pratap Singh (110 points).

Toyota Etios Motor Racing Trophy (9 laps): Hisham 1 (14:28.826); Mezaan Anees 2 (14:29.739); Hashim 3 (14:34.923). Race 2: Hisham 1 (15:10.433); Deepak Papineni 2 (15:14.209); Vibhav Parker 3 (15:18.205).