INMRC: Shetty records win, double podium for Honda

Anish Damodar Shetty (Race Concepts) pulled off a brilliant tactical win in the premier Pro-Stock 301-400cc class race in the first round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship at the Madras Motor Race Track on Saturday.

Biding his time, Shetty, starting fifth on the grid, made a strong move in the second half of the six-lap race to finish ahead of a strong TVS Racing combination of multiple champion Jagan Kumar and defending champion Deepak Ravikumar who raced nursing an injured knee following a crash during a practice session earlier in the week.

An equally impressive winner on Saturday was TVS Racing's KY Ahamed who held off Eneos Honda Erula Racing riders Mathana Kumar and Rajiv Sethu, in the Pro-Stock 165cc category. Sethu, the Race-1 winner on Friday, could not capitalise on a pole-position start. Ahamed's victory somewhat compensated for the absence of team-mate and multiple champion Jagan Kumar whose bike stalled on the out-lap before the race.

Elsewhere, local challenger Aravind Selvam (Rulexx Rockstar Racing) won a tight race in the Novice (Stock 165cc) class while Ann Jennifer (Sparks Racing), also from Chennai, and winner of Friday's Race-1, scored another dominant win for a grand double in the Girls (Stock 165cc) category. The race was reduced to three laps following a red flag stoppage due to a crash.

Bengaluru's Abhishek Vasudev on Saturday roared to victory in both the Open category races of the TVS One-Make Championship organised by the MMSC for a fine treble following his win in Race-1 on Friday while Navneeth Kumar from Puducherry completed a double in the Novice class of the same championship.

Pune's Sarthak Chavan, all of 14 years, became the youngest winner of the weekend when he streaked to victory in the Open (NSF 250R) class of the Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup.

The results (Provisional - all 6 laps unless mentioned):

National Championship:

Pro-Stock 301-400cc (Race-2): 1. Anish Damodara Shetty (Race Concepts) (11mins, 51.346); 2. Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) (11:54.613); 3. Deepak Ravikumar (TVS Racing) (11:54.705).

Pro-Stock 165cc (Race-2): 1. KY Ahamed (TVS Racing) (12:17.204); 2. S Mathana Kumar (Eneos Honda Erula Racing) (12:17.281); 3. Rajiv Sethu (Eneos Honda Erula Racing) (12:17.344).

Novice (Stock 165cc, Race-2): 1. Aravind Selvam (Rulexx Rockers Racing) (13:05.564); 2. Mohan Babu P (Pvt, Chennai) (13:05.743); 3. Seshadri S (Sparks Racing) (13:06.196).

Girls (Stock 165cc, Race-2, 3 laps): 1. Ann Jennifer (Sparks Racing) (06:40.064); 2. Lani Zena Fernandez (Gusto Racing) (06:48.619); 3. Rakshitha Dave (Gusto Racing) (07:02.282).

TVS One-Make Championship (Open, Race-2): 1. Abhishek Vasudev (Bengaluru) (11:50.689); 2. Anand R (Chennai) (11:52.682); 3. Vysakh Sobhan (Cherthala) (11:56.357). Race-3: 1. Abhishek Vasudev (11:51.663); 2. Anand R ((11:54.698); 3. Aditya Rao (Bengaluru) (11:56.604).

Novice (Race-2): 1. Navneeth Kumar (Puducherry) (13:23.998); Mohan Babu (Chennai) (13:27.416); 3. Alwin Sundar (Chennai) (13:27.961).

Girls (Race-1, 5 laps): 1. Jagruthi Kiran Penkar (Kalyan) (11:36.074); 2. Arpitha VM (Mangaluru) (11:36.085); 3. Jagathishree Kumaresan (Chennai) (11:41.206). Race-2 (5 laps): 1. Jagathishree (11:35.169); 2. Jagruthi Kiran Penkar (11:35.182); 3. Arpitha (11:35.630).

Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup: Open (NSF 250R, Race-1): 1. Sarthak Chavan (Pune) (11:13.344); 2. Kavin Quintal (Chennai) (11:13.696); 3. Varoon Sadasivam (Chennai) (11:20.728).

Novice (CBR 150, Race-1): 1. Shyam Sundar (Chennai) (13:40.109); 2. Prakash Kamat (Bokaro) (13:40.619); 3. Vivek Rohit Kapadia (Belgaum) (13:49.088).