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Chennai, August 31: International rider Sarath Kumar (Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing) turned on the power to grab his maiden pole position in the premier Super Sport (165cc) class to kick-start his campaign in the third round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship at the MMRT, here on Friday.
In the process, Sarath, fourth in the championship, upstaged his two arch-rivals from TVS Racing KY Ahamed and defending champion Jagan Kumar, with a flying lap of 01min, 55.506secs, but just two-tenths of a second separated the trio. Championship leader and another Honda rider Rajiv Sethu was placed fifth behind TVS Racing’s Deepak Ravikumar.
The quickest rider on the day was Prabhu Arunagiri (Team Alisha Abdullah) who took the pole position in the Pro-Stock (301-400cc) category, with a best lap of 01:54.808 ahead of the top two in this class, Gusto Racing India team-mates Satyanarayana Raju (01:55.141) and Amarnath Menon (01:55.634). Incidentally, it was Arunagiri’s first pole position in any category in six years.
Mithun Kumar of Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing, with just 21 points from four starts this season, finally made his presence felt by qualifying for pole position in the Pro-Stock 165cc class that was run on MRF slick tyres for the first time. Completing the front row were Kevin Kannan (Rockers Racing) and championship leader in this class, Anish Shetty (Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing).
Ann Jennfer (Sparks Racing), unbeaten this season and seeking to consolidate her position at the top of the leaderboard, was the quickest in the Girls (Stock 165cc) category. Alisha Abdullah (Team Alisha Abdullah) and Shruthi Nagarajan (Apex Racing Academy) qualified in second and third spots, respectively.
Also taking pole positions in the MMSC One-Make Championships for Novice riders were Hyderabad’s Karthik Mateti (TVS, Apache RTR 200) and Chennai’s Mohamed Mikhail (Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup, CBR 150).
The results (Qualifying):
Super Sport Indian (165cc): 1. Sarath Kumar (Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing) (01min, 55.506secs); 2. KY Ahamed (TVS Racing) (01:55.629); 3. Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) (01:55.710).
Pro-Stock (301-400cc): 1. Prabhu Arunagiri (Team Alisha Abdullah) (01:54.808); 2. Satyanarayana Raju (Gusto Racing India) (01:55.141); 3. Amarnath Menon (Gusto Racing India) (01:55.634).
Pro-Stock (165cc): 1. Mithun Kumar (Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing) (02:00.842); 2. Kevin Kannan (Team Rockers) (02:01.386); 3. Anish Shetty (Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing) (02:01.913).
Girls (Stock, 165cc): 1. Ann Jennifer (Sparks Racing) (02:33.514); 2. Alisha Abdullah (Team Abdullah) (02:33.561); 3. Shruthi Nagarajan (Apex Racing Academy) (02:37.037).
MMSC One-Make Championship (Novice) – TVS Apache RTR 200: 1. Karthik Mateti (Hyderabad) (02:16.667); 2. Suhail Ahamed (02:18.707); 3. Anand R (02:19.394).
Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup (CBR 150): 1. Mohamed Mikail (Chennai) (02:08.584); 2. Kritik Vasan Habib (Karnataka) (02:09.269); 3. Akshay VM (Kerala) (02:11.660).
Girls (TVS Apache 200): 1. Ann Jennifer (Chennai) (02:21.724); 2. Ryhana Bee (Chennai) (02:21.885);Sayali Pawar (Mumbai) (02:28.545).
