Motorsports - Jinkawa tops in MRF race

Chennai, July 27 (IANS) Japanese driver Yudai Jinkawa picked up from where he left off and won Race 1 of the MRF 1600 in the third round of the MMSC-FMSCI National Racing Championship at the MMRT circuit, here on Saturday, ahead of Ashwin Sundar and 15-year-old Tarun Reddy.

Meanwhile, Gaurav Gill made a remarkable comeback to the Indian Touring Car championship when he claimed pole position by 1.5 seconds ahead of championship contenders N Leelakrishnan and Arjun Balu.

Prashanth K and S Narendran continued their strong starts to the season with two wins each in the LGB Formula Swift and F4 categories, respectively.

The Toyota Etios Motor Racing (EMR) Trophy got off to an excellent start with Diljith Shaji winning Race 1 while Arjun Narendran won an action-packed Race 2.

National champion Feroze Khan continued his Chennai dominance with another convincing victory in the Indian Junior Touring Cars.

The 23-year-old Jinkawa started the MRF Formula 1600 race in pole position ahead of Ashwin Sundar and Tarun Reddy. The Japanese led off the start line but could not manage to pull away from Sundar and Reddy.

Sundar was all set to make his move when the safety car came out for the first time. When racing resumed, Sundar once again put pressure on Jinkawa with Reddy right behind. There was a second safety car when Goutham Parekh collided with Arjun Narendran. With two laps left, Jinkawa managed to hold off Sundar and Reddy for his second win of the season.