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Chennai, September 1: Defending champion Jagan Kumar finally got his campaign on track as he notched his first win of the season in five starts while leading a 1-2 finish for TVS Racing along with KY Ahamed in the premier Super Sport Indian 165cc class of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship at the MMRT, here on Saturday.
While TVS Racing team celebrated, arch-rivals Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing had to be content with a third-place finish through Mathana Kumar as pole-sitter Sarath Kumar retired barely 50 metres after the start with a broken gear lever and championship leader Rajiv Sethu crashed in the back sweep in the very first lap.
However, there was some cheer for the Honda camp as Mithun Kumar scored a his first of the current season in the Pro-Stock 165cc class with RACR’s Naresh Babu and Sivanesan of TVS Racing following him over the finish line.
Earlier, pole-sitter Prabhu Arunagiri (Team Alisha Abdullah) fought his way to a close win over Gusto Racing’s Amarnath Menon and Satyanarayana Raju in the Pro-Stock 301-400cc class with less than one second separating the trio while Chennai’s Shruthi Nagarajan (Apex Racing Academy) recorded her first-ever win in the Girls (Stock 165cc) category.
Jagan had to work hard for today’s victory as he was stretched to the limit by his younger team-mate Ahamed who put in the fastest lap of the race, but eventually eschewed risk for championship points to settle for second place ahead of Mathana Kumar.
The win took Jagan’s tally to 87 points, followed by Ahamed (76) and Rajiv Sethu (70) ahead of tomorrow’s second race.
For 23-year old Shruthi Nagarajan, it was a memorable day while chalking up her maiden win in the National Championship. Starting third on the grid, Shruthi made it to the front on the last lap after easing past leader Alisha Abdullah (Team Abdullah) for a thrilling win. Alisha came in second ahead of Ryhana Bee (Sparks Racing). Pole-sitter and championship leader Ann Jennifer retired after a crash in the second lap, but retained her top position on the leaderboard with 50 points, albeit just two ahead of Shruthi.
“I am very happy to score my first-ever win in the National Championship after a few podium finishes in the past. I started third and gradually moved to the front after overtaking Alisha,” said a delighted Shruthi.
It was a dramatic win for Prabhu Arunagiri in the six-lap race that he along with Menon and Raju dominated. After the trio pulled away from the rest of the field, Arunagiri and Menon, the championship leader in this class, swapped lead. In the last lap, Arunagiri made a decisive pass to claim victory ahead of Menon and Raju.
Championship leader Anish Shetty (Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing), despite failing to score any points after starting the race from the pit-lane due to an ECU problem, continued to lead with 90 points, 33 clear of Kevin Kannan (Rockers Racing) who too drew blank today.
The results (Provisional, all 6 laps unless mentioned):
Pro-Stock (301-400cc) – Race-1: Prabhu Arunagiri (Team Alisha Abdullah) (11mins, 37.278secs); 2. Amarnath Menon (Gusto Racing India) (11:37.392); 3. Satyanarayana Raju (Gusto Racing India) (11:39.378).
Super Sport Indian (165cc) – Race-1: 1. Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) (11:46.715); 2.KY Ahamed (TVS Racing) (11:46.807); S Mathana Kumar (Honda Ten 10 Racing) (11:50.406).
Pro-Stock (165cc) – Race-1: 1.Mithun Kumar (Idemitsu Honda Ten 10 Racing) (12:09.580); 2. Naresh Babu (RACR) (12:10.041); 3.Sivanesan S (TVS Racing) (12:19.089).
Girls (Stock 165cc) (5 laps): 1. Shruthi Nagarajan (Apex Racing Academy) (11:28.978); 2. Alisha Abdullah (Team Alisha Abdullah) (11:29.648); 3. Ryhana Bee (Sparks Racing) (11:29.901).
MMSC One-Make Championship (Novice) – TVS (Apache RTR 200) Race-1: 1. Karthik Mateti (Hyderabad) (13:44.310); 2. Anand R (Chennai) (13:49.157); 3. Suhail Ahmed (Chennai) (13:49.298). Girls (5 laps): 1. Ann Jennifer (Chennai) (11:52.938); 2. Ryhana Bee (Chennai) (11:53.005); 3. Lani Zena Fernandez (Puducherry) (12:43.126).
Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup (CBR 150) – Race-1: 1.Mohamed Mikail (Chennai) (12:54.158); 2. Kartik Vasant Habib (Gadag) (13:04.798); 3.Anandhu KK (Chennai) (13.23.689). Race-2: 1. Mohamed Mikail (Chennai) (13:03.204); 2. Anandhu KK (Chennai) (13:21.196); 3. Kartik Vasant Habib (Gadag) (13:28.357).
