Vikash Anand wins premier title in National Racing

Twenty-two year old Chennai lad Vikash Anand won a double to clinch the title in the MRF Formula 1600 category and a ticket for the Mazda Road to Indy shootout as the fifth and final round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Racing Championship concluded here today.
Going into this weekend's triple-header, Vikash and Karthik Tharani were locked on 138 points. Anand began his campaign with a second place finish behind Tharani on Saturday, but won both the starts today to seal the championship.
"I worked hard to win this championship and I really can't explain how I am feeling right now. Indy is a great opportunity to go abroad and explore new opportunities and learn. I will give my best to be competitive," said Vikash who returned to racing this season after an 18-month break and notched six wins for a tally of 206 points, 10 ahead of Tharani.

Also achieving a double was Raghul Rangasamy who won both the races in the F1300 Rookie Championship and annexed the title. He later went on to claim the championship in the Super Stock class after Race 2 winner Veeresh Prasad was given a 20-second penalty for overtaking under yellow flags which demoted him to fourth place. The result saw Raghul and Veeresh tying on 142 points. Raghul was declared champion on the basis of his three wins to Veeresh's two on the count-back which was employed to break the tie.
Goa's Keith Desouza (UNIMEK Racing) topped the Indian Junior Touring Cars class with a crucial win today which helped him finish on 199 points while his nearest rival Ananth Pithawala (Team N1) from Mumbai ended up on 191.

Coimbatore's Arjun Narendran (Red Rooster Racing), who had already clinched the championship in the premium Indian Touring Cars class, ended the season with a double for a tally of 240 points, well clear of Bengaluru's Deepak Paul Chinnappa (Race Concepts) who finished on 135.

Ishaan Dodhiwala from Delhi won Sunday's both races in the Volkswagen Vento Cup to consolidate his position at the top of the leaderboard.
The results (Provisional): MRF F1600 (Race 2, 10 laps): 1. Vikash Anand (Chennai) (16mins, 54.111secs); 2. Raghul Rangasamy (Chennai) (16:58.677); 3. Karthik Tharani (Chennai) (17:02.390). Race 3 (10 laps): 1. Vikash Anand (16:55.247); 2. Karthik Tharani (16:56.108); Anindith Reddy (Hyderabad) (17:03.391). Championship: 1. Vikash Anand 206 points; 2. Karthik Tharani 196; 3. Raghul Rangasamy 171.

Indian Touring Cars (Race 2, 8 laps): 1. Arjun Narendran (Red Rooster Racing) (15:14.881); 2. Ashish Ramaswamy (Red Rooster Racing) (15:26.777); 3. Siva Ramakrishnan (Red Rooster Racing) (15:34.819).
Indian Junior Touring Cars (Race-2, 10 laps): 1.Keith Desouza (Unimek Racing) (23:54.238); 2.Ananth Pithawalla (Team N1) (23:55.704); 3.Charen Chandran (Red Rooster Performance) (23:57.784). Championship: 1.Keith Desouza 199; 2.Ananth Pithawala 191; 3.R Sri Hariram 113.
Super Stock (Race-2, 10 laps): 1.Raghul Rangasamy (Performance Racing) (24:04.104); 2.Deepak Ravi Kumar (Pvt) (24:06357); 3.Dean Mascarenhas (Race Concepts) (24:08161). Championship: 1.Raghul Rangasamy 142 (3 wins); 2.Veeresh Prasad 142 (2 wins); 3.Dean Mascarenhas 117.
F1300 Rookie Championship (Race 2, 8 laps): 1. Raghul Rangasamy (Wallace Sports) (15:38.816); 2. Tejasram CS (Wallace Sports) (15:43.047); 3. Alex Bora (Wallace Sports) (15:43.896). Championship: 1. Raghul Rangasamy 205; Tejasram CS 179; Alex Bora 135.

Volkswagen Vento Cup (Race 2, 9 laps): 1. Ishaan Dodhiwala (Hyderabad) (20:13.197); 2. Dhruv Bhel (Delhi) (20:15.171); 3. Niranjan B Todkari (Pune) (20:17.447). Race 3: 1. Dodhiwala (Hyderabad) (19:44.856); 2.Karminder Pal Singh (New Delhi) (19:46.918); 3. Todkari (19.50.640).