On a day of serial winners and Honda domination, Deepak Ravikumar spared the blushes for TVS Racing with a brilliant win in the premier Pro-Stock 301-400cc category to consolidate his top position on the leaderboard in the fourth round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI National Motorcycle Racing Championship at nearby Sriperumbudur on Saturday.
While Ravikumar chalked up his third win of the season, Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing camp celebrated as Rajiv Sethu (Pro-Stock 165cc) stormed to his fifth consecutive win in the class and Anish Shetty (Pro-Stock 201-300cc) led a 1-2 finish with his fourth straight success.
Not to be outdone, 22-year old from Chennai, Venkatesan I (Moto Maniacz Racing) completed a hat-trick of wins to consolidate his top position in the Novice (Stock 165cc) championship.
Ravikumar, a businessman from Chennai and a versatile racer, who is a familiar figure on the podium in the National car racing championship, started the race from P3, eased his way past pole-sitter and team-mate Jagan Kumar and Alishaa Racing's Amarnath Menon to hit the front.
With Jagan retiring due to a mechanical issue midway through the six-lap race, Ravikumar opened up a big lead.
However, with two laps remaining, he had to deal with an errant sprocket, but managed to nurse the wobbly bike over the finish line, just ahead of Rahil Shetty (Sparks Racing) and Menon.
The other notable win of the day was by international Rajiv Sethu, the 21-year old also from Chennai.
Starting from pole, Sethu lost two positions in the very first lap with Jagan Kumar establishing a massive lead.
However, Jagan crashed in the third lap, leaving Sethu, who had fought his way to second spot, in the lead.
Sethu kept his cool despite close attention from Ahamed and team-mate Sarath Kumar to post his fifth straight win of the championship.
Likewise, Venkatesan had to work hard for his win in the Novice race that was reduced to four laps from scheduled six following a multiple-bike pile-up immediately after the start, leading to a red flag and restart.
After a poor start from pole position saw him drop a few positions, Venkatesan fought his way to the front for a deserving third consecutive win.
Late in the day, 15-year old Md Mikail from Chennai completed a double by winning his second race of the day and fourth win in a row and fifth from six starts, in the Idemitsu Honda Talent Cup (NSF 250R).
The results (Provisional all 6 laps unless mentioned):
National Championship: Pro-Stock 301-400cc (Race-1): 1. Deepak Ravikumar (TVS Racing) (11mins, 38.822secs); 2. Rahil Shetty (Sparks Racing) (11:38.823); 3. Amarnath Menon (Alishaa Racing) (11:40.477).
Pro-Stock 201-300cc (Race-1): 1. Anish Shetty (Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing) (12:09.576); 2. Abhishek Vasudev (Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing) (12:15.051); 3. Mithun Kumar PK (Honda Erula Atomic Racing) (12:25.325).
Pro-Stock 165cc (Race-1): 1. Rajiv Sethu (Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing) (11:58.132); 2. K Y Ahamed (TVS Racing) (11:59. 420); 3. Sarath Kumar (Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing) (12:03. 811).
Novice (Stock 165cc, 4 laps): 1. Venkatesan I (Team MotoManiacz Racing) (08:51.011); 2. Mohan Babu P (Rockers Racing) (08:52.301); 3. Abhimanyu Gautham (Sparks Racing) (08:52.
311).
One-Make Championship organised by MMSC: TVS Open (RR 310, Race-1): 1. S Vivek Pillai (Chennai) (11:58.389); 2. Anup Kumar (Chennai) (12:01.632); 3. Arun Muthukrishnan (Chennai) (12:05.125).
Novice (RTR 200, Race-1, 4 laps): 1. Venkatesan I (Chennai) (13:18.180); 2. Veera Ashwin Lal M (Madurai) (13:19. 885); 3. Annish Samson D (Bengaluru) (13:22.141).
Girls (Race-1, 5 laps): 1. Lani Zena Fernandez (Puducherry) (11:20.428); 2. Nivetha Jessica (Chennai) (11:37. 015); 3. Lakiya Lee Charles (Chennai) 11:37.280).
Idemitsu Honda Talent Cup NSF 250R (Race-1): 1. Md Mikail (Chennai) (10:59.155); 2. Geoffrey Emmanuel (Chennai) (11:09.952); 3. Sarthak Shrikant Chavan (Pune) (11:11.201).
Race-2: 1. Md Mikail (10:58.935); 2. Varoon Sadasivam (Chennai) (11:03.295); 3. Kritik Vasant Habib (Gadag) (11:11. 955).
CBR 150 (Race-1): 1.Lal Nunsanga (Aizwal) (13:14.704); 2. Samuel Martin (Bengaluru) (13:14.798); 3. S Rajdashwanth (Trichy) (13:14.922).
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content
