Deepak Ravikumar of Rajini Academy for Competitive Racing team pulled off a stunning last-lap move to edge out fancied Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) and win the premium Super Sport Indian race in the Rolon round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship here today.
Ravikumar, the 28-year old hotelier from Chennai, running third behind the two front-running TVS Racing team's Jagan and Harry Sylvester, bided his time before slipping past both on the last of the 10-lap race to score a deserving victory.
Jagan, who lost fractions after making contact with Ravikumar during the overtaking move, came in second ahead of Sylvester.
Team Honda Ten10 Racing enjoyed a 1-2 success in the Pro-Stock 165 race that was run along with the Super Sport Indian class in a combined grid as Hari Krishnan, coming off two podium finishes in the recent Asia Road Racing Championship races, fought off Rajiv Sethu, the battle going down to the wire, while Dinesh Kumar (RACR) ended up a close third.
In the Stock 165 class race that was also decided on the finish line, local lad Anthony Peter (RMC Racing) nosed ahead of Hubli's Anish Damodara Shetty (United Tech Torque). The duo traded places at the front of the 30-strong grid until Peter managed to pip Shetty while Chennai's PR Soorya (Team Speed Up) was a distant third.
"It was a tough race as I had the two TVS Racing riders, Jagan and Harry in front of me in the final few laps. My strategy was to wait for an opportunity to pass both. On the last lap, I went past Harry going into Turn-1 and then went on the inside of Jagan through the chicane. We made contact, but I managed to hold my line and eventually win," said Ravikumar.
The results (Provisional): National Championship:
Super Sport Indian - Race 1 (10 laps): 1. Deepak Ravikumar (Rajni Academy for Competitive Racing) (12 mins, 48.383 secs); 2. K Jagan (TVS Racing) (12:48.848); 3. Harry Sylvester (TVS Racing) (12:49.099).
Pro-Stock 165 - Race 1 (10 laps): 1.Harikirshnan R (Honda Ten10 Racing) (13:16.337; 2.Rajiv Sethu R (Honda Ten10 Racing) (13:16.414); 3.D Dinesh Kumar (Rajni Adademy for Competitive Racing) (13:16.581).
Stock 165 - Race 1 (10 laps): 1.Antony Peter E (RMC Racing) (14:24.545); 2.Anish Damodara Shetty (United Tech Torque Racing) (14:24.547); 3.PM Soorya (Team Speed Up) (14:39.013).
MMSC One-Make Championship: MMSC-TVS Apache RTR 200 (Open) - Race 1 (10 laps): 1.Kannan S (Chennai) (14:03.835); 2. Arvind Ganesh R (Chennai) (14:27.616); 3.Rahil Peerzade (Kalyan) (14:38.669).
Suzuki Gixxer Cup (Novice) - Race 1 (6 laps): 1.Aron (Sri Lanka) (09:03.050); 2.Joseph P Mathew (Chennai) (09:08.852); 3.Amarnath Rajan (Channai) (09:17.098).
AATA Ladies Race (5 laps): 1.Haritha R (Bangalore) (09:31.925); 2.A Priyanka Rao (Chennai) (09:32.880); 3.Renuka Gajendran (Mumbai) (09:40.449).
Honda Ladies Race (5 laps): 1.Pooja Ajit Dabhi (Pune) (08:03.969); 2.Shruthi N (Chennai) 08:04.529; 3.A Rhyhane Bee (Chennai) (08:10.097).
