Indian National Racing: Summary of 2021 season's Round 1 at MMRT

Day 1:

Deepak Ravikumar from Chennai led a brilliant 1-2 finish for Momentum Motorsport along with Bengaluru’s Chirag Ghorpade in the Formula LGB 1300 race in the first round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Car Racing Championship 2021 at the MMRT here on Saturday.

Starting from pole position, Ravikumar had more problems dealing with numb fingers than the competition in the eight-lap race that was run behind the Safety Car for the opening four laps following an on-track incident. “Initially, it was pretty close and also there was numbness in my left hand fingers which led to wrong gear selection. However, I managed to overcome this problem and thereafter, it was pretty smooth sailing,” said Ravikumar.

Behind him, Ghorpade covered a lot of ground starting from P8 to finish a deserving second ahead of Kotagiri’s Amir Sayed (M Sport) who too cut through the field from P7. Earlier, Shahan Ali Mohsin, the 17-year old from Agra and a multiple National Karting champion, snatched the pole position in the MRF F1600 category just ahead of Chirag Ghorpade (Bengaluru) while K Suriya Varadhan from Coimbatore and Bengaluru’s Rishon Rajiv occupied the second row.

In the popular Saloon car category, Coimbatore veteran and defending champion Arjun Balu (Race Concepts), expectedly took the pole position followed by the Rayo Racing pair from Hyderabad Anindith Reddy and Jeet Jhabakh. Another Bengalurean, Aditya Sawaminathan, qualified for pole position in the Volkswagen Polo category with Bangladesh’s Aiman Sadat in second position and Kolkata’s Arya Singh third.

The results (Provisional):

Formula LGB 1300 (Race-1, 8 laps): 1. Deepak Ravikumar (Momentum Motorsport, Chennai) (20mins, 04.575secs); 2. Chirag Ghorpade (Momentum Motorsport, Bengaluru) (20:10.045); 3. Amir Sayed (MSport, Kotagiri) (20:12.571).

Qualifying – MRF F1600: 1. Shahan Ali Mohsin (Agra) (Best lap - 01:40.148); 2. Chirag Ghorpade (Bengaluru) (01:40.741); 3. K Suriya Varadhan (Coimbatore) (01:40.977).

All Saloons – Indian Touring Cars: 1. Arjun Balu (Race Concepts, Coimbatore) (01:50.927); 2. Anindith Reddy (Rayo Racing, Hyderabad) (01:52.329); 3. Jeet Jhabakh (Rayo Racing, Hyderabad) (01:52.592).

Super Stock: 1. Rithvik Thomas (Race Concepts, Bengaluru) (01:58.645); 2. Deepak Ravikumar (Performance Racing, Chennai) (01;58.841); 3. RP Raja Rajan (Performance Racing, Chennai) (01:59.433).

Indian Junior Touring Cars: 1. Varun Anekar (Race Concepts, Bengaluru) (01:58.911); 2. K Srinivas Teja (Performance Racing, Chennai) (02:03.402); 3. Hatim Shabbir Jamnagarwala (Performance Racing, Chennai) (02:05.029).

Volkswagen Polo: 1. Aditya Swaminathan (Bengaluru) (1:56.609); 2. Aiman Sadat (Bangladesh) (1:56.747); 3. Arya Singh (Kolkata) (1:56.993).

Day 2:

On an incident-filled day, 17-year old Shahan Ali Mohsin from Agra notched a fine double in the MRF Formula1600 category that headlined the first round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Car Racing Championship 2021 which concluded at the MMRT, here on Sunday.

Also achieving a double was Chennai’s seasoned campaigner 34-year old Deepak Ravikumar (Performance Racing) in the Super Stock class of the Saloon Cars category while defending champion Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) from Coimbatore and Hyderabad’s Anindith Reddy (Rayo Racing) split the honours in the Indian Touring cars class.

The day’s other winners included 18-year old Suriya Varathan (Coimbatore) who topped the first of the three MRF F1600 races, Chennai’s Mohit Aryan (Quest Motorsport) in the Formula LGB 1300 category (race-2), Charan Chandran (Coimbatore) and Bengalurean Varun Anekar (Race Concepts) in the Indian Junior Touring Cars class.

The day’s first race for MRF F1600, was run on grooved tyres as a precaution on a drying track with a few wet spots following overnight rains. Suriya Varathan won comfortably after starting from P3, but in the next outing, it was Shahan Ali Mohsin, a multiple National karting champion with an Asian title to boot, who took the chequered flag from a P2 start (reverse grid) with a command performance. Shahan went on to dominate Race-3, again starting from P2 for a well-deserved double.

“In the morning’s first race, I started from pole position, but lost positions due to overheating clutch. It was tough outing. In the next two races, both of which I started from P2, it was fairly comfortable,” said Shahan.

The Saloon Cars double-header produced more than its share of drama with Coimbatore’s Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) winning the first race in the Indian Touring Cars class with plenty to spare ahead of Rayo Racing pair of Anindith Reddy and Jeet Jhabakh, both from Hyderabad. In the next outing, Reddy, starting from pole in the reverse grid, stayed in front through the 10-lap race, surviving a contact with Balu who went off the track and rejoined and finished third behind Jhabakh. The race was yellow-flagged following an incident on the start-finish straight.

In the Super Stock class, 34-year old Deepak Ravikumar (Performance Racing), the busiest competitor this weekend, participating in three different categories, completed a grand double while Charan Chandran, a private entrant from Coimbatore, and Bengaluru’s Varun Anekar (Race Concepts) shared the honours in the Indian Junior Touring Cars class. Anekar had actually won the first race, but was disqualified following a post-race scrutiny on a technical infringement pushing Chandran to the top step of the podium, but the Bengalurean shrugged off the disappointment by easily winning the second race.

Mohit Aryan (Quest Motorsport) from Chennai was declared winner in the Formula LGB 1300 (Race-2) category after Ruhaan Alva (MSport), the 15-year old from Bengaluru, who had finished first, was docked 20 seconds for overtaking under yellow flag which dropped him to fifth.

In a race marked by as many as eight retirements due to on-track incidents, Ruhaan kept his wits about him to move from P9 to the front and win, only to suffer a time penalty. Finishing second behind Aryan was Kolkata’s Arya Singh (DTS Racing) while Bengaluru’s Tijil Rao (Momentum Motorsport), only 18, completed the podium. Race-1 winner, Deepak Ravikumar (Momentum Motorsport) also suffered the same fate as Ruhaan and finished ninth.

The results (Provisional – all 8 laps unless mentioned):

MRF F1600 (Race-1): 1. K Suriya Varathan (Coimbatore) (14mins, 25.983secs); 2. Deepak Ravikumar (Chennai) (14:33.571); 3. Dillon Zachariah (Chennai) (14:37.196). Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Shahan Ali Mohsin (Agra) (17:03.129); 2. Chirag Ghorpade (Bengaluru) (17:08.117); 3. Rishon Rajiv (Bengaluru) (17:10.117). Race-3: 1. Shahan Ali Mohsin (13:40.878); 2. Ashwin Dutta (Chennai) (13:47.046); 3. Chirag Ghorpade (13:47.567).

Formula LGB 1300 (Race-2, 9 laps): 1. Mohit Aryan (Quest Motorsport, Chennai) (17:36.308); 2. Arya Singh (DTS Racing, Kolkata) (17:36.822); 3. Tijil Rao (Momentum Motorsport, Bengaluru) (17:42.901). Best Rookie: Ruhaan Alva (MSport, Bengaluru).

Saloon Cars – Indian Touring Cars (Race-1): 1. Arjun Balu (Race Concepts, Coimbatore) (15:10.042); 2. Anindith Reddy (Rayo Racing, Hyderabad) (15:14.040); 3. Jeet Jhabakh (Rayo Racing, Hyderabad) (15:18.511). Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Anindith Reddy (22:46.971); 2. Jeet Jhabakh (22:47.931); 3. Arjun Balu (22:56.702).

Super Stock – Race-1: 1. Deepak Ravikumar (Performance Racing, Chennai) (16:06.931); 2. RP Raja Rajan (Performance Racing, Chennai) (16:07.189); 3. Rithvik Thomas (Race Concepts, Bengaluru) (16:12.150). Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Deepak Ravikumar (23:43.580); 2. Divy Nandan (Race Concepts, Bengaluru) (24:01.372); 3. Alisha Abdullah (Race Concepts, Chennai) (24:04.515).

Indian Junior Touring Cars – Race-1: 1. Charan Chandran (Pvt., Coimbatore) (16:53.207); 2. Hatim Shabbir Jamnagarwala (Performance Racing, Chennai). Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Varun Anekar (Race Concepts, Bengaluru) (23:30.019); 2. K Srinivas Teja (Performance Racing, Chennai) (23:59.409); 3. Charan Chandran ((23:59.737).

Volkswagen Polo – Race-1: 1. Aditya Swaminathan (Bengaluru) (14:00.605); 2. Anmol Singh Sahil (Ghaziabad) (14:01.650); 3. Saurav Bandyopadhyay (Thane) (14:03.285). Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Pratik Sonawane (Pune) (19:46.949); 2. Ritesh Rai (Chennai) (19:48.035); 3. Sidharth Mehdiratta (Lucknow) (19:48.806).

[Image courtesy: Anand Philar] [Note; The above is as per press release with no edits made]