Rajiv Sethu of Honda Ten10
Racing clinched the title in the Pro Stock 165cc category after scoring a grand
double over the weekend in the fifth and final round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI
Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship which concluded at the MMRT
track, Sriperumbudur, near Chennai on January 22, 2017.
Locked in a tight tussle for
the title with team-mate and championship leader Hari Krishnan Rajagopal going
into the final round, Sethu, returning from a major hip injury, kept his wits
about him to win both the races to clinch the title. Hari Krishnan was under
pressure to stay in front and had a disastrous weekend as he failed to pick up
any points.
Also scoring a double in the
National championship was Jagan Kumar of TVS Racing who continued his fine form
while retaining title in the top-end Super Sport Indian 165cc class to finish
the season with five wins from 10 starts.
Jagan, though, had to work
hard for his second win this weekend as he was pushed for much of the
six-lapper until he managed to get his nose in front in the latter half to take
the chequered flag before doing a lap of honour to celebrate his fifth National
title in a row.
Equally dominating was
Auroville-based Spaniard Ami van Poederooijen of Rockstar Racing in the Super
Sport Indian 300-400cc class as he completed a double for seven wins, six of
them in a row. He had sealed the championship the previous day after winning
the first of the two races, but that did not stop him from further underlining
his dominance by topping the second outing on Sunday.
The concluding day’s
proceedings witnessed its quota of close and exciting racing, especially in the
MMSC One-Make Championships as Meka Vidhuraj (Suzuki Gixxer Cup Open), Joseph
Mathew (Gixxer Cup Novice), Kannan Karnan (TVS Apache RTR200 Open), Yashas RL
from Bengaluru, who won all the three races over the weekend (TVS Novice),
Mathana Kumar (Honda CBR 250) and Anish Shetty from Hubballi (Honda CBR 150)
clinched the titles in their respective categories.
Provisional results: (All 6 laps unless mentioned)
National Championship – Super Sport Indian (300-400cc): 1. Ami Van
Poederooijen (Rockstar Racing) (12mins, 19.918secs); Amarnath Menon
K (Rockstar Racing) (12:30.675); 3. Abhishek V (Rockstar Racing) (12:34.792).
Super Sport Indian (165cc): 1. K Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) (12:20.839); 2. S
Kannan Subramaniam (TVS Racing) (12:20.878); 3. Harry Sylvester (TVS Racing)
(12:21.161).
Pro Stock 165cc: 1. Rajiv Sethu (Honda Ten 10
Racing) (12:54.164); 2. Mithun Kumar PK (Honda Ten 10 Racing)
(12:54.986); 3. D Dinesh Kumar (RACR) (12:55.286).
MMSC One-Make Championship – Honda CBR 250 (Open): 1. Hari Krishnan
Rajagopal (Honda Ten10 Racing) (12:44.938); 2. Mathana Kumar S
(Honda Ten10 Racing) (12:45.576); 3. Ananth Raj P (Pro Lap Racing) (12:48.902).
CBR 150 Novice (4 laps): 1. Piyush Ranjan (Patna) (09:11.729); 2. Anish D
Shetty (Hubballi) (09:11.765); 3. Soorya PM (Chennai) (09:12.070).
TVS Apache RTR 200 (Open): 1. Arun Muthukrishnan (Chennai) (13:34.470); 2.
Kannan Karnan (Chennai) (13:34.991); 3. Shyam Shankar (Chennai) (13:43.346).
Novice (4 laps): 1. Yashas RL (Bengaluru) (09:07.614); 2. Hari Prasath R
(Chennai) (09:09.367); 3. Peddu Sriharsha (Chennai) (09:10.905).
Suzuki Gixxer Cup (Open): 1. Aaron Gunawardena (Sri Lanka) (13:37.638); 2. R
Rajinikanth (Chennai) (13:37.715); 3. Vivian Gladwin (Kanpur) (13:38.097).
Novice (4 laps): 1. Joseph Mathew (Chennai) (09:16.665); 2. Amarnath Rajan
(Chennai) (09:17.987); 3. Alexander AS (Chennai) (09:19.629).