• Raghul Rangasamy clinches MRF F1600 championship
• Ashish Ramaswamy wins title in Indian Touring Cars

Chennai, September 9: Raghul Rangasamy, hailing from the nearby temple town of Mamallapuram, emerged champion in the coveted MRF Formula 1600 category as the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Racing Championship 2018 concluded at the MMRT, here on Sunday. The title earned Rangasamy a ticket to this year’s Mazda Road To Indy shootout in the United States, a dream that the 25-year old pursued through the season.

With three podium finishes this weekend, Rangasamy, who led Goutham Parekh (Chennai) by 11 points at the start of the final round, did just enough to clinch the championship. Rangasamy’s final tally was 182 points (two wins, seven podiums) to Parekh’s 174 (two wins, six podiums). Mumbai’s Nayan Chatterjee completed a double, winning Race 1 and 3, while 16-year old schoolboy from Bengaluru Yash Aradhya topped in Race 2, his second success in his debut season in this category.

Bengaluru’s 27-year old Ashish Ramaswamy (Arka Motorsports), with his seventh consecutive podium finish of the season, annexed the championship in the premium Indian Touring Cars class with a tally of 167 points, edging out Coimbatore veteran Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) by just six points. For Balu, who missed the first round of the season, it was so near yet so far as he finished second in the championship despite scoring a double in the final round this weekend and winning five races from seven starts.

Read more: Raghul Rangasamy clinches MRF F1600 championship ; Ashish Ramaswamy wins title in Indian Touring...

• Bengaluru schoolboy Sohil Shah clinches Formula LGB 1300 crown
• Prabhu champion in IJTC category
• Easy wins for Nayan Chatterjee, Arjun Balu

Chennai, September 8: Sohil Shah, a 17-year old schoolboy from Bengaluru, scripted a fairytale finish to his debut season by emerging champion in the highly competitive Formula LGB 1300 category in the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Racing Championship at the MMRT here on Saturday.

Joining Sohil as a National champion was Prabhu AS (Arka Motorsports) from Namakkal who took the title in the Indian Junior Touring Cars class. In the decisive final race today, Prabhu finished second behind his title rival Chrys D’Souza (Unimek Racing) from Goa, but the latter was docked a 30-second penalty “for causing collision” which pushed him to third while Surat’s Nikunj Vagh (Team N1) was elevated to second spot. Prabhu finished the championship with 103.5 points to D’Souza’s 95.5.

Meanwhile, Raghul Rangasamy moved a step closer to his dream of winning the MRF F1600 championship as he finished second behind Mumbai’s Nayan Chatterjee and took his tally of points to 152 which put him 14 clear of Goutham Parekh who finished third in today’s race. The Championship, whose winner becomes eligible to participate in the Mazda Road To Indy Shootout in the United States later this year, will be decided tomorrow when two more races are run with a maximum of 50 points available.

Read more: Bengaluru schoolboy Sohil Shah clinches Formula LGB 1300 crown

• Teja, Rangasamy seal championship titles
• Two wins for Deepak Ravikumar
• Pole for Nayan Chatterjee in MRF F1600

Chennai, September 7: Srinivas Teja from Chennai and Mamallapuram’s Raghul Rangasamy, both from Performance Racing team, sealed the titles in their respective categories with a race to spare in the fifth and final round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Racing Championship at the MMRT, here on Friday.

A second-place finish behind Deepak Ravikumar (Infinite Piston) ensured the title for 25-year old Teja in the Super Stock class of saloon cars category as he took his tally to an unbeatable 106. Ravkumar moved to second position in the championship with 76.5 points, ahead of Bengaluru’s Varun Anekar (Race Concepts, 75) and the duo will be fighting it out in the second race tomorrow. Anekar, who enjoyed a huge lead, in today’s race, retired when the throttle cable snapped in the sixth lap.

“Today, my focus was on complete the race without any mishap as I needed to finish second or third to pick up enough points to seal the championship. This is my first season in the Super Stock category and I am very happy that I was able to win the title,” said Teja.

Rangasamy, a versatile racer though just 25, capped another fine season by sealing the title in the Esteem Cup, taking an insurmountable lead after scoring his seventh win in 10 starts this season. Rangasamy had won the Super Stock and Formula LGB 1300 titles in 2016 besides finishing second runner-up in the MRF F1600.

Read more: MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Racing Championship Finals this weekend

Belgaum (Karnataka), September 6: Maruti Suzuki’s Samrat Yadav jumped two places in the Maruti Suzuki Dakshin Dare to catapult to the third spot even as 5-time INRC champion Gaurav Gill maintained his vice-like grip on the top position after the penultimate leg here on Thursday.

After four gruelling days of driving through dirt, gravel and tough terrains, Samrat made his upward move, posting the second best timing of the day (41.14 minutes) in the three Special Stages.

With Gill (and co-driver Musa Sherif) and Philippos Mathai (with PVS Moorthy) holding on to the first two places, all eyes were on the brewing battle between Maruti’s Sandeep Sharma (with Anmol Rampal) and Mahindra Adventure's Amitrajjit Ghosh (with Ashwin Naik).

But it was Samrat who proved to be the star of the day, posting some of the fastest timings. His 00:14:57 in the day’s first Special Stage (SS12) was even faster than Gill’s timing of 00:15:21, making it thrice in a row after he had bested Gill in the last two Special Stages of Wednesday too.

He was faster than the second-placed Philippos in the other two Special Stages as well, allowing him to go into the final leg of the rally high on confidence.

The rally will end in Goa late on Friday night.

The fight between Sandeep and Amittrajit, however, ended in a disaster for the latter. He was knocked out of the reckoning with a DNF, due to a damage in his fuel coupler just three kilometres before the third and final stage of the day. 

Sandeep couldn’t maintain his pace of the previous two days but aggregated 6:05:37 minutes to be in the fourth place, still in sight of the podium.

In the bike category, Yuva Kumar and Aakash Aital continued to be on the first and second positions while Vinay Prasad grabbed the third position going into the last day.

PROVISIONAL RESULTS AFTER DAY 4 -

CAR :

1) Gaurav Gill and Musa Sherif 05:41:54; 2) Philipos Mathai and PVS Moorthy 05:52:06; 3) Samrat Yadav and Karan Aukta 06:02:25

BIKE:

1) Yuva Kumar 04:19:28; 2) Aakash Aital 04:24:28; 3) Vinay Prasad 04:30:29