Chennai, January 4: Pune teenagers Arjun Chheda and Sai Shiva Sankaran held off their rivals from Bengaluru to win the MRF Formula 2000 and Formula 1600 races, respectively, to kick-start their campaign in the third round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Car Racing Championship 2025, at the Madras International Circuit, here on Sunday.
17-year-old Arjun Chheda fully captailised on a poor start by pole-sitter Ishaan Madesh from Bengaluru and took the honours in the MRF F2000 races. Finishing third behind the pair was another Bengalurean, Tarun MB who briefly was in P2 before yielding ground to Ishaan Madesh in the first lap. “It was my signature start, but hopefully, I will do better tomorrow,” said Ishaan, the recently crowned National karting champion, reflecting on his tendency to botch starts from pole position. Arjun was happy to score his fourth win of the season, but said: “I had my moments, but managed to keep it all together.”
In the MRF F1600 race, Sai Shiva Sankaran, also 17 from Pune, started from pole position and held off two Bengalureans, Arjun S Nair and Nigel Abraham Thomas to consolidate his position at the top of the points standings. “I made a lot of mistakes in the first part of the race but got into my rhythm in the last three laps. Hopefully, I will not repeat the mistakes tomorrow,” said Sai Shiva Sakaran.
Meanwhile, Surat’s Biren Pithawalla (N1 Racing) also profited from a retirement by championship leader and pole-sitter Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) whose car packed up due to electrical problems in the formation lap itself, and scored an easy win in the premier Indian Touring Cars (ITC) class that was run concurrently with the ITC 1625, Indian Junior Touring Cars and the Super Stock class, making up a grid of 19 cars.
Pithawalla, the defending champion, missed the qualifying session earlier in the day after the driveshaft gave away on the out-lap. “My team did a fantastic job in getting the car (Volkswagen Polo) ready for the race in quick time,” said Pithawalla who jumped into the lead starting from P5 in the very first lap and cruised to victory, ahead of Lonavla’s Dhruv Chavan (Buzzing Hornet) and Malaysian Perajun Krishnan (Performance Racing).
Further down the grid, Nikhanth Ramabalu topped in the ITC 1625 class with his Performance Racing team-mate 80-year-old Vidyaprakash Damodaran finishing in P2 in an all-Coimbatore finish.
Bengaluru’s Rithwik Thomas (Race Concepts) fought off Viswas Vijayaraj (DTS Racing) from Nellore to win in the IJTC category while veteran from Thrissur Diljith TS (DTS Racing) eased past Sri Lanka’s Kesara Godage (Performance Racing) in the Super Stock class.
Meanwhile, Chikkamgaluru’s Tarushi Vikram who came up with a stunning performance to top the MRF Saloons race despite a pitlane start, was later docked a 10-second penalty which pushed her to P2 while Akshay Muralidharan (Coimbatore) moved up a spot and was declared winner. Her infringement was going off track limits while overtaking Muralidharan. Bengaluru’s Siddharth Kountinya came in a distant third.
The day ended on a dramatic note with Vinith Kumar winning the Formula LGB 1300 race despite a semi-spin exiting the final corner in the last lap while Joel Joseph came in a close second and Lokith Lingesh Ravin completed the podium.
The results (Provisional – all 8 laps, Race-1):
MRF F2000: 1. Arjun Chheda (Pune) (12mins, 46.225secs); 2. Ishaan Madesh (Bengaluru) (12:46.796); 3. Tarun MB (Bengaluru) (13:09.429).
MRF F1600: 1. Sai Shiva Makesh Sankaran (Pune) (13:52.861); 2. Arjun S Nair (Bengaluru) (13:53.707); 3. Nigel Abraham Thomas (Bengaluru) (13:55.467).
Indian Touring Cars: 1. Biren Pithawalla (Mumbai, Team N1) (15:09.224); 2. Dhruv Chavan (Lonavala, Buzzing Hornet Motorsports) (15:21.522); 3. Perajun Krishnan (Kuala Lumpur, Team Performance Racing) (15:30.571).
Indian Touring Cars 1625: 1. Nikanth Rambalu (Coimbatore, Team Performance Racing) (15:50.915); 2. Vidyaprakash Damodaran (Coimbatore, Team Performance Racing) (15:57.182).
Indian Junior Touring Cars: 1. Rithwik Thomas (Bengaluru, Race Concepts Motorsports) (15:47.358); 2. Viswas Vijayaraj (Nellore, Team Performance Racing) (15:47.734); 3. Jarshan Anand (Chennai, pvt) (16:06.863).
Super Stock: 1. Diljith TS (Thrissur, DTS Racing) (16:34.355); 2. Kesara Godage (Colombo, Redline Racing) (16:39.516); 3. Lal Kattikulam Bharathan (Thrissur, DTS Racing) (16:46.063).
Formula LGB 1300 (Open and Juniors): 1. Vinith Kumar (Tirupur, DTS Racing) (15;13.793); 2. Joel Joseph (Ernakulam, DTS Racing) (15:13.853); 3. Lokithlingeash Ravi (Pollachi, DTS Racing) (15:14.969).
MRF Saloons (Toyota Etios): 1. Akshay Muralidharan (Coimbatore) (17:02.921); 2. Tarushi Vikram (Chikkamagaluru) (17:12.409); 3. Siddhanth Koundinya (Bengaluru) (17:29.551).
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