Coimbatore, July 20 Teenagers put on a memorable show as they took the honours in both the premier categories, the F2000 and F1600, as the first round of the MMSC fmsci Indian National Car Racing Championship 2025 concluded at the Kari Motor Speedway here on Sunday. Two 16-year-old drivers, Bengaluru’s Ishaan Madesh and Arjun Chheda from Pune, won a race apiece in the Formula 2000 class, with the latter completing a double, having won Race 1 on Saturday.
In the Formula 1600 category, two Bengalureans, Arjun Nair, 20, and Nigel Abraham Thomas, 19, won one race each. All the races were highly competitive, with more than their share of wheel-to-wheel racing.
Another Bengalurean, 15-year-old Bhuvan Bonu (MSPORT) was equally impressive, winning the Formula LGB 1300 race in the morning as he topped both Open and Junior classes. He was leading the next race in the afternoon when the rains forced cancellation.
Meanwhile, defending champion, Mumbai’s Biren Pithawalla (Team N1 Racing), denied former National champion Arjun Balu (Coimbatore) a triple crown by pulling off a dramatic win in Race-3 of the Indian Touring Cars category.
Balu, having won the two previous races with ease, suffered a misfortune with his Race Concepts-prepared Honda City IVTEC misfiring, forcing him to slow down when in the lead. Biren, driving a VW Polo, though nursing a turbo issue, zipped past Balu for a deserved win.
Further down the grid, Bengaluru’s Rithwik Thomas (Race Concepts) achieved a grand treble by winning all the three races this weekend in the Indian Junior Touring Cars category while Sri Lankan Kesara Godage completed a double in the Super Stock class winning two of the three races with Guwahati’s Krishanu Dutta Bhuyan (Zion Racing) topping the other.
Buzzing Hornet teammates Aditya Patnaik (Mumbai) and Aman Nagdev (Noida) won a race apiece in the Volkswagen Polo Cup, with the latter scoring a double, having won Race-1 on Saturday. Joining the pair on the podium in both races today was their team-mate Pratik Sonawane from Mumbai.
The results (Provisional – all 14 laps unless mentioned otherwise):
F2000 (Race-2): 1. Ishaan Madesh (Bengaluru) (15mins, 41.539secs); 2. Arjun Chheda (Pune) (15:43.950); 3. Akhil Agarwal (Mumbai) (15:52.431). Race-3 (12 laps): 1. Arjun Chheda (13:24.051); 2. Ishaan Madesh (13:26.776); 3. Akhil Agarwal (13:39.242).
F1600 (Race-2): 1. Nigel Abraham Thomas (Bengaluru) (16:52.562); 2. Sai Shiva Makesh Sankaran (Pune) (16:55.351); 3. Zahan Commissariat (Mumbai) (17:07.254). Race-3 (12 laps): 1. Arjun Nair (Bengaluru) (14:21.433); 2. Sai Shiva Makesh Sankaran (14:21.938); 3. Nigel Abraham Thomas (14:22.159).
Indian Touring Cars (Race-2): 1. Arjun Balu (Coimbatore, Race Concepts) (17:36.755); 2. Biren Pithawalla (Mumbai, Team N1) (17:54.495); 3. Dhruv Chavan (Lonavala, Buzzing Hornet) (18:00.579). ITC1625: 1. Suprej Venkat (Coimbatore) (18:44.318); 2. D Vidyaprakash (Coimbatore) (18:45.078). Race-3 (12 laps): 1. Biren Pithawalla (Mumbai, N1 Racing) (15:03.891); 2. Arjun Balu (Coimbatore, Race Concepts) (15:15.873); 3. Dhruv Chavan (Lonavala, Buzzing Hornet) (15:32.586). ITC1625: 1. Vidyaparakash Damodaran (Coimbatore) (16:03.234); Suprej Venkat (16:06.154).
Indian Junior Touring Cars (Race-2): 1. Rithvik Thomas (Bengaluru, Race Concepts) (18:48.451); 2. Nikunj Vagh (Surat, Team N1) (17:41.724+1 lap); 3. Yug Italiya (Surat, Team N1) (17:41.755+1 lap). Race-3 (12 laps): 1. Rithvik Thomas (16:10.084); 2. Yug Italiya (16:20.009); 3. Nikhunj Wagh (16:20.678).
Super Stock (Race-2, 13 laps): 1. Krishanu Dutta Bhuyan (Guwahati, Zion Racing) (18:36.365); 2. Kesara Godage (Colombo, Redline Racing) (18:38.743); 3. Manan Patel (Mumbai, Gameover Motorsports) (18:39.184). Race-3 (11 laps): 1. Kesar Godage (Colombo, Redline Racing India) (15:41.190); 2. Krishanu Dutta Bhuyan (15:44.604); 3. Anirudha Arvind (Chennai, Strada Motorsports) (15:46.728).
Formula LGB 1300 Open (Race-2): 1. Bhuvan Bonu (Bengaluru, MSPORT) (21:02.762); 2. Bala Prasath (Coimbatore, DTS Racing) (21:08.968); 3. Neythan McPherson (Pune, Momentum Motorsports) (21:10.171). Junior: 1. Bhuvan Bonu (21:02.762); 2. Neythan McPherson (21:10.171); 3. Aditya Patnaik (Navi Mumbai, Momentum Motorsports) (21:12.492).
Volkswagen Polo Cup (Race-2): 1. Aditya Patnaik (Navi Mumbai, Buzzing Hornet) (18:15.689); 2. Pratik Sonawane (Mumbai, Buzzing Hornet) (18:18.037); 3. Ojas Surve (Navi Mumbai, Buzzing Hornet) (18:18.904). Race-3 (12 laps): 1. Aman Nagdev (Noida, Buzzing Hornet) (15:31.208); 2. Aditya Patnaik (15:39.615); 3. Pratik Sonawane (15:43.667).
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