Chennai, July 6 Sarthak Chavan, the 17-year-old blossoming talent from Pune, came up with two brilliant rides to win races in both the premier Pro-Stock categories, the 301-400cc Open and the 165cc Open, to hog the limelight in the second round of the Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2024, at the Madras International Circuit, here on Saturday.
Sarthak, who recently took to yoga as part of his fitness regime, was in a league of his own in winning the Pro-Stock 301-400cc Open race with 6.8 seconds to spare on a drying track following an overnight downpour.
Later, he had to fight hard for his success in the Pro-Stock 165cc outing which he clinched with a superb double slipstreaming at Turn 8 on the last lap to overtake the two team-mates in front, Jagan Kumar and Chiranth Vishwanath.
To round off a highly successful day, Sarthak also bagged a special award from Indian Oil, the new partners for the championship, for the fastest lap of the day across all categories -– one minute, 50.329 seconds –- in the Pro-Stock 301-400cc Open race.
Also to finish on the top step of the podium in the national championship were three riders from Chennai. The 17-year-old Abdul Basim (Rockers Racing) notched his third win in as many starts in the Novice (Pro-Stock 165cc) class, while Jagathishree Kumaresan (One Racing) scored her maiden win in the Girls (Stock 165cc) category a day after her 20th birthday and Kaushik Subbaiah Ganesan (RACR Castrol Power1 Ultimate) completed a hat-trick of wins in the Stock 301-400cc (Novice) category.
The two Pro-Stock races headlined the day’s proceedings. Sarthak was in a league of his own in the Pro-Stock 301-400cc Open race. His closest rival, 17-year-old Chiranth from Bengaluru, faded from the contest due to issues with his machine to finish a distant seventh, while KY Ahamed and Deepak Ravikumar completed a 1-2-3 sweep for TVS Racing.
The Pro-Stock 165CC Open race saw the lead changing hands throughout the six-lapper. Pole-sitter Chiranth did not have a good start and settled behind Sarthak.
Joining the duo was 10-time National champion Jagan Kumar, probably in his last season before retirement. The trio exchanged leads before Sarthak made the decisive move in the last lap when he overtook both his teammates for a deserving win.
India Talent Cup: Malappuram’s Mohsin Paramban came on top in the NSF 250R race for his first win of the season, leaving two Bengaluru youngsters, Prakash Kamat and AS James to fight for second and third positions.
One-Make Championship: Senthilkumar C from Coimbatore continued his unbeaten run in the Open (Apache RR310) class by notching his third win in a row, albeit after a close fight with Manoj Yesuadian (Chennai) who eventually came in second despite recording the fastest lap of the race, while another local rider, Jayanth P, finished third.
Pune’s Saimah Ajaz Baig scored her maiden win of the season in the Girls (Apache RTR 200) category edging out SP Shuria (Coimbatore) and Sarah Khan (Mumbai) who had won the previous outing last month (Round-1).
In the Rookie (RTR 200) class, Bengaluru’s 20-year-old Harshith V Bogar scored his third consecutive win in as many starts to consolidate his position on the points table. He finished P1, some 20 seconds ahead of Tirupati’s CS Kedarnath and Akarsh Jangam from Vijayawada.
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