Harpal Singh Bedi
Chennai, 11 December: Bengaluru schoolboy Chirag Ghorpade, took the honours in the MRF F1600 race in the second round of the Indian National Car Racing Championship at the MMRT, here on Saturday.
Ghorpade held off another 17-year old, Agra’s Shahan Ali Mohsin, for his maiden win in this category while Rishon Rajiv, 16, also from Bengaluru, finished third in the eight-lap race. The trio was in a league of its own in a field that had quite a few experienced drivers.
“It was a tough race initially when Shahan caught up with me, but I realized that he was unable to narrow the gap any further and I managed to dictate the pace,” said Ghorpade who had earlier qualified for pole position.
Coimbatore veteran, defending champion Arjun Balu (Race Concepts), at 47, and in his 29th racing season, was in imperious form when easily winning the premier Indian Touring Cars race from pole position, while two Rayo Racing drivers from Hyderabad, Anindith Reddy and Jeet Jhabakh finished a distant second and third, respectively.
“Honestly, I was quite surprised by the pace of the car (Honda City) and by the end of the first lap, I was comfortably ahead. Thereafter, I decided to back off a bit and scaled down on my aggression. Yes, I am quite pleased with the performance,” Balu said.
Performance Racing’s Deepak Ravikumar from Chennai and Bengaluru’s Varun Anekar (Race Concepts) topped in the Super Stock and Indian Junior Touring Cars category, respectively.
Pole-sitter Viswas Vijayaraj (DTS Racing) from Vellore emerged a facile winner in the Formula LGB 1300 race that was marred by a red flag stoppage following a series of crashes, reducing it to just five laps.
Mumbai’s Fahad Kutty (Red Line Racing) and Coimbatore’s A Balaprasath (Quest Motorsport) shared the top honours in the two MRF Saloon Cars (Toyota Etios) races.
