Harpal Singh Bedi
Rajini Krishnan and Sarvesh Balappa raced to their fourth straight victories, KY Ahamed won a thriller in the Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship at the Madras International Circuit, here on Sunday.
Putting behind two crashes he had on Saturday, Ahamed (Petronas TVS Racing),displayed poise and required aggression for the eight-lap race in the Pro-Stock 165cc Open race, to snatch a dramatic win from Pacer Yamaha’s Mathana Kumar and Rajiv Sethu (Idemitsu Honda SK69 Racing) with just one-tenth of a second separating the trio at the finish.
The eventual outcome was in suspense as the three front-running riders exchanged lead after two other contenders, Deepak Ravikumar (Petronas TVS Racing) and Prabhu Arunagiri (Pacer Yamaha), retired in the second half of the race. Ahamed then pulled out a last-gasp win in a photo-finish that would be remembered for long.
In the premier Pro-Stock 301-400cc Open category, Rajini Krishnan , riding Yamaha R3 , was simply unstoppable while posting a fluent win that underlined his class and caliber, as he overwhelmed the field. His victory margin was over 10 seconds in the eight-lap race with the Petronas TVS Racing duo of KY Ahamed and Deepak Ravikumar coming in second and third, respectively.
It was Rajini’s fourth win on the trot this season, following his double in the first round at Coimbatore last month.
Ryhana Bee, after a disappointing first round in Coimbatore last month, bounced back to win the National Championship Girls race (Stock 165cc) to put her campaign on track. She took the top honours ahead of Bengaluru’s Aditi Krishnan who moved up a spot after second-placed Lani Zena Fernandez (Speed Up Racing) was docked a 15-second penalty which dropped her to fourth behind Axor Sparks Racing’s Jagruti Penkar from Mumbai. Lani was penalised for “causing avoidable collision” that involved early race leader Ann Jennifer (Alpha Racing) who finished fifth.
Hubballi’s Sarvesh Balappa (Axor Sparks Racing) continued his dream run as he finished the weekend with a double on the back of his two wins in the first round to remain unbeaten in the Novice (Stock 165cc) category.
Md Samrul Zubair (Hyderabad) who started the race from P33 and worked his way up to finish second. His team-mate P Vignesh Goud, also from Hyderabad, was third.
Sarthak Shrikant Chavan (Pune) and Raheesh Mudassar Khatri (Mumbai) also recorded four consecutive wins in the NSF 250R and Novice (CBR 150) categories of the Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup, besides Bengaluru schoolboy Chiranth Vishwanath in the Rookie class of the Petronas TVS One-Make Championship.