National Motorcycle Racing Championship: Double for Rajiv Sethu, Vignesh in second round

Chennai, July 9 (PTI) Rajiv Sethu and teenager Sarthak Chavan hogged the limelight in the second round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI National Motorcycle Racing Championship here on Sunday.

Petronas TVS Racing’s Chavan, the 16-year-old from Pune, came of age at the Madras International Circuit here on Sunday as he scored the biggest win of his blossoming racing career by trumping the Pro-Stock 165cc Open field.
Sarthak’s win saw him lead a 1-2 for his team with K Y Ahamed.
Earlier, Rajiv Sethu (RACR Castrol Power1 Ultimate) completed a double in the Pro-Stock 301-400cc Open category.

Also tasting success in the National Championship were Hyderabad’s Vignesh Goud (Race’ists Motorcycle Club) who completed a second double of the season in the Novice (Stock 165cc) category, and 2020 champion Ann Jennifer (Alpha Racing) who notched her first win of the season in the Girls (Stock 165cc) class.

In the Pro-Stock 301-400cc Open race, Rajiv Sethu shrugged off an error-filled opening lap to ease past front-runner Deepak Ravikumar (Petronas TVS Racing) for the lead.
Thereafter, it was literally a procession even as Ravikumar crashed leaving Petronas TVS Racing pair of Sarthak Chavan and Jagan Kumar to take up the chase, which faded with each lap resulting in Sethu winning comfortably to complete a clean sweep of four races over two rounds in his debut season in this category.

Likewise, pole-sitter Vignesh Goud, after an initial scramble, got away from the field for his second win of the weekend and fourth of the season.
Pacer Yamaha riders, Mathana Kumar and Prabhu Arunagiri, who had finished second and third in the Pro-Stock 165cc Open Race-1 on Saturday, were both disqualified for technical infringements following mandatory post-race scrutiny. Consequently, all the riders who finished behind the Pacer Yamaha pair gained two spots.

Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup (NSF 250): Local youngster Shyam Sundar K fought off Bengaluru’s AS James for his maiden win in this category. Finishing third was Mumbai’s Raheesh Khatri after championship leader in this category, Kavin Samaar Quintal (Chennai), crashed in the very first lap. Petronas TVS One-Make Championship: Bengaluru’s Chiranath Vishwanath eked out a slender win in the first race of the Open (RR 310) category, holding off two Chennai lads, Romario John and G Balaji with very little separating the trio.

In Race-2, it was an all-Chennai affair as Manoj Yesuadiyan emerged the winner, with Alwin Sundar A and Romario John completing the podium. Shreyas Hareesh from Bengaluru extended his win-spree by completing a double this weekend in the Rookie category (RTR 200). He was stretched to the limit in today’s Race-2 by fellow Bengalurean Savion Sabu while Chennai’s Nandanan came in third.