Biren Pithawalla, Angad Matharoo, Diana Pundole complete double each
Podium sweep by DTS Racing in Formula LGB 1300 categoryChennai, February 18: Bengaluru’s Abhay Mohan, the youngest competitor at 15 years of age, in the MRF Formula 1600 category, swept to a triple crown while another teenager, Jaden Rahman Pariat from Shillong notched a double in the MRF Formula 2000 class as the first round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Car Racing Championship 2024 concluded at the Madras International Circuit.
MRF Formula 2000:
The eight-lap race1 in the MRF Formula category witnessed some fine action. Pole-sitter 17-year-old Jaden Rahaman Pariat from Shillong looked poised to win in the F2000 class going into the last lap when disaster struck. “There was some issue with my car and I had to switch off and switch on eight times in the last lap. Luckily, I had a sufficient lead and managed to finish second,” said a disappointed Jaden after he virtually gifted a win to Surineni, 17, who was trailing throughout the race. Another Bengalurean, Tarun Muthaiah finished third.
Jaden, the 17-year-old from Shillong, displayed impressive pace to win both the races on final day to make up for his P2 finish yesterday when he surrendered a massive lead in the last lap due to engine issues. Bengaluru’s Chetan Surineni, the Race-1 winner yesterday, came in second in both the outings today.
Jaden won Race2 followed by Chetan in second and Tarun finished third. The results remained the same in race3 as well, Jaden was followed by Chetan and Tarun.
Reviewing his performance this weekend, Jaden said: “I did some preparation by watching my onboard videos from my December race. I realised there was plenty in the car. It was a question of putting things together which I did this weekend. I feel there is still a lot I can extract from this car. Of course, my stint in British Formula 4 helped, but the F2000 is far quicker and I felt very comfortable this weekend.”
MRF Formula 1600:
In contrast, 15-year-old Abhay Mohan comfortably won the race1 ahead of the Mumbai pair of Zahan Commissariat and Raaj Bakhru who was docked a 20-second penalty for a jump start. Commissariat finished second and Bakhru finished third.
Abhay Mohan, as in the first race yesterday, was in a league of his own in both the outings on the final day to complete a triple crown and underline his talent and potential.
Abhay won the race2, as he was followed by Zahan in second and Monith Kumaran from Chennai finished third. Race3 also belonged to Abhay and Zahan once again finished in second while Bakhru finished third.
“My only target for this round was to be on top, which I did. The car too was pretty good and so were the MRF tyres. My preparation was to get fit and learn from my Formula LGB 1300 outing last season. Yes, I feel good to have won all three races this weekend,” said Abhay.
Indian Touring Cars:
In race1, Biren, starting from pole, was off to a good start and held off Ritesh Rai from Arka Motorsport with cousin Ananth Pithawalla from N1 Racing running third. The position remained unchanged until the latter half of the eight-lap race when Ananth squeezed past Rai at Turn-3 with a contact between the two, and moved into P2 behind his cousin Biren. In the penultimate lap, Ananth retired when the left front tyre, that was on a slow puncture, burst, and Rai regained the second spot. By then, Biren had pulled off sufficient lead to win handily, followed by Rai in second position and Deepak Ravikumar from Performance Racing finished third, making his debut in this class.
Biren, having won a close Race-1 on Saturday, started P4 on the reverse grid in the 10-lap Race-2, but in the very first lap, seized the lead, hotly pursued by Rai cousin and team-mate Ananth Pithawalla.
The trio quickly distanced themselves from the pack before both Rai and Ananth packed up with punctures. Rai rejoined after a visit to the pit, but it was too late. Ananth suffered yet another tyre-burst to finish the weekend without points. Meanwhile, Biren was in cruise mode and comfortably won the race ahead of pole-sitter Pratik Sonawane from Buzzing Hornet Motorsport in second and Deepak Ravikumar from Team Performance Racing in third.
Indian Junior Touring Cars:
Performance Racing’s Hatim Shabbir Jamnagarwalla from Chennai took the honours in race1 as his teammate Srinivas Teja a localite with six seconds difference was second and Mumbaikar Nikunj Vagh from Team N1 Racing finished o the podium in third with over 11sec difference..
Down the combined grid, Srinivas Teja edged out Race-1 winner and team-mate Hatim Shabbir in race2 as Mumbaikar Yug Italiya from Team N1 Racing finished third.
Super Stock:
Chandigarh’s Angad Matharoo from Buzzing Hornet Motorsport topped the class in race1 as Balaprasath from Coimbatore representing DTS Racing finished second with four second difference and localite Anirudha Arvind from Redline Racing India finished third with over a second difference.
While Matharoo fought his way to his second win of the weekend with a late burst. In race2 he was the topper with less than a second difference on the Redline Racing driver Manan Patel who settled for second position and Anirudha with eight sec difference finished in third position.
Formula LGB1300:
DTS Racing dominated the Formula LGB 1300 triple-header, with a podium sweep as Nellore’s Viswas Vijayaraj won two races and team-mate Arya Singh, the other with Balaprasath finishing third in all three outings.
Both Viswas and Arya took the front row in that order for their team, DTS Racing, after a start-stop-start qualifying session interrupted by a red flag due an on-track incident.
Viswas won the race1 as he managed to keep Arya Singh behind him in second position with a lead of over two seconds as Balaprasath from Coimbatore finished third with 14sec difference. In race2, Arya occupied the top position with a difference of four sec over the second finisher Viswas and Balaprasath with further four sec difference was third. Viswas bounced back to top slot with five sec difference on Arya who finished second in race3, it was a consistent third position finish for Balaprasath this time with five second difference he settled for third.
MRF Saloons (Toyota Etios):
Late in the evening, Pune’s Diana Pundole won the race1 with ease in a race interrupted by a safety car period following a three-car collision. Anirudha Arvind from Chennai finished second and Jai Prashanth from Coimbatore finished third.
In race2, Anirudha was the winner followed by Jai Prashanth Venkat from Coimbatore in second position while Diana Pundole from Pune was third. Also notching a double was Pune’s Diana Pundole, a mother of two, besides one P3 finish.She dominated podium for the second time as she won the race3, Anirudha finished second and Kesara Godage from Sri Lanka finished third.