Prajwal Vishwanath from Petronas TVS Racing came out triumphant in the SX1 class to be adjudged as the ‘Best Rider of the Day’ while privateer Shlok Ghorpade dominated two classes but missed the top slice by just a point in the SX1 in the fourth round of the MRF Mogrip fmsci Supercross National Championship promoted by God Speed Racing at Bengaluru in November.
SX1:
Local rider Prajwal V won the top honours with 34 points while Privateer Shlok Ghorpade from Satara with a single point difference lost the top slot and he finished second with 33 points. The remaining three places were also bagged by Petronas TVS Racing riders, Ikshan Shanbhag with 31 points in third, Rugved Barguje with 30 points in fourth and CD Jinan took fifth place with 24 points.
Moto1, the first race of the day began with a pileup in the first corner as the top-three TVS riders collided but their teammate Prajwal Vishwanath sneaked in to take the lead followed by Shlok Ghorpade in second and retained the positions till Lap 4. Rugved quickly recovered from the first corner crash and started catching up with the tail enders and in no time, he was running third and was trying to close the gap on Shlok. At that point, Shlok, had gained a lot of ground and was catching up with Prajwal. With two laps left, Shlok was almost next to the leader and was successful in taking the lead. Shlok Ghorpade won the first Moto followed by four Petronas TVS Racing riders Prajwal Vishwanath, Rugved Barguje. Jinan and Ikshan Shanbhag, in that order from second to fifth.
Moto2, turned out to be the thrilling race of the round with positions changing time and again. Shlok Ghorpade got off to a good start and held on to the lead for two laps but the Defending champion and the championship leader Rugved Barguje from Petronas TVS Racing closed in the gap admirably. But in the process, they came in contact with each other twice and on the third attempt Rugved managed to go squeeze past him. But it was never easy to defend his position as Shlok was on him to regain the position. But after trying twice, Shlok crashed before the table-top and could only finish fourth. It was a very close battle for the third position between the TVS teammates, Ikshan Shanbhag and Prajwal Vishwanath. After some time all the three teammates were in a pack and Ikshan was fast gaining ground, and he tried going past Rugved but was unsuccessful. However, with two laps remaining Ikshan took the lead even as Rugved started losing ground. Meanwhile, Prajwal was on his neck of Rugved and both were riding very aggressively. In the very last left-hander on to the final jump, both crashed on to each other. Ikshan finished on top without any hiccups. Prajwal was first to recover and finished second behind Ikshan. Rugved got up and joined to take the third place followed by Shlok and CD Jinan in fourth and fifth, respectively.
Indian Expert Group C: Imran Pasha from Petronas TVS Racing won the Indian Expert Group C followed by Karan Kumar from Hero Motorsports in second. Banteilang Jerwa also from the TVS stable finished third while his teammate Sachin D came fourth. Shailesh Kumar a privateer from Erode was fifth.
Junior SX1: With a total of 40 points from two top finishes Sholk was the winner followed by Jinendra Sanghave in second. Wilmar finished third. Aleena with 24 points finished fourth and Ector with equal points came fifth.
Moto1: Right from the start, the Moto was dominated by Shlok Ghorpade from Satara. He opened up a huge gap and won the moto with ease. But the real fight was for the second position between Jinendra Sangave from Khalkaranji and Wilmer Balentino from Kochi. Initially Jinendra was just behind Shlok for some time and had a considerable amount of lead over Wilmer but with about four laps to go, he started dropping down due to some issue with the bike and Wilmer went past him and started gaining ground. With two laps left, Jinendra started to improve upon and reduced his gap but finally had to finish third behind Wilmer. Bengaluru girl Aleena Shaikh put up a lot of resistance adding up to her talent to keep Shlok behind her while being overlapped for half of the lap and finished fifth behind Ector Ezak from Kochi.
Moto2: It was a replica of Moto1 for Shlok as he had Jinendra behind him for two laps. And there on it was no looking back for him as he took the chequered flag for a facile victory. Similar situation as Moto1 was witnessed between Jinendra and Wilmer. With 2 laps to go Wilmer managed to overtake Jinendra and lead over him for some time. But in the very next lap, Jinendra regained his position and finished second followed by Wilmer in third. Aleena Shaikh finished fourth and Ector Ezak was fifth.
Locals: It was a perfect start for Bengaluru’s Mohammed Zaheer who managed to lead the way till second lap. Behind him, there was a tussle between Arun T, Yogesh P and Subramanya T. In the second lap, Arun T who was running third managed to go past Subramanya and started to close in on Zaheer. With 4 laps to go, he managed to overtake Zaheer and Arun T from Hassan was the new leader with three laps to go. And there on it was no looking back for Arun, who finish on top with aplomb. The fight for the second position began as Zaheer was a bit slow on the Whoops. That is where he lost two places as the two Bengaluru boys Subramanya and Yogesh overtook him together. However, the fight for second position intensified and in the midway of the last lap, Yogesh managed to keep Subramanya at bay and finished second behind Arun. Subramanya took third place and Zaheer finished fourth. Arfaz Ahmed from Chamrajnagar came fifth.
SX2: Shlok Ghorpade won both the motos and won the class with 40 points. Manikandan finished second while Amal Verghese came third. Ryan Haig finished fourth. All three had equal 30 points. Abdul Lathiff with 21 points was fifth.
Moto1: Once again, it was a great start for Sholk Ghorpade from Satara as he won the class with over half-a-lap lead over the second finisher Ryan Haig from Kochi. Ryan lost ground from second lap onwards but was comfortably ahead of the third finisher Amal Verghese, also from Ernakulam. Amal had to fight hard with the fourth-placed Manikandan from Coimbatore. Abdul Lathiff slowly parted away from top three and had to fight it hard till the last lap to secure fifth position.
Moto2: Shlok was unstoppable as he headed for another big win with a very comfortable lead. Manikandan finished in second position. Amal Verghese had to fight it out with Pavan BK till the last minute while Pavan had a fall, trying to overtake Amal and finished last. Ryan was fourth and Lathiff was fifth.
Junior SX2: Bhairav C with two straight wins accumulated 40 points to emerge triumphant in the Junior SX2 class followed by Chaitanya Joshi in second with 32 points. Sujan J with equal points was third. Darshit Chavan with 26 points came fourth and Svarunh AR with 22 points was fifth.
Moto1: Bhairav C from Bengaluru never had a good start as he was stuck in fourth in the first corner. But just after that, he managed to close in on Chaitanya Joshi, and with two laps to go he took the lead over Joshi and was on Sujan's neck. In the same lap, he gained the first position and extended his lead to win in front of his home crowd. Joshi put Sujan under pressure but by then the finish was too close. Sujan J from Coimbatore finished second and Chaitanya Joshi from Pune completed the podium in third. Darshit Chavan from Pune finished fourth and Svarunh AR from Coimbatore came fifth.
Moto2: Chaitanya Joshi got off to a good start followed by Bhairav C. But after a few distance in the opening lap he was behind Bhairav. At the same time, the fight for third position between Darshit Chavan and Sujan J was on. With two laps left, Sujan managed to go past Darshit. Bhairav was the winner followed by Joshi in second, Sujan in third and Darshit finsihed fourth. Svarunh AR came fifth.
Private Expert Group C: Jayden WN from Shillong was the leader right from the first corner while Abhishek J from Coimbatore was just behind him in second. And after two laps, Yogesh P who was on his neck managed to overtake him into second. Meanwhile, Abhishek skid on a left hander and by the time he could recover Subramanya and Mohammed Zaheer both from Bengaluru went past him. But the battle for the top position went on till the last minute but Jayden managed to take a hard-fought victory. Yogesh finished in second position while Subramanya T came third and Mohammed Zaheer, who was just behind him till last, had to settle for fourth. Abhishek J finished fifth.
Novice Group C: Sachin D from TVS Petronas Racing got off to a good start but he had to fight off the challenge from Karan Kumar from Hero Motorsports, till the end. Jayden was running fourth and he managed to fight it out with Shailesh Kumar in the 3rd lap and went past him to take the third spot. With just one lap to go for the finish, Jayden had issues with his bike and had to pull out. Thus, Shailesh was back in third position and the tussle for the top slot was decided on the finish point as all three podium finishers had ganged up. Sachin was the winner followed by Karan Kumar in second and Shailesh Kumar from Erode in third. Two Bengaluru boys, Subramanya and Mohammed Zaheer, finished in fourth and fifth positions, respectively.
Demo class: Zaem Abdullah from Kerala was the winner followed by Localite Vismay Ram in second and Sham Aditya from Coimbatore in third. Hani Emaad from Kerala finished fourth.