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2W INRC

Samuel Jacob Fastest in Puttur

4W RACING Arjun Balu conquers title

JEHAN WINS FORMULA 2 AT

SAKHIR GP

JK NRC Double for Ashwin Datta

GAURAV GILL CONQUERS RALLY OF

ARUNACHAL

EDITORIAL / IMPRINT

IMPRINT Editor S. Ashok Kumar Tiwari

Hi, Our New Look. AUTO TRACK is on a new track...

bold decision from all the Promoters, along with the FMSCI, saw the roll-out of the 2020 calendar, and most championships completed the basic four rounds, to keep the championships alive without a break. After certain relaxation in COVID19 Guidelines for sports activities, it was a busy schedule. The first to start and finish in the shortest span of time was the MMSC FMSCI MRF National Racing Championship for two and four wheelers, with two rounds each in back-to-back weekends, closing the Championship within 30 days. VW opted to stay out this season and will be back in action for 2021 season. Indian National Karting championship for X30 and Indian National Rally Sprint Championship ran on parallel dates, and concluded a six-round Championship. The remaining Championships which began late are JK Tyre National Racing Championship, MRF Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) for two-wheelers and INRC for fourwheelers which are expected to get over by mid-February along with the National Rotax Karting. The highlight of the 2020 season, was the first of its kind back-to-back INRC rounds held in Arunachal Pradesh. The Rally of Arunachal was successfully executed within a span of five days, with night stages on Day 1, and Special-Stage Rallying on tarmac, on Day 2. North Eastern states are slowly turning out to be an excellent destination for motorsports activities, as the Government support, with the civil administration extending full cooperation, were admirably executed to run the show. Mahindra and Mahindra pulled out of Motorsports this season, but the good news is they fielded their cars with same drivers in association with JK Tyre. For the first time in INRC, we had two all-ladies teams sponsored by Vasundhara Jewellers from Hyderabad, unknown to the sport, which had an excellent result as one of their driver Pragathi Gowda along with Deeksha Balakrishna, in their very first event, finished within overall top-ten beating many male drivers. The change of Guard at FMSCI, with former President Akbar Ebrahim back on top, leading a new team, saw the team take up the post-COVID19 challenges effectively.

S. ASHOK KUMAR TIWARI Editor M: +91-9845296190 autotrack.editor@gmail.com

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VOLUME 14, ISSUE 2 O1 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

CONTENTS

JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2021

NEW DELHI

50 JK TYRE Racing: 04 MRF Rally De Mangaluru: 15 MRF Rally De Bengaluru: 12

Rally of Arunachal: 18 2W Natl Racing: 24

BND Autocross: 32

Jehan in F2: 30

MRF 4W Racing: 34

Mahindra Thar Review: 40 National X30 R1 to R4 : 44 National Sprint R1 to R4: 50 Ckm TSD Rally: 56

O2 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

RACING JK TYRE

Ashwin Datta leading

Double for Ashwin Datta; Clean sweep by Sayed

No stopping Kottayam's Amir Sayed in Novice Cup

hennai's Ashwin Datta from Dark Don Racing with a double and Kottayam's Amir Sayed from MSport with clean sweep signed off in the opening round of the 23rd JK Tyre FMSCI National Racing Championship at the Kari Motor Speedway recently. Ashwin was penalized in the final race of day two after he finished on top. He ran out of luck as he was leading in the final race of the round, after coming in contact in the final stages of the race he had to dropout. The 16-year-old Sayed from Kottayam despite limited track time, handled it with ease and proved his class winning every other race, four in all, with ease in the JK Tyre O4 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

Novice Cup. It was his ﬁrst visit to this circuit but he mesmerised one and all with his magic on the wheel. Formula LGB4 Vishnu Prasad delivered for his team MSport winning the opening race. With a total time of 21:58.046 he also clocked the best lap time of the race with 1:16.786. S a n d e e p K u m a r representing Dark Don Racing with a difference of 2.778 seconds settled for second position. He was followed by his teammate Ashwin Datta in third with a further difference of 1.2 seconds. Bengaluru boy Chirag Ghorpade from Momentum Motorsports missed the podium by 300th of a second and had to

settle for fourth. Raghul Rangasamy from Chennai driving for Msport with a difference of 2.7 seconds ﬁfth. In the second race, it was Raghul who held the advantage at the start before his car let him down midway through. Vishnu cashed in on the chance and moved ahead. It was a ﬁght between Vishnu and Datta from there. Even as the former was building a sizeable lead and looked well set for a double, came the safety car in with just two laps to go. Datta grabbed the opportunity with both hands and even managed to get past Vishnu in the second corner. Vishnu pressed the pedal hard for one last time but Datta

played it smart and clean to finish the day on a merry note. But the experienced star from Chennai Vishnu Prasad found it hot as Ashwin Datta drove brilliantly to win the race with a total time of 20:52.423 and fastest lap of time of 1:17.420. Raghul Rangasamy with just half a second difference stood second. Vishnu ensured even he with less than half a second further difference completed the podium. Both the team mates from Dark Don Racing Diljith TS from Thrissur and Arya Singh from Kolkata finished in fourth and fifth position respectively. In Race 3, Coimbatorian Sarosh Hataria from Ahura Racing had a very tough time

COIMBATORE not to win the third after all the hard work," said Datta. In the Championship standing, Ashwin Datta from Chennai representing Dark Don Racing stood first with 39 points. Raghul Rangasamy from Chennai representing MSport with 32 points was first runner-up. Vishnu Prasad from Chennai representing MSport was third with 30 points. Sandeep Kumar A from Chennai representing Dark Don Racing with 26 points was fourth and Sarosh Hataria from Coimbatore representing Ahura Racing with 26 points was fifth. Amir Sayed in front

defending the top position with a total time of 22:14.932 as Arya Singh was on his neck and with a half car distance had to settle for second position with just 0.086 seconds difference. He also clocked the fastest lap of the race, Chennai driver Sandeep Kumar RA also from Dark Don Racing finished third with a difference of five seconds. Mohamed Ryan from MSport and Chirag Ghorpade finished in fourth and fifth. The overnight final race win never lasted long for Datta the revised results changed his placing based on protests and official observation saw him placed 12th and declared Sarosh as the eventual winner. However, that did not deter Datta who drove clean to win an incident-free first race in the morning. He won it with a total time of 19:28.450, Vishnu finished second with two seconds slower as Sandeep with further over three seconds deficit stood third. Ryan finished fourth while Sarosh in fifth.

In Race 5, it was yet another fighting win for Datta he clocked 21:30.683 with a best lap time of 1:16.887. Raghul with just one second gap finished in second position Vishnu with further one second difference completed in third place. Bala Prasath from Coimbatore with further one second difference settled for fourth followed by Sarosh in fifth. The final race of the day saw one of the best and greatest action, but ended up not being a clean race. Datta, Vishnu and Raghul all were locked in a fierce battle for the top slot, during the final stages of the race on turn 6 at the left hander Vishnu tried to inch ahead of Datta from the inner and in the process came in contact and both rammed straight into the tyre barricading. There on Raghul took the command to win the race followed by Sarosh with a difference of eight seconds finishing second while Sandeep had a photo finish to settle for third. "It was disappointing

Formula LGB4 Race 3 winners

Vishnu Prasad in action

JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 05

COIMBATORE

RACING

JOBA Racing with further three seconds difference stood third. Abhinav Reddy from Hyderabad and Karthikeyan Chandrasekar from Bengaluru both representing Avalanche Racing ﬁnished fourth and ﬁfth.

JK TYRE

Sayed continued the winning spree on the final day also with a total time of 18:24.277 Karthikeyan with a six seconds difference stood second as Dhruv with five hundred mill seconds deficit completed the podium. Two Momentm Motorsport drivers Vijay finished fourth and Sahil Sadik Desai from Kohlapur finished fifth. The final race of the day belonged to Sayed with a total time of 14:54.496 Gajjar with five seconds difference finished second while Dhruv with further two seconds difference stood third. Aman Best women performer Mira Erda

JK Tyre Novice Cup In the JK Tyre Novice Cup, Sayed did not put a foot wrong while winning all the races. Amir Sayed from Kottayam representing MSport in race 1 clocked 15:56.927 to win the race his teammate Neym Rizvi from Mumbai with eight seconds difference was second. Dhruvin Gajjar from Mumbai representing DTS Racing with a further difference of one second completed the podium his teammate from Kolkata Aman Chaudhary finished fourth followed by Dhruv Tyagi from Meerut representing Momentum Motorsports in fifth. Sayed was the leader in Race 2, with a total time of 16:23.787. Gajjar finished second with a difference of over eleven seconds. Aman O6 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

Novice category women Anushriya Gulati

managed to be on the podium with one second difference over Gajjar. Momentum Motorsports drivers Kamalakannan GK from Puducherry finished fourth while Vijay Aadhithiyaa from Chennai came in fifth position. Race 3 once again went Sayed way as he clocked 11:58.316 for this win, Aman with a difference of seventeen seconds had to settle for first runner-up, with a further two seconds difference Gajjar was third. Team mates Neym and Dhruv were in fourth and fifth position. With a total time of 17:53.731 Sayed won the fourth race, Vijay finished second with a difference of thirteen seconds Abhilash Junior from Thrissur representing

and Karthikeyan finished in fourth and fifth position. Mira Erda of MSport was declared the best woman performer of the weekend, while the best performer in the woman novice category went to Anushriya Gulati of Ahura Racing. Amir Sayed from Kottayam representing MSport with sixty points was the championship leader, Dhruvin Gajjar from Rajasthan representing DTS Racing was second with thirty four points, Aman Chaudhary from Kolkata representing DTS Racing with twenty four points stood third. Vijay Aadhithiyaa from Chennai representing Momentum Motorsports with eighteen points was fourth while Karthikeyan Chandrasekar from Bengaluru representing Avalanche Racing with eighteen points was fifth.

TRAIL AT TA C K

Ajay sparkles as fastest rider Jinendra dominates kids class PHOTO BY: NOORULLA

jay Manjunath, astride a Hero Impulse clocked some of the fastest laps to sparkle in the Trail Attack2020 held at the BigRock DirtPark facility near Bannergatta recently on a 3.5-km track. The two-day event was run on the terrain which had multiple courses like loose gravel, hard surface, loose sand, sharp corners and gradients. Each competitor had to ride ﬁve laps. Over 70 O8 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

participants in various categories. Upto 250cc Class: 27 participants entered the fray and in this class and Ajay Manjunath riding on a Hero Impulse clocking a total time of 23:08 won beating Yazdan Khan, also on a Hero Impulse, 20 seconds. Abdul Waseem riding an Xpulse was 27 second slower than Yazdan but managed to complete the podium. Yelyellapa C riding a Hero150 fell short by three

seconds to take fourth. Purab Gowda also on a Hero Xpulse with further three seconds in deficit to take fifth. Vishal, also riding a Hero Xpulse, with a further difference of 23 seconds was sixth. 250 to 400cc Class: Nihal riding a KTM 390ADV kept the momentum high right from the start with a few timings just above five minutes and managed to hold on the top slot with a total time of 26:47. Albin,

also on KTM 390ADV, with a 16 seconds difference settled for second position. Nishan Vijay Maddur, astride a BMW GS310 was another 41 seconds behind to take third position. Kevin Joseph Ruben riding a KTM 390ADV ﬁnished fourth with a further difference of 37 seconds. Ajey Patil riding an Adventure 390 came in ﬁfth, a further 17 seconds behind. 401 to 550cc Class: This class saw most of the Himalayan bikes in fray.

BENGALURU Jagadish Vijay clocked 26:34 for his victory beating Amrutha Prasad P to second by 44 seconds. Another 41 seconds behind was Vishnu Warrier, who completed the podium. Gourav Heranjal and Anil Ricky followed them in 4th and 5th, a further difference of 19 seconds each. Left hander

Kids class

Above 550cc Class: Palaksha Shadaksharappa riding a Triumph Tiger was consistent in logging the lap times, except in fourth lap and finally managed to stay ahead of all with a total time of 25:39. Nikhil Das also on a Triumph Tiger clocked 26:38 to finish second. Shaan Khan on a GS 1200, was a further 29 seconds behind, and take third. Amol, astride a SWM Supermoto came 4th taking another 32 seconds to reach the chequered flag. Kids Class: It was a short track for the ten kids who participated with mini bikes

in this class. Jinendra Sangave won in 5:30 seconds followed by Agastya in second as he clocked 7:07. Bhairav came third in 7:09. Savion Sabu finished fourth in 7:27 and Sujan J took another 21 seconds to finish fifth. Ladies Class: Prianca Gata, riding on a Hero Xpulse, clocked a total time of 37:44 to win the class while Aarathi Chellappa and Preethi Parmeswaran did not finish the race. Media class: All the riders in this class were provided with Royal Enfield Himalayan bikes. Pratheek Kunder won with a total time of 26:30 ahead of Zzouhan Karkoden Puthiyapurayil who took another 25 seconds and Sharath Shenoy came third a further 21 seconds behind. Joe Abilash J was 4th in 28:21 and Zoheb AOM came 5th clocking 28:58 seconds.

taking on steep right hander

ﬂag-off

Jinendra after the jump JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 09

BENGALURU

R A L LY

ROAD SAFETY

Darshan Gowda-Velumurugan win Suma-Usha clinch Ladies Class while UmashankarVishwak claim corporate honours

arshan Gowda and Velumurugan the Road Safety Drive 2020, a TSD Rally for 4 wheelers, that concluded in Bengaluru recently. The 85-km route that began from Unite off-road Park saw 27 cars pass through Balagere, Gunjur, Mugalur, Nerige road and concluded at the same starting point. Umashankar, along with Vishwak came second and Prajwal and co-driver Devkanth ﬁnished third. Class-wise Darshan Gowda and 10 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

Velumurugan also won the Open Class beating Vignesh and Lenin J while the pair of Vinodha and Prakash came third. Chethan paired with Susheel Kumar to win the Amateur class while Srinivas navigated by Shanmuga as they took second followed by the pair of Adithya and Sharun Hiremath in third. The Ladies class was bagged by the pair of Suma and Usha Kumar with the pair of Vaishali Panchal navigated by Vanishree Gowda baging the second spot.

Umashankar and navigator Vishwak won the Corporate class with Prajwal and Devakanth ﬁnishing second. Prathiba Anand and Ashwini Bogadi came third. The couple class was

dominated by Sharda Kumar and Pavan Kumar and Rekha Niranjan, along with Niranjan, secured second. Mohammed Aquib and Aﬁa Sayeed settled for third position.

RALLY NATIONALS

Samuel fastest

Rajendra wins Super Bike ProExpert Class PHOTO BY: SABIK

n the Rally de Mangaluru, the top-three overall placings were bagged by TVS Racing riders on a Apache RTR 200, as Samuel Sajan Jacob won by clocking 56:32.8 with a lead of over 23 seconds over his teammate Rajendra RE in Round 1 of the MRF Mogrip FMSCI National Rally Championship (INRC2w) for two-wheelers at Panja on the outskirts of Puttur recently. Both the riders were the fastest in four each of the 12 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

total eight stages, the competition was neck-andneck as Rajendra lost over 22 seconds in second stage due to issues with his vehicle there on Samuel took off, Imran Pasha with a further difference of one minute stood third. With a further difference of one minute and six seconds Yuva Kumar riding a Hero Xpulse finished fourth while Sanjay Somashekar also riding a Hero Xpulse 200 finished in fifth position. Asad Khan

riding on a Suzuki RMX 450Z was a distinct sixth. Super Bike Pro-Expert class was dominated right from the start by Rajendra RE from TVS Racing. He won the class with a difference of 6min 27sec over his teammate Nataraj R who had issues with his bike right from the ﬁrst stage. A s a d K h a n f r o m Chikkamagaluru won the Super Bike Expert class on way to sixth overall. He won

1hr 24sec Suhail Ahmed from Bengaluru riding a KTM 450 EXC by 25 seconds. Suhail ﬁnished in second position. Sinan Francis from Kerala also on a KTM 450 EXC with a further difference of Fourty two seconds completed the podium. Sudeep Kottary from Mangaluru riding a Apache RTR200 with a further eight seconds difference stood fourth, Sharath Mohan from Mallapuram riding a Suzuki RMX450Z with a further

R1, PUTTUR thirty four seconds difference finished fifth. Jatin Jain from Nagpur riding KTM450 with just below two minutes difference stood sixth. Abraham Ajin from Ernakulam riding a Yamaha YBX with a total time of 1:06.03 was the winner of Super Sport 130 class, followed him in second position was Noldin Thomas from Kerala riding a Yamaha YBX with a difference of over fifty one seconds, Varun Kumar from Bengaluru also riding a Yamaha YBX with a further difference of one minute seventeen seconds stood third. Nithesh G Poojary riding Honda CBF Stunner with a further difference of five seconds finished fourth, J Durgesh from Mysuru riding a Honda Stunner finished fifth with a difference of further thirty two seconds. F r a n c i s P V f r o m Chikkamagaluru dominated the Super Sport 165 class with a total time of 1:02.18, as all the riders who finished in top five were on a Hero Impulse. Pavan BK from Bengaluru with a difference of forty four seconds stood second, Ahmed Abrar from Mysuru with a further difference of one minute forty four seconds was third. Rohit RS and Mohammed Israr both from Mysuru

settled for fourth and fifth position. Samuel Sajan Jacob from TVS Racing with a total time of 56:32 was the winner of Super Sport 260 class followed by his team mate Imran Pasha also riding a Apache RTR200 with a difference of One minute twenty seven seconds in second position. Yuva Kumar riding a Hero Xpulse with a further difference of one minute six seconds was third. Sanjay Somashekar also riding a Hero Xpulse 200 finished fourth while Sachin riding a Apache RTR 200 settled for fifth position. Sajeesh Reghunathan from Bengaluru riding a KTM Duke in the Super Sport 400 class was the winner with a margin of seven minutes twenty five seconds over Karthikeyan from Coimbatore riding a KTM Duke 390, Harish S from Bengaluru also in the same make bike with a further difference of one minute ten seconds completed the podium. Vishal Das from Kolkata also in a KTM Duke did not manage to finish the rally.

Overall winners

Nithesh G Poojary in action

It was a comeback year for Naresh VS from Bengaluru he had pulled out in the mid of 2019 season, by clocking 1:04.33 riding on a Himalayan was the winner of Super Sport 550 class, Pro Expert class winner Rajendra RE

Class 4 winners

Ladies class winners JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 13

R1, PUTTUR

RALLY

twelve seconds and had to settle for second position, Subramanya T from Bengaluru also riding a TVS Scooter with a further difference of twenty seven seconds completed the podium. Pinkesh Thakkar riding on a NTORQ 125 with further deficit of forty seconds was fourth while Amarendra Sathe from Pune riding on a Aprillia 125 with seven minutes twenty seven seconds further difference finished fifth.

NATIONALS

Tejas R

Arun Joy M from Ernakulam also riding on a Himalayan finished second with a deficit of twenty seven second, Sharath Kumar from Bengaluru also riding a Himalayan with a further difference of fifty one seconds had to settle for third position. Devraj Venkatesh from Bengaluru on a Himalayan with a further difference of one minute twenty five seconds stood fourth while Goutham Rao from Bengaluru riding a Bullet with a further deficit of one minute forty two seconds was fifth. Shamim Islam Khan from TVS Racing riding a NTORQ 125 won the Scooter 210 class with a total time of 1:07.14, Karthik N riding a TVS Scooter fell short of

With a good entry count of ﬁve the ladies class was dominated by Aishwarya Pissay M riding a Apache RTR 200 from TVS Racing with a total time of 1:10.59, Rhyana Bee riding a Hero Impulse with over fourteen minutes difference came in second, as her vehicle came to a stand still after the stream crossing. Tanika Shanbhag from Satara, Anam Hashim from Pune and Arpitha M Bhatt from Mangaluru all these three did not ﬁnish the event.

Sinan Francis 2nd runner-up class 1-A

Class 7 winners

Kuttappa from Bengaluru riding a Hero Impulse won the Star of Karnataka class, the Chikkamagaluru rider Suraj Kutti also on a Hero Impulse with a difference of twenty one seconds ﬁnished behind him, Arvind Singh Kumar V from Bengaluru had to pull out due to a crash in the ﬁfth stage.

Class 6 winners

Imran Pasha J

Class 1-A winners 14 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 00

R-2, BENGALURU

RALLY

NATIONALS

Suhail Ahmed wins Aishwarya in her own class; Satara girl Tanika, catches the eye beating Ryhana PHOTO BY: SABIK

uhail Ahmed from Bengaluru, riding a KTM 450EXC won the Rally de Bengaluru, the second round of the MRF MoGrip Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) for two-wheelers held at the Tribal Adventure Cafe on the outskirts of Bengaluru. The two stages of Tribal and Kadu were run thrice in same direction cumulating to over 50 kms. Sachin D from TVS Racing put up a brave ďŹ ght riding on

an Apache RTR 200 4V, but missed the top slot by a mere six-seconds. Round one winner Samuel Sajan Jacob was third another 1min 21sec behind. Sharath Mohan from Malappuram riding a Suzuki RMX 450Z came fourth taking another 49 seconds. A s a d K h a n f r o m Chikkamagaluru, also on a Suzuki RMX 450Z, was slower by 19 seconds in ďŹ fth while Bengalurian Yuva Kumar from Hero Motosports riding a Hero Xpulse was

Overall winners JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 15

RALLY

NATIONALS

was sixth behind by just a second. The lone ﬁnisher Nataraj R from TVS Racing in Superbike Pro-Expert Group A class clocked 52:50, while his teammate Rajendra RE logged a DNF (did not ﬁnish).

SAMUEL ABRAHAM

SINAN FRANCIS

RAJENDRA RE

Suhail Ahmed the overall winner was the topper in the Super Bike Expert Group A with a total time of 49:44. Sharath Mohan, came second taking 2 minutes 16 seconds more to reach the finish. Asad Khan came third taking another 19 seconds. Aman Pawde from Nagpur, riding a KTM 450, finished fourth while another Nagpurian Jatin Jain, also on a KTM 450, finishing fifth. In the Super Sport 130 Group B, Varun Kumar A from Bengaluru, riding a Yamaha YBX, clocked 58:50 to win the class followed by Nithesh G Poojary from Mangaluru, astride a Honda CBF Stunner, in second, slower by one minute 31 seconds. Rakesh Kumar V, riding a Yamaha YBX, came third taking another 44 seconds. Abraham Ajin and Durgesh J were disqualified for their bikes not complying with the technical regulations even though they crossed the finish first. In Super Sport 165 Group B, Arun T from Hassan riding a Hero Impulse, was the fastest in the class with a total time of 54:48. Francis PV from Chikkamagaluru riding a Hero Impulse with a deficit of 41 seconds was second. Ahmed Abrar from Mysuru, on a Hero, was slower by 32 seconds but managed to be on the podium in third position. Rohit RS, also from Mysuru, finished in fourth position while Shoeb Mohammed Khan, also from Mysuru, finished fifth. TVS Racing's Sachin D won, Super Sport 260 Group B

ZABIULLA IN ACTION 16 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

class, with a total time of 49:51 beating Samuel Sajan Jacob to second position. Bengalurian Yuva Kumar from Hero Motorsports on a Hero Impulse completed the podium. Sanjay Somashekar from Bengaluru and Rakesh N also from Bengaluru were in fourth and fifth position respectively. Bengalurian Sajeesh Reghunathan riding a KTM Duke won the Super Sport 400 Group B class with a margin of one minute 16 seconds beating Harish S, also from Bengaluru, astride a KTM Duke 390 while Karthikeyan D, also on a KTM Duke 390, took third with a further difference of over four minutes. Anish Das came in fourth and T Vijay Kumar finished fifth. In Super Sport 550 Group B, Royal Enfield Himalayan bikes dominated the class. Naresh VS from Bengaluru with a total time of 54:30 was the winner followed by Sharath Kumar, also from Bengaluru, on a Bullet in

ROUND 2 WINNERS CLASS 1: NATARAJ R CLASS 1A: SUHAIL AHMED CLASS 2: VARUN KUMAR A CLASS 3: ARUN T CLASS 4: SACHIN D CLASS 5: SAJEESH R CLASS 6: NARESH VS CLASS 7: SYED ASIF ALI CLASS 8: AISHWARYA PM SOK: STEPHEN ROY

R-2, BENGALURU second position with a margin of one minute 59 seconds. Arun Joy M from Ernakulam, took third taking another 18 seconds to cross the finish flag. Mohammed Zaheer from Mysuru came fifth and Devraj Venkatesh from Bengaluru took fifth despite a fall in one of the stages.

CLASS 4 WINNERS

Scooter Class was won by Bhopal rider Syed Asif Ali from TVS Racing riding a TVS NTORQ 125 with a total time of 57:43. Karthik N from Bengaluru riding a TVS Scooter took second position with a difference of 14 seconds while Shamim Islam Khan from Nashik, riding a TVS NTORQ 125, finished third as he took 23 seconds more than Shamim. Pinkesh Thakkar from TVS Racing, also on a TV NTORQ 125, finished 65 seconds later in fourth. Subramanya T from Bengaluru was fifth.

CLASS 6 WINNERS

TVS Racing's Aishwarya PM from Bengaluru astride an Apache RTR 200 4V won the Ladies Class clocking 59:20. The youngest of all, Tanika Shanbhag from Satara, riding a Hero Impulse, came second 51 seconds later with Ryhana Bee from Chennai, also on a Hero Impulse, finishing third, a further difference of 9 minutes, 11 seconds. Dimpy from Mangaluru finished fourth and Anam Hashim did not finish for the second time in two rounds. Star of Karnataka, Stephen Roy with a total time of 54:21 was the winner followed by Dhanush from Kodagu in second position with a difference of over five minutes two seconds. Syed Thowhid, a further four minutes and 30 seconds difference settled for third. Vinay C was fourth while Syed Kaleem was fifth.

STAR OF KARNATAKA WINNERS SCOOTER CLASS WINNERS

LADIES CLASS WINNERS

CLASS 2 WINNERS JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 17

RALLY

ARUNACHAL

Gaurav Gill conquers Season Opener Gill conquers high-speed super-technical stage with ease and grace. Karna Kadur takes pride a pair that settles. Debut win for ladies Pragathi Gowda and Deeksha Balakrishna

rjuna awardee Gaurav Gill was at his best driving a Mahindra XUV 300 fashioning victory in the season-opening Rally of Arunachal, the ﬁrst round of the Indian National Rally Championship (INRC) 2020, which successfully began with a whopping 43 entries, but the high-speed super technical tarmac terrain saw less than 50 per cent ﬁnishers. Spread over two days, the

108-km tarmac route was split into four night stages on Day 1 and four day stages on Day 2, the 14-km Special Stage was taken in forward and reverse directions. Gaurav Gill and co-driver Musa Sheriff driving on JK tyres began their winning spree and were best and unmatchable till the end. They started to build the lead of over 30 seconds, right from the ﬁrst stage and never looked back there on. With a very huge margin of 4 Overall winners Gaurav Gill and Musa Sheriff

18 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

min 25 seconds, this top pair began the season on a positive note. Karna Kadur and co-driver Nikhil Vittal Pai, driving an underdevelopment R2 spec VW Polo with MRF Tyres, finished second and this finish meant a lot for them, as they logged too many DNFs (Did Not Finish) in the previous season. One of the youngest teams, Dean Mascarenhas and Shrupta Padival, driving an R1 spec VW Polo on JK Tyres, did complete the podium with a further difference of one minute nine seconds. Team Snap Racing secured the fourth and fifth spots, both driving a VW Polo, the pair of Sahil Khanna and Vidit Jain came in fourth with a further difference of 55 seconds while their teammates Maninder Singh Prince and co-driver Vinay Padmashali were further slower by 2min 23seconds to finish fifth overall. Fabid Ahmer and codriver by Eldo K Chaco driving a VW Polo on JK tyres with a 16second deficit stood sixth.

INRC Gaurav Gill had the ﬁnal say as he along with Musa Sheriff, driving a Mahindra XUV300 on JK tyres won with ease. Despite setup issues, Gaurav Gill with controlled aggression managed to attain very high speeds and,

“ "It was a great start to the season. The stages were really fast and I enjoyed driving here. The car has been fantastic and there is absolutely nothing I could complain about. We made some adjustments to the car from last year and it has worked wonders, and all I could say is, me behind the wheels of a car like this on tarmac is just the perfect combination," an ecstatic Gaurav Gill said.

INRC R1, ITANAGAR

Overall second, Karna Kadur and Nikhil V Pai

with an average speed of around 110kmph, the duo kept the spectators on their toes throughout the rally extending their overnight lead of over 3min 9sec to 4min 25seconds till the end. Then, they had to just nurse their vehicle to the ﬁnish from the next four stages. The pair of Karna Kadur and Nikhil Vittal Pai was driving an under-development R2 spec VW Polo on MRF tyres. They were the only team in this round to be supported full-ﬂedged by MRF. Karna left with no time to test the car and had a few spins in the stages. Thus, in the process

he lost time in a few stages but managed to finish second. Amittrajit Ghosh along with Ashwin Naik, driving a Mahindra XUV 300 on JK tyres were running in overall second position till horror stuck them in SS2. Just before the flying finish underwent a rarest of rare situation, as their front wheel detached after the studs came out, the driver had to chase it on foot for about 100mts to bring back and fix it. Fortunately, they finished the flying finish and arrived at the TC. They pulled out on Day 1, rejoined on the final day and did a splendid drive as they clocked a couple of faster timings than the leader.

Dean Mascarenhas and Shrupta Padival overall third

Overall second, Karna Kadur and Nikhil V Pai JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 19

Pragathi Gowda and Deeksha BK winners Junior INRC

INRC 2 The straight fight between Dean Mascarenhas and Dr Bikku Babu kept everybody awake, the whole night. With a deficit of five seconds from Day 1 on Bikku, Dean along with Shrupta Padival driving a VW Polo on JK Tyre

began his day with a positive note as he clocked the stage with 8min 11 sec, there on with a total time of 1:02.30 he was the winner of the class. Sahil Khanna co-driven by Vidit Jain from Team Snap Racing driving a VW Polo were 55 seconds slower to reach the top and hence had to settle for second position. The pair of Rahul Kanthraj and Vivek Y Bhatt both from Bengaluru driving a VW Polo with a further difference of 3min 8 seconds finished third as they had a puncture on Day 2, after hitting a boulder. The pair of Dhruva Chandrasekhar and PVS Murthy, driving a VW Polo were further slower by 4min 57seconds and stood fourth. Lakshay Veer Dabas co-driven by Amandeep Singh Chhabra finished in fifth position with a further difference of 2min 39 seconds. Suhem Kabeer along with Jeevarathinam driving a VW Polo on JK Tyre had issues with their clutch right from the start due to an oil leak from Gear box oil seal. They restarted on Day 2 and finished the rally. Disaster stuck in the very first stage of day two for the overnight class leader Dr Bikku Babu and Bonnie Thomas, slided on a right hander and their rear end was stuck between the divider and had to windup. Nevertheless, situation was for the first car of the rally, after taking the start

“ "The car shows great potential and is still under development and will surely be a machine to reckon with in the future and with more seat time, it promises to be a great machine in the future," Karna Kadur, overall second.

“

RALLY

ARUNACHAL

with ECU issues just at the line up defending Champion Chetan Shivram along with Rupesh Kholay driving a VW Polo on Yokohama tyres had to pull out just 4kms into the stage due to ECU failure.

INRC 3 Maninder Singh Prince and codriver Vinay Padmashali representing Snap Racing driving a VW Polo on JK Tyres were the winners with a total time of 1:05.49, Fabid Ahmer along with Eldo K Chaco driving a VW Polo on JK Tyres lost his top spot by a mere one hundredth of a second. Aditya Thakur along with Virender Kashyap driving a VW Polo with a further difference of 1min 2seconds finished 3rd. The all ladies team participants Pragathi Gowda and Deeksha Balakrishna, driving a VW Polo both in their debut rally managed to finish fourth with a further 45 seconds difference. Pradeep Kumar paired with Ahammad Ansari, driving a VW Polo to finish fifth. with a further 4minutes 16 seconds difference. Hage Chada and Hage Bittu driving a Mitsubishi Cedia dropped out in the final stage of the rally, Syed Salman co-driven by Rishabh BK pulled out in the 6th stage after banging a road divider, Arjun Rao along with Shanmuga SN began the rally with brake issues, but finally had to pull out at the end of Day 1. Vaibhav Marathe pulled out after a crash, similar to that of Lokesh V. Two participants Harkrishan Wadia and Amer Beg did not take a start.

INRC 4

Arunachal Pradesh CM at service park 2O autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

Lausanen Pongener and Lokaranjan HJ driving a Honda City with a total time of 1;18.03 were the winners followed by Khyati Mody and co-driver Sagar Mallappa from Snap Racing in second position with a difference of 4:50 seconds. The pair of Rohith Iyer and Manjunath rejoined on Day 2,

INRC R1, ITANAGAR

Maninder Singh Prince and Vinay Padmashali winners INRC 3

INRC 2 winners

Fabid Ahmer with Eldo K Chaco

Rohith Iyer and Manjunath

Arunachal class winners

after being dropped out in the final stage of day one, due to a fuel pipe leakage settled for third. Mujeeb Rahman along with Goutham CP from Snap Racing were the class leaders right from stage one with a splendid lead of over eight minutes but ran out of luck in the very last stage as the steering ball joint gave up about two kilometers from the final stage start. Despite attempting to finish the rally in reverse gear, the duo had to settle for a DNF. FMSCI Gypsy Challenge: Daksh Gill along with Mrinmoy Saha with a total time of 1hr 14min and 8seconds won the class surpassing Mohd Kaif Khan along with Arjun Dheerendra from Snap Racing who were the first runner up clocking 1hr 15min and 25Sec. Sanjay Razdan and co-driver Karan Aukta came third by clocking 1:16.01. Kariappa Mekerira and co-driver Abhinav Ganapathy finished fourth

with a total time of 1:16:34 followed by Vikramjit Singh Chaudhary and co-driver D Uday Kumar at 1:17:06. Deepak Sachdeva and codriver Mohit Malik came sixth clocking 1:28:31. Four drivers including Sanjay Agarwal did not ﬁnish.

JUNIOR INRC The pair of Pragathi Gowda and Deeksha Balakrishna from Vasundhara Jewellers driving a VW Polo in their Debut rally ﬁnished on top of the class along with being ninth overall with a total time of 1:07.53. Rohith Iyer along with Manjunath ﬁnished second after rejoining on Day 2. Arunachal Class: Phurpa Tsering and Yashwardhan Kumar driving a VW Polo with a timing of 1:18:06 were the winners followed by a lady entrant Nabam Asha and Mahesh Nandi with a timing of 2:03:24 driving a Maruti Baleno.

Amittrajit Ghosh and Ashwin Naik JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 21

DUBAI

KARTING ENDURANCE

Dubai-based Indian stars Arjun Manjunath ropes in 4 Indian karters to win Nations Cup

ubai-based Indian karter Arjun M a n j u n a t h representing team EBC Brakes in the final round along with four other Indian Karters: Rachit Singhal, Aditya Swaminathan, Jamie Shaw and Aashi Hanspal won the 24-Hour Dubai Endurance Karting Championship in the Nations Cup held at Dubai's Motor City recently. Arjun took part in all the four rounds of the Championship with different teammates but the EBC Brakes team took a call to field only drivers in the final round and the four Indian karters won with aplomb. Team EBC Brakes started its winning spree right from Round 1, a 400-lap race. Round 2 commenced after 22 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

Team EBC brakes managed to finish 5th by adding 43 points in the final round and won with 162 from four rounds and held on to the Nations Cup 2020. With a deficit of 5 points, Team Stop and Go, UAE came second. Team Resolute Racing karters were third with 115 points by accumulating 24 points from Round 1 with karters like Pramil Singh, Roydon, Yash and Akash in the team; Suhaib Ali, Yash Ramanuj, Akash and Aspar Wani accumulated 22 points from round 2, 30 points were grabbed from Round 3 by Pramil Singh, Pratham, Yash Ramanuj, Suhaib Ali and Aspar Wani and 39 points were gained from the final round by Sawan Sathyanarayan, Suhaib Ali, Yash Ramanuj, Pratham, Akash, Yamini Nag and Saharsh.

the pandemic lockdown in September with the team winning the six-hour nonstop race and took the lead in the standings. The 12-hour non-stop Round 3, once again was once again won by EBC brakes in October. Stop and Go, an UAE team was in second place at that time with 97 points while EBC had 120 points. The 24-hour ﬁnal round endurance race was held in December and the EBC Brakes team slid down the grid order from eighth position in qualifying and into a free fall in the race which eventually saw the team ﬁnish 17th overall. Links Circuit at Dubai Kartdrome witnessed full 24hours and 1130 laps with the mandatory 28 pit stops of 3.5 minutes each by Team Stop and Go which dominated in this class.

Team EBC Brakes winners of Nations Cup

RACING NATIONALS

Triple crown for Anish Damodar; Jagan Kumar, Mathana share honours Ullas Santrupt completes double in Novice category PHOTO BY: ADITYA BEDRE

engaluru's Anish Damodar Shetty (Race Concepts) swept to a hat-trick of wins in the premier Pro-Stock 301400cc class in the ﬁrst round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2020 which concluded at the MMRT, here recently. Shetty topped both the races today, adding to his Saturday's win. Earlier, multiple National Champion Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) and Mathana Kumar (Eneos Honda Erula Racing) chalked up thrilling victories in the two Pro-Stock 165cc class races. The category saw four different winners in as many races this weekend, with Rajiv Sethu (Eneos Honda Erula Racing) and 24 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

KY Ahamed (TVS Racing) winning a race apiece. Meanwhile, Bengaluru's 22year old Ullas Santrupt com pleted a double in the Novice (Stock 165cc) category, having won the ﬁrst and fourth races. Pro-Stock 301 to 400cc In the Pro-Stock 301-400cc race, Ahamed and pole-sitter Jagan fought a thrilling battle with the latter initially in the lead before his teammate upped his pace to move into the front midway through the six-lap race. Thereafter, the duo opened up a sizeable lead over the rest of the pack for a 1-2 ﬁnish for TVS Racing. Completing the podium was Hyderabad's Karthik Mateti from Gusto Racing.

From Race 2 onwards Anish Damodar Shetty from Race Concepts, a physical trainer, was unstoppable. In the morning, he carried too much pace for the 26-rider grid and won untroubled. In Race 2, Anish with a timing of 11min 51.346sec was the winner as Jagan Kumar from TVS Racing with three seconds difference stood first runner-up while his teammate Deepak Ravi Kumar had to settled for third in the photo-finish. Race 3 also went Anish's way as he won with a total time of 11:49.500 followed by KY Ahamed from TVS Racing finished in second position as his teammate Deepak with a total time of 11:56.906 was third.

Later in the day, Anish gave a repeat performance to win from Hyderabad's Karthik Mateti from Gusto Racing in a race that saw two seasoned campaigners, Jagan Kumar and veteran Rajini Krishnan from RACR Castrol Power Racing starting from P26 and P24 to finish third and fourth, respectively. Pro-Stock 165cc Race 1 saw Rajiv Sethu from Eneos Honda Erula Racing taking a sizeable lead at the start. Behind him, Jagan, Mathana Kumar and Senthil Kumar, the other Eneos Honda Erula Racing rider were involved in a close fight for podium spots. Jagan Kumar from TVS Racing finally pulled off a brilliant move over Mathana from

R1, CHENNAI Eneos Honda Erula Racing at the last corner of the last lap to finished second. Impressive winner was TVS Racing's KY Ahamed who held off Eneos Honda Erula Racing riders Mathana Kumar and Rajiv Sethu, in race two. Sethu, the Race-1 winner, could not capitalise on a pole-position start. Ahamed's victory somewhat compensated for the absence of teammate and multiple champion Jagan Kumar whose bike stalled on the out-lap before the race. On final day multipleNational champion Jagan and Mathana chalked up thrilling victories in race three and four. In Race 3, Jagan rescued an otherwise disappointing weekend by his high standards with a win from P12 on the grid and a third place finish. Rajiv followed him in second and Mathana finished third. As did Mathana, the 28-year old from Trichy in Race 4, for whom the victory was his first in this category since 2015. Ahamed and Jagan finished in second and third respectively. Novice Class Starting fifth on the 40-bike race one grid, Ullas Santrupt from RACR Castrol Power Racing clawed his way through the field and eventually forged ahead to win from fellowBengalurean Nithin S from Sparks Racing and privateer

Mohan Babu from Chennai with less than a second separating the trio. The final outcome was in suspense until the last couple of laps with the front-runners dicing hard for positions until Santrupt moved ahead and hung on to his slender lead. Local challenger Aravind Selvam from Rulexx Rockstar Racing won a tight race two as he managed to finish ahead of Mohan while Seshadri S from Sparks Racing was a close third. Mohan managed to finish ahead of Santrupt in race three while Allwin Xavier from Rockstar Racing came in a very close third. The final race of the round went Santrupt way, he had to fight for the win till the last minute as Allwin was on his neck finally Nithin finished third. Girls Stock 165cc class Ann Jennifer from Sparks Racing took the honours in both the races. With a total time of 10:58.872 she was the winner of race one, Lani Zena Fernandez from Gusto Racing finished second, while Alisha Abdullah from Sparks Racing finished third. In race two it was a three lap race which Jennifer dominated followed by Lani in second while Rakshitha Dave from Gusto Racing finished third. The five lap Media race saw Zaran Mody on top while Vishal Venugopal finished second and Azaman Chothia finished third.

JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 25

RACING

Chennai stood third. With a very huge lead of eight seconds on Mohd Yusuf from Coimbatore, Navneeth won the Race 3. The final race of the day went to Navneeth and Mohan who finished second while Prathipati stood third. Girls class Jagruthi Kiran Penkar from Kalyan won the Race 1 with a photo finish with Arpitha VM from Mangaluru. Jagathishree Kumaresan from Chennai with five seconds difference was third. In Race 2, Jagathishree and Jagruthi result was a photo finish and Arpitha finished a very close third.

NATIONALS

Abhishek Vasudev makes a clean sweep in Open Class PHOTO BY: ADITYA BEDRE

e n g a l u r e a n Abshikesh Vasudev chalked up a fluent win in the Open Class while Navneeth Kumar from Puducherry topped in the Novice category in the TVS One-Make Championship held at MMRT in Chennai recently. Open class All the four races were won by Abhishek Vasudev from Bengaluru, in Race 1, Abhishek with a total time of 11;48.941 was the winner, very tight fight was witnessed between Karthik Mateti from Hyderabad as he finished second, with a mere yard difference as Anand R from Chennai held on to third. In Race 2, with a margin of two seconds Abhishek held on to top position over Karthik while Anand with a difference of 200th of a 26 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

seconds was third. In Race 3, Anand settled to second position with a difference of three seconds on the winner Abhishek. Aditya Rao from Bengaluru a further two seconds deficit stood third. Abhishek with a margin of two seconds held on to the top position in the final race of the day, as Anand came in second and Anup Kumar from Coimbatore with seven seconds difference was third. Novice class It was a clean sweep for Navneeth Kumar from Puducherry, who won Race 1 with a four-second lead. Sudheer Sudhakumar from Delhi finished second, with the thinnest of margins. Teja TVR from Hyderabad finished third. Mohan Babu from Chennai finished behind the winner Navneeth with four seconds difference. In Race 2, Alwin Sundar from

R1, CHENNAI

Sarthak Chavan

becomes youngest winner

une's Sarthak Chavan, all of 14 years, became the youngest winner of the weekend when he streaked to victory in the Open (NSF 250R) class of the Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup. Lo cal yo u n gs te r S h y am Kumar did likewise in the Novice (CBR 150) category. Open class In Race 1, Sarthak Chavan from Pune with a total time of 11:13.344 was the winner as Kavin Quintal from Chennai with 0.300th of a second settled for second position. Varoon Sadasivam also from Chennai with just over seven seconds difference was third. Race 2 once again belonged to Sarthak with a improved total time than the previous day, with 11:11.204 he was the winner followed by Kavin with 0.100th of a second in

second position. Varoon was further seven seconds slower and had to settled for third position. Novice CBR150 class Shyam Sundar from Chennai with a total time of 13:40.109 was the winner followed by Prakash Kamat from Bokaro was very closely following the winner right from the start with a very narrow margin finished second Vivek Rohit Kapadia from Belgaum with a further nine seconds difference finished third. the final race of the round was once again in Shyam's kitty, Johann Emmanuel from Chennai finished distinct second with a difference of fifteen seconds, Rakshit S Dave from Chennai with a very close difference of 0.300th of a second managed to finish third.

JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 27

DRAG NATIONALS

Muddappa fastest drag master with new Indian record PHOTO BY: ADITYA BEDRE

he Madras Motor Sports Club kickstarted the domestic 2020 motorsport season by successfully conducting the ﬁrst round of the MMSC Fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Drag Racing Championship with 116 entries in a secure biobubble environment at the MMRT circuit in Chennai when Bengaluru's reigning champion Hemant Muddappa from Mantra Racing emerged the fastest rider on October 11 to continue his domination in 28 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

the Indian Drag Nationals. While Mudappa expectedly topped the time charts, clocking a blistering 07.783 seconds for the 302-metre dash in the Super Sport 4stroke Above 1051cc class, Chennai's Nivetha Jessica won the title in the Girls category (Stock, up to 165cc) with Rulex Rockers Racing team's Bharatraj and Mohammed Raﬁq notching a double apiece in their respective categories. 4-Stroke Super Sport In above 1051cc class, Bengaluru-based Coorgi

Hemant Mudappa from Mantra Racing clocked 7.783 seconds to win the class followed by Haﬁzulla Khan from Bengaluru in second with a timing of 8.374 while Harish Naik also from Bengaluru clocked 8.721 to complete the podium. Mohammed Riyaz from Hyderabad by clocking 7.922 was the winner of 851 to 1050cc. Hemant Mudappa by clocking 8.162 ﬁnished second Sugan Prasad also from Bengaluru with a timing of 8.382 stood third. Aiyaz from Bengaluru won

the 361 to 550cc class by clocking 12.256, from SpeedUp Racing the Chennaibased rider Anand R clocked 12.350 to ﬁnish second; Karthik Mateti from Telangana clocked 12.518 to ﬁnish third. Chennai boy J Bharatraj from Rulex Rockers Racing clocked 12.805 to win the 226 to 360cc class; Vivek Pillai, from Team Alisha Abdullah, Chennai clocked 13.104 to secure second position; P Yogeswaran from Rulex Rockers Racing from Chennai clocked 13.137 and had to

R1, CHENNAI

“ After the MMSC Vice-President Vicky Chandhok said: "Following weeks of preparations and working on the SOPs as dictated by the government guidelines, it was great to go racing again after a break of seven months. Though we had to make do without a sponsor, we spared no expense to create a secure biobubble at the track. Of course, as per sporting regulations, we had a fullyequipped Medical team to deal with any emergency.

settle for third. In the upto 165cc class Chennai based Rulex Rockers Racing riders Bharatraj J by clocking 14.508 and PM Soorya by clocking 14.656 finished in first and second position respectively, while from Speed Up Racing, Chennai Anand R clocked 15.039 to secure third position. Nivetha Jessica from Chennai clocked 16.512 to win the ladies class followed by Ann Jennifer from Chennai in second position by clocking 16.642, while Alisha Abdullah also from Chennai finished third by clocking 16.781. 2-Stroke Super Sport Mohammed Rafiq had a field day as he won both the two stroke classes. In the 131 to 165cc class he clocked 12.843. Manoj Kumar S clocked 13.228 to finish second as Mohammed Touheed with 13.253 seconds settled for third. In upto 130cc class Rafiq clocked 13.381 to be the winner of the class followed by R Madhan Kumar in second position by clocking 13.228. Mohammed Touheed with 13.954 was third.

JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 29

F I A

FORMULA 2

Maiden F2 podium for Jehan Daruvala PHOTO BY: JAMES GASPEROTTI

THRILLING BATTLE WITH SCHUMY

3O autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

ndian racing star, Jehan Daruvala earned his maiden FIA Formula 2 podium at the Bahrain Grand Prix Support Race in Bahrain recently. The Red Bull Racing Junior racer is the ďŹ rst Indian to stand on the podium in an FIA Formula 2 race, in the current iteration of the 2020 F2 Championship.

The F2 season moved to Sakhir, Bahrain for the last 2 rounds, and Jehan immediately showed his pace in the only practice session. In the last 15 minutes, Jehan posted a lap time of 1:42.782 to go fastest. With just 5 minutes left, Nikita Mazepin of Russia, went faster by a mere 0.122.

Jehan made an excellent start for the Feature Race in Race 1,starting from eighth place. He gained two places and stayed in a sixth for a few laps. Jehan and other racers were on the Medium compound of tyre, then he seemed to struggle against those on the Hard Compound. Lap 5 saw Jehan lose 2 places and he was forced off the circuit. The resulting loss of speed lost him more positions. Jehan stayed in tenth for a few laps before pitting to change tyres. He gained more positions as others pitted and was running sixth by lap 19 of the 32 lap race. Jehan soon overtook multiple racewinner Robert Shwartzman to

BAHRAIN

move upto ﬁfth. Jehan's blistering pace after his own pit stop meant that Mick, the son of legendary, Michael Schumacher, emerged from the pits behind Jehan, who was now running third. With 3 laps to go, Jehan had to defend aggressively into the ﬁrst corner, both drivers were side by side for a few corners but Jehan was not giving up in spite of his disadvantage. Two laps before the end of the race, Schumacher momentarily got ahead of Jehan, but the Indian was not going to allow

that and he braked late, to win the position back with a display of incredible talent and driving skill, that could not ﬂourish in the season for several technical reasons and the car. Jehan's excellent racing caused Schumacher to make a couple of mistakes. This allowed Jehan room to b r e a t h e . H e continued his intelligent drive to increase the gap and crossed the line 0.894 seconds a h e a d o f Schumacher, to earn a really well-

deserved third place. Brazilian Felipe Drugovich won the race ahead of Callum Ilott. Jehan was the 2 nd runner up in the FIA Formula 3 Championship last year. He earns his maiden FIA Formula 2 podium, in his ﬁrst season in the ultra-competitive championship, which has seen 15 other racers stand on the podium! Jehan's achievement is also the ﬁrst podium, by an Indian in the current iteration of the FIA Formula 2 Championship.

But alas, the season was ﬁnished with Jehan being an underachiever, despite having the talent to win the Championship. But that's the story of sport! Nevertheless he made the pundits sit down and take notice. Because of a bad ﬁrst half of the season that was plagued by bad starts and other technical issues, a champion Indian driver, was reined in. The Mumbai-born never spoke about. Like a true gentleman, as her prefers to do the talking on the track. Let us hope 2021 brings in more laurels for him and for the country!

JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 31

BND AUTOCROSS

PHOTO BY: AAYUSH MANDAN

Amanpreet Ahluwalia fastest O

ver 100 participants took part in the A u t o c r o s s organised in Gurugram, after a gap of ﬁve months due to covid-19 at Off-road Adventure Zone. Class 1 2WD Amateur Driver, Pro-stock Vehicle Open saw two promising newcomers with Vasu securing the top spot in a time of two minutes four seconds tailed by Rajesh Hooda with a difference of 20 seconds. In Class 2 2WD Pro-Stock up to 1400cc, Neil Nain won with a best time of 117 seconds from his three runs followed by the father-andson duo, Jasmehar Jubbal, who came in four seconds behind to take second position. And his son Jyotindar Jubbal came third 32 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

another three seconds later. Rahul Ahluwalia was fourth with a difference of another 4 seconds. Class 3 2WD Pro-Stock up to 1650cc hoisted Jasmehar Jubbal to the top spot with a timing of 119 seconds. He was followed by Kshamta Yadav in second position, 14 seconds behind, which was from his three runs in the same class. In Class 4 for 2WD Pro-Stock Diesel Open vehicle saw Arnav Pratap win with a time of 116 seconds. Rajat from his four runs in this class was six seconds slower and ﬁnished second. A further 1 second separated each of the next two, too. Haziq and Vasu ﬁnished third and fourth respectively.

Class 5 2WD Pro-Stock Open witnessed the victory of Keshavi Chahar with a timing of 123 seconds from two attempts. Mradul Dixit came second with a difference of 13 seconds. In Class 6 for 2WD Ladies Pro-Stock Open, Keshavi Chahar clocked 125 seconds as best time from her three attempts to win the class. Aman Jubbal from two attempts lost by 2 seconds to take second place and Kshamta Yadav was third another 9 seconds slower in her three attempts. Class 7 4WD Pro-Stock Open was surely a battle of the heavyweights with Varun Jolly securing ﬁrst position in his Range Rover Evoque with a time of 114 seconds beating Deepak Sachdeva,

who was behind the wheel of his rally-built Jeep Wrangler by 4 seconds. Raja Singh Chanay finished third with a further deficit of another 4 seconds. Class 8 2WD modified up to 1200cc was won be Amandeep Singh in 119 seconds from three attempts. Jyotinder Jubbal finished in second 3 seconds behind him. Sanjay Razdan was third as he took 12 more seconds, in the best of his two attempts to complete the podium. Class 9 2WD modified open saw close competition between Achintya Mehrotra and Vishal Kataria for the top spot with Vishal beating Mehrotra to take first place from two attempts. Vishal clocked 112 seconds a

GURUGRAM

second better than Achintya in two attempts. A further six seconds behind came in Nivit from two attempts to settle for the third place. The Class 10 for 4WD Modified Open vehicles was won by Raja Singh from his three attempts as he managed the best time of 121 seconds. Dheeraj Malik came second, a second slower from his two attempts than Raja while Deepak Sachdeva finished third a further 7 seconds behind Dheeraj. Class 11 2WD Open had Achintya timing the fastest lap of the event from his two attempts and securing the top spot in this class with a timing of 112 seconds. With a difference of five seconds, Vishal Kataria came second beating Arnav to third by a flash, about 400th of a

second to be exact for his third position. Class 12 4WD Open saw rally-ace Amanpreet Ahluwalia register the fastest time of the event of 111 seconds from two attempts to win in his 1.6-Turbo Gypsy. He was tailed by Varun Jolly in second with a three seconds difference from two attempts. Vikramjeet Singh managed to ﬁnish third, also in 3 attempts, and was behind by 4 seconds. Class 13 for 2WD BND Motorsport Super Class vehicles had Arnav securing the top spot with a lap tie of 112 seconds and Vishal was slower by four seconds as he settled for second spot. Niivit a further two seconds in deﬁcit stood third. Class 14 for 4WD BND Motorsport Super Class

vehicles saw Amanpreet win timing 112 seconds beating Sanjay Razdan by two seconds to second. Varun Jolly ﬁnished third another second behind. Class 15 4WD BND Motorsport Super Class Mahindra Thar Open had Raja Singh secure the top spot with a timing of 124 seconds, Shantanu Grover ﬁnished second with a difference of 11 seconds.

Class 16 4WD BND Motorsport Super Class Maruti Gypsy Open, the final class of the event witnessed Amanpreet finish at the top spot again with a timing of 113 seconds from two attempts. He was followed by Sanjay Razdan in second place, a second behind as he managed it, also from two attempts. Vikramjeet Singh with further three seconds in deficit to take third position.

JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 33

RACING NATIONALS

Arjun Balu fashions another fluent win Double for Tijil Rao and Raghul Rangasamy PHOTO BY: ADITYA BEDRE

t was a grand double for Tijil and Raghul as Arjun misses a clean sweep in the second round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Car Racing Championship commenced at the MMRT behind closed doors and complying with Covid-19 safety protocols after a ninemonth break. A couple of spells of rains led to a few delays, but the stopgo proceedings did not affect the competitive nature of the races that produced plenty of action. 34 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

Indian Touring cars In Race 1, Coimbatore veteran Arjun Balu of Race Concepts chalked up another ďŹ&#x201A;uent win despite teething trouble with his car in the top end. Balu, thus, swept to his third consecutive win in the championship following a double in the opening round in February but was far from pleased with his performance. Finishing behind Balu were two FB Motorsport team-mates, Keith D'Souza in second

Chandresh Tolia leading

R2, CHENNAI position with a difference of over 22 seconds while her teammate Vineet Abhiram with a further 22 second difference finished third. The final race saw Raghul clinching a double win he with a six hundred milli-seconds lead that he managed to keep over Rithvik Thomas who finished in second position; Alisha a further 22 seconds behind finished third.

“

Winner Formula LGB Tijil Rao in action

position with a difference of over eight seconds and last year's champion Dhruv Mohite with further five seconds stood third. Race 2, the two FB Motorsport drivers Jeet Jhabakh and Druv Mohite were on a winning spree without Arjun Balu suffering issues with his car again. Jhabakh, 28-year old automotive businessman from Hyderabad, former Volkswagen Ameo and Vento Cup champion, enjoyed a trouble-free run once race leader Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) dropped out of contention with a gearbox issue. Balu started fourth on the reverse grid but cut through to the front in the very first lap and looked set for another win when the gearbox played up. Jhabakh managed to nose ahead of teammate Dhruv Mohite following a brief contact, and gradually extended the lead for a comfortable win, his first of the season, having missed the opening round in February. Mohite came in second while Balu was a distant third. In the final race of the class , it was D'Souza all the way as he made the best of a strong start to win comfortably from Balu, who made three places. With a difference of six seconds D'souza was first followed by Arjun in second while Jhabakh finished third.

Super stock class Finished on the top step of the podium in Race One was Bengaluru's Rithwik Thomas from Race Concepts with a total time of 16:09.642, Raghul Rangasamy from Performance Racing with a deﬁcit of over six seconds settled in second position while lady driver Alisha Abdullah from Race Concepts with further eighteen seconds difference ﬁnished third. Race 2, was held on Day 2. Raghul with a total time of 20:08.258 was the winner followed by Alisha in second

"In the third lap, I found the car weaving on the straight and I realised something was wrong. So, I let others pass me and in the nal three laps, I shifted to fth gear and stayed there as I wanted to nish and pick up points," said Balu.

Formula LGB Race 1, pole-sitter Tijil Rao led a 1-2 for Momentum Motorsport after holding off to a lead of just below one second over his teammate Chirag Ghorpade, who had a tense battle with Diljith TS of DTS Racing completing the podium. It was a good run by Ghorpade who started seventh on the grid and cut through the field to catch up with Tijil. The two were locked in a tense battle but Tijil just about kept his nose in front while Dilijith made two places from fifth to finish third. Race 2, Mohamed Ryan of M Sport won handily from reverse grid start ahead of Karthik Krishna of Hasten Performance in second position with just below two seconds difference and Viswas Vijayaraj of DTS Racing finished third.

Indian Touring Cars Race 1 winners JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 35

RACING

NATIONALS

“

Super Stock Race 2 winners

"It was a good race for me after I got in front. Not sure what happened with Arjun's (Balu) car, but I passed him and Dhruv to get in front. I am really happy for this win," said Jhabakh.

“

All Saloons Race 1 winners

R2, CHENNAI Race 3, Bengaluru boy Tijil just managed to hold to his five hundred milli-second lead over his teammate Chirag Ghorpade thus giving his the second straight win; Arya Singh from DTS Racing with further six seconds deficit stood third. Race Four, Viswas Vijayaraj from DTS Racing with a total time of 20:26.904 was the winner of the race he was followed by Ghorpade in second position with a difference of just below two seconds; Arya Singh with over five hundred milli-seconds difference had to settle for third position. MRF Saloon Car Championship Race 1, Diljith TS from Thrissur with a total time of 17:04.940 was the winner followed by Bala Prasath from Chennai is second position with a difference of eight seconds; Chandresh Tolia from Mumbai with a further ten seconds difference finished third. In Race 2, Chetan Korada from Chennai was the winner by clocking 21:14.775 with a difference of just-over-a-second came in second position was Bala Prasath. Diljith TS finished third. Chandresh won the final race followed by Bala Prasath in second with less than a second difference; Diljith finished third with nine seconds difference.

Super Stock class Rithwik Thomas followed by Raghul Rangasamy 36 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

Formula LGB 1300 Race 1 winners

FINALS, CHENNAI

RACING

NATIONALS

Arjun Balu conquers elusive title in third attempt Titles for Tijil Rao, Raghul Rangasamy, Diljith PHOTO BY: ADITYA BEDRE

oimbatore veteran Arjun Balu from Race Concepts with 151 points ďŹ nally got the monkey off his back by taking the title in the premier Indian Touring Class in his third attempt while the team championship in this class was bagged by FB Motorsport with 262 points in the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Car Racing Championship which concluded at MMRT.

Mamallapuram's Raghul Rangasamy of Performance Racing won the Super Stock championship with a total of 154 points, the team championship was bagged by Race Concepts with 289 points. Tijil Rao from Bengaluru from Team Momemtum Motorsport won the Formula LGB 1300 championship with 122 points, Momentum Motorsport won the team championship with 215 JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 37

RACING

surging to win in the next two outings for the title. Race one belonged to Race Concepts as the top three positions were won by their team drivers. Alisha Abdullah was the winner with a good lead; Vineet Abhiram finished second with a 21-second gap and Sridhar Nagaraj was third. In Race 2, Raghul from Performance Racing came back strongly to win the race he was followed by his teammate Raja Rajan in second while Rithvik Thomas from Race Concepts finished third. The final race win made him the champion of the class, Alisha finished second followed by Sridhar Nagaraj in third.

NATIONALS

points. Thrissur boy Diljith TS won the MRF Saloon Car Series with 113 points. Balu, who was runner-up in the previous two seasons, endured a difﬁcult, rainaffected weekend and did just enough to pick up crucial points by winning Race-1 and ﬁnishing second in Race2 before retiring in Race-3 after a shunt. Dhruv Mohite of FB Motorsport won a double to help his team take the team championship. Indian Touring Cars Arjun Balu from Race Concepts had missed the previous year championship by a whisker, was much closer to grab with just seven points needed from three races. Race 1, he won the race

38 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

with a four seconds margin over Keith D'Souza from FB Motorsport who finished second while his teammate Dhruv Mohite with further seven seconds difference finished third. The winner of Race 2, Mohite managed to keep Balu behind him but it was sufficient for Arjun Balu to seal the championship with one race to spare. Keith finished third. The final race of the season was dominated by Mohite with Keith on his neck till the finish; Varun Anekar from Race Concepts finished third. Arjun had to retire for a shunt. Super Stock The leader Raghul Rangasamy was a non finisher in the race one by

FINALS, CHENNAI

“ MRF Saloon Car Series Sreeram Sridhar from Chennai with a close margin won the race one followed by Diljith RS from Thrissur in second position, Chandresh Tolia from Mumbai finished third. Chetan Korada from Chennai won Race 2, followed by Diljith in second while Sreeram finished third. The final race of the season belonged to A Balaprasath from Chennai as Korada followed him in second position and Diljith had to settle for third. Formula LGB 1300 In contrast, young Tijil Rao went without a win this weekend, but three podium finishes in the four races ensured him the crown. Viswas Vijayaraj from DTS Racing won Race 1 with photo

finish as Tijil Rao from Momentum Motorsport finished second followed by Prithveen Rajan from Joba Racing in third. Race two was bagged by Prithveen followed by Mohammed Ryan from M Sport in second and Tijil Rao finished third. Race three belonged to Balaprasath from M Sport, his team mate Raghul Rangasamy finished second as Ryan finished third. The final race of the season saw Viswas on top for the second time in the round followed by Chirag Ghorpade from Momentum Motorsport in second, Tijil Rao finished third. A relieved Balu, after sealing the championship with a race to spare, said: "After winning Race 1, I knew I needed just seven points from Race 2 to clinch the

"This is our rst championship win in six years. It has been a long and diﬃcult journey with many ups and downs but eventually, we clinched the title. I owe it to all the members of the Race Concepts team that worked long and hard to get us here," said Joel Joseph.

Championship. So, I held position through the 10 laps for P2. This championship win is most special and most satisfying for me. The previous two seasons, I missed the title by a whisker despite enjoying big leads early on. This title is also a tribute to Joel Joseph and his Race Concepts team which worked so hard, sparing no effort to make sure I get a competitive car."

JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 39

DRIVE

A DAY WITH A LEGEND Recently, we had the opportunity to spend a day with the new Mahindra Thar.Â

40 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

MAHINDRA THAR

During our drive, the new Mahindra Thar surpassed all our expectations â&#x20AC;&#x201C; whether off-road, on road, highways, city roads, terrains and muddy roads â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the Thar stood tall and bore every challenge with ease. Here is our take on the new Thar.

JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 41

DRIVE

NEW THAR DIESEL

ahindra and Mahindra known to be a member of every hillock family, further consolidated to be a daily SUV for people in cities and estates. The New Thar answers it all with the single day drive gave us a lot of insight into the vehicle. Improved massively over the earlier out going Thar on the ﬁt, ﬁnish and feel. The New Mahindra Thar comes with a completely larger dimensions, revamped looks, more features and underpinned by an all-new ladder-on-frame platform. It

Simplistic AC controls

42 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

is available in a factory built hardtop as well as soft top version. The newly unveiled turbocharged mStalion features 1.2-litre, 1.5 litre and 2.0-litre engines. The 2.0-litre engine develops 190hp and 380Nm of torque, making it the most powerful Mahindra engine till date. The mStallion will be mated to an all-new 6-speed manual transmission and a 6-speed automatic from Aisin. The 2.0 TGDI develops 150hp and 230Nm of torque, while the 2.2 litre mHawk diesel engine produces 130hp with 300 Nm of torque. The most noticeable feature in the

Shift-on-the-ﬂy 4x4 transfer case with low range

cabin is the infotainment that has been introduced with Adventure Statistics menu which has three layouts: On Road, Off Road and a Custom setup which is helpful. It also features apple carplay and android auto which is a staple in modern day cars. The Thar even comes with a decently good audio system as well. The leg room in the rear is surprisingly very comfortable for averagely tall people even with the front rows pulled back. But the wheel-well eats into the seat width while the shoulder room is more than enough for a comfortable

Premium dash with grab handle

Price:

12.80 Lakhs

Engine:

2184cc

Max Power:

130@3750

Max Torque:

300Nm

Transmission:

Automatic

Wheel base:

2450mm

Ground clearance: 226mm

Fuel Tank:

57L

Tyre:

255/65 R18

experience. The vinyl and fabric seats hold you in place and keeps you comfortable during long drives and bumpy off road terrain as well. the dashboard has a ﬂat face to it giving it that retro look. The factory ﬂoor mats which come with the Thar are washable and the tub comes with drain plugs for draining the water logged in the

Roof mounted speakers

MAHINDRA THAR cabin. The roll cage is not very noticeable with the top is on but it gives the thar a whole another character with the top off also given the safety it provides. The absence of any electronic components on the door allows you to go all out and remove the doors. The climate control has numbers printed on the dials opposed to the digital display we are used to. When the analog dials on the speedo are nothing of interest, the MID gives you a cool little animation before ﬁring up the engine which is pretty cool. There are many hidden details in the interior which are not noticeable at ﬁrst glance such as a camel on the

huge beefy bumper in the front is made of plastic which is not entirely favourable for off-roading. The DRL can only be turned on or off through the infotainment if you please. The bonnet is held on by two hood latches which play a very important role during off-roading and rough terrain. but in order to open the bonnet, the lever inside has to be pulled before undoing the latches. The fender which completes the look of the front end is made entirely of metal with plastic wheel ﬂares. The car serves both the purpose with high stability and pleasure. The centre locking holds good for the hard top rear boot, it can be opened easily and the

resembles the older version. The thar branding like exterior also ﬁnds place inside on dashboard, seat and ﬂoor mat. The drivers' leg space issue from the earlier model is very well addressed. The large windows provide for lesser blind spots. The 2 airbags come standard with all variants, and integrated into the dashboard ahead of the front co-passenger is a nice chunky grab handle for when the terrain gets bumpy. The steering is only height adjustable and not telescopic. The steering wheel sort of resembles the XUV 300's steering wheel. The power window controls are relocated behind the

windshield and the Thar climbing a mountain on the speakers which gives you the prospective of the attention to detail.

wind shield can only be raised once the boot is opened. Boot space doesn’t support a long travel for four passenger, but once the second row is folded, very huge space is attained.

gear levers with a cup holder. Washable hard plastic ﬂoor is a great boon for the off-roaders, as it makes it easy to drive. The greatest take away is, it is well insulated which gives a very pleasant drive with minimum exterior noise. Accessing the rear row of the front-facing seats isn't easy, but not

CONCLUSION

600 litrers of boot space

Adjustable ORVMs

EXTERIOR Upfront, there is a new front grille design which is very simplistic and functional. The

Touchscreen with adventure statistics

INTERIOR There is nothing that

Multilink solid rear axle with coil over damper and stabiliser bar

tough either, as it is easily accessible for an average size person.

Overall, the new Thar is here to play long innings. The recent bookings and sales ﬁgures indicate that it got an overwhelming response from the customers for the modern avatar. They will have to wait between 6 to 8 months to get their new Thar.

JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 43

KARTING X30 NATIONAL

Ruhaan, Ishaan and Suriya share honours PHOTO BY: SHAHJAHAN

he ﬁrst two back-toback rounds of the Meco FMSCI X-30 National Karting Championship were held at Meco Kartopia with over 25 participants in three classes. Each round had four races, and the highest cumulative points holder emerges as winner of that class; Senior, Junior and Micro Max. Ruhaan Alva and Ishaan Madesh notched up four straight wins to top the Junior and Cadet classes, respectively, with a tally of 40 points each while Suriya Varathan with 37 points topped the Senior class. Junior class Ruhaan Alva from Bengaluru was dominant right from qualifying with four straight wins. He was the topper with 40 points; Rohaan Madesh, 44 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

also from Bengaluru, with four straight second positions with 28 points had to settle for second position. Jaden Rahman Pariat, who finished 3rd with 22 points, was from Guwahati. With a total of 18 points, Akshat Misra from Bengaluru stood fourth, and Shaurya Kapani from Mumbai with 12 points came fifth. Race 1, the 12-lap race, saw Ruhaan clock the best lap time of 57.770 on way to his victory edging out Rohaan Madesh to second place. Jaden Rahman Pariat came behind them in third while Abhay Kumar and Akshat Mishra settled for fourth and fifth respectively. Ruhaan with a total time of 57.565 was once again the winner followed by Rohaan in second; Shaurya Kapani came in third; Jaden finished

in 4th and Abhay in fifth. In Race 3, Ruhaan was followed by Rohaan, again, and Akshat came third. Jaden and Nigel finished in that order. The final race of the day saw Ruhaan continue his hold, as he improved his timings and once again Rohaan could do nothing finishing 2nd for the fourth time in a row. Cadet Class Ishaan Madesh from Bengaluru, with four straight wins and 40 points, stood on top of the ten-lap race. Anshul Sai, also from Bengaluru, bagged 26 points, as he got two second places and two third positions. Sai Shiva Makesh from Pune with a mere one point difference completed the podium. Arafath Sheikh from Pune, and Nikhilesh

Raju from Bengaluru with 18 points each were in fourth and fifth position. Arafath with a podium in Race 1 was eligible to secure fourth position as it was a tie. In Race1, with a fastest lap time of 1:04.429 Ishaan was the winner followed by Anshul in second while Arafath finished third. Sai Shiva and Nikhilesh were fourth and fifth. In Race2, Ishaan once again finished on top followed by Anshul in second position; Sai Shiva Makesh managed to finish third while Nikhilesh and Vedha Vishnu were fourth and fifth, respectively. In Race3, it was once again Ishaan on top while Sai Shiva climbed one position up to finish second followed by Anshul who was bogged down to third. Nikhilesh and Vedha were in fourth and

R1-R2, BENGALURU

Junior class winners Round 1 Senior Class in progress

fifth positions respectively. In the final race of the day Ishaan won, followed by Sai Shiva and Anshul in second and third positions,. Nikhilesh was fourth and Arafath finished fifth. Senior Class Suriya Varathan from Coimbatore with a total of 37 points was the topper with three top-podiums in the 15lap race and one secondposition finish. Niramal Umashankar from Chennai had to settle for second position with a total of 29 points, Arjun Nair from Bengaluru after accumulating 25 points stood third. Bala Prasath from Coimbatore finished fourth followed by Ryan Mohamed from Chennai in fifth. In Race1, with a fastest lap at57.378, Suriya was the winner followed by Arjun in second position; Nirmal finished third while Ryan Mohammed and Amir Syed settled for fourth and fifth positions, respectively. In Race2, Nirmal was the winner by climbing two positions up followed in second by Suriya, who slipped down one position in the order from the previous race; Ajun slipped down to third position. Bala and Aditya had to settle for fourth and fifth in that order. In Race 3, Suriya once again bounced back to top

position in this race followed by Arjun in second who climbed one position up the order as the Race 2 winner, Nirmal, had to settle for third position. Tyan and Amir were once again fourth and fifth. The final race of the day was once again dominated by Suriya followed by Nirmal in second position who climbed a position up as Bala Prasath manged his first topthree finish. Arjun came 4th and Ryan was fifth. ROUND 2: Ruhaan continues to dominate; Sai, Suriya sparkle Ruhaan Alva continued his domination in the Junior class in Round 2 of the X30 Meco Karting Nationals also held at Meco Kartopia in Bengaluru. Sai Shiva and Suriya also put in good performance in their class. Jniour Class The top-three positions were dominated by Bengaluru karters. Ruhaan Alva with four straight wins and 40 points was the winner followed by Rohaan Madesh with 28 points with four second position finishes; Akshat Misra with 21 points stood third. While Nigel Abraham Thomas from Bengaluru and Aashi Hanspal from Mumbai with 18 and 14 points each settled for fourth and fifth position.

Cadet class winners Round 1

Senior class winners Round 1

Junior class action

Cadet class

JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 45

KARTING

Arafath Sheikh finished second garnering 24 points, in spite of logging a d̀id not finish' (DNF) in the first race; Ishaan Madesh from Bengaluru with a mere onepoint difference had to settle for third position despite two top-finishes. Nikhilesh and Anshul with 20 and 17 points from Pune and Bengaluru finished in fourth and fifth positions respectively. With a best lap of 1:04.081 Sai Shiva held on to the top position; Anshul finished second followed by Arafath in third. Nikhilesh was 4th and Vedha stood fifth in Race 1. In the second race of the day, Anshul climbed one position up to win the race followed by Nikhilesh in second position going up by two positions; Arafath secured his third position for the second time; Sai went down and missed the podium to finish fourth followed by Aditya in fifth. In Race3, Ishaan regained the top position followed by Sai Shiva in second and Arafath stood third. Aditya was fourth and Vedha came fifth. The final race belonged to Ishaan as Sai Shiva held on to the second position, same places as they finished in the previous race; Arafath similarly finished third. Nikhilesh and Aditya were fourth and fifth in that order.

X30 NATIONAL

Senior class winners Round 2

Junior class winners Round2

Cadet class winners Round 2

Race1, Ruhaan with a fastest lap time of 57.272 was the winner followed by Rohaan in second while Akshat completed the podium in third place; Abhay and Nigel stood fourth and ﬁfth in the race. Race2, was also dominated by Ruhaan followed by Rohaan in second position, Aashi Hanspal came in third, as Nigel and Abhay settled for fourth and ﬁfth position. Race3 winner Alva clocked the best lap time of 57.241; 46 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

Senior Class Winning the first two races, Suriya Varathan from Coimbatore managed 33 points to top the table; he was followed by Arjun Nair from Chennai with 30 points and finished on top in race 3&4; Bala Prasath from Coimbatore with 24 points stood third. Nirmal Umashankar from Chennai and Amir Syed from Kotagiri with 22 and 15 points, respectively, settled for fourth and fifth positions. With a best lap time of 57.023 Suriya held on to top position while Bala secured second and Arjun finished third. Amir and Nirmal settled for fourth and fifth position in the first race. In Race2, Suriya held on to top position and Nirmal managed to climb two positions up and settled for second Bala had to settle for third. Ryan and Arjun finished in fourth and fifth position. Arjun won the Race3, Nirmal stood his ground in second position Suriya trumbled to settle for third. Bala settled for fourth followed by Amir in fifth. Arjun continued his winning spree in the final round followed by Suriya in second, Bala once again completed the podium while Amir and Nirmal were fourth and fifth respectively.

Rohaan stood second and Akshat finished third. Shaurya and Nigel finished in that order. The final race of the day belonged to Ruhaan again, followed by Rohaan again, while Akshat stood third. Nigel and Jaden shared fourth and fifth respectively. Cadet Class The top-two positions were bagged by Pune karters; With a total of 29 points Sai Shiva Makesh managed to hold on to the top position;

Junior class action

R1 - R4, BENGALURU

Suriya top seniors, Ruhaan, Ishaan, a class apart R

uhaan denied four straight wins, as he lost out to a racing incident in Race 2 of the Junior class. Ishaan with four straight wins topped Cadet class. Suriya with three race wins dominated Senior class in the Round 3 of the X30 Meco- FMSCI National Karting Championship held in Meco Kartopia in Bengaluru. Junior class This class top-three positions was taken by Bengalureans Ruhaan Alva with 33 points from four races as he topped the table. But he lost out from top

position in Race 2. Ruhaan who was on Abhay Kumar's neck went past him and tried to defend his front line but one lap later, Abhay wanted to regain his position. In the process, he came in contact with Ruhaan and both slided out and lost the top two positions. Rishon Rajeev with 23 points had to settle for second position. Rohaan Madesh with just one-point difference finished third. Jaden Rahman Pariat from Guwahati with 20 points and Abhay Kumar from Bengaluru with 17 points finished fourth and fifth in that order. In Race1 Ruhaan with a best

lap time of 56.146 was the winner followed by Rohaan Madesh in second while Rishon Rajeev completed the podium. Jaden and Shaurya were fourth and fifth, respectively. Race2 winner was Jaden Rahman followed by Rohaan in second position; Shaurya finished third. Rishon was 4th and Abhay fifth. Ruhaan continued his winning spree in Race3 followed by Rohaan in second and Rishon in third. Jaden and Abhay finished in fourth and fifth position. Ruhaan won the final race of the class followed by Rishon in second position while Abhay

finished third. Akshat Mishra finished fourth while Shaurya was fifth. Cadet class Ishaan Madesh from Bengaluru with four straight wins was the topper with 40 points, Sai Shiva Makesh from Pune with 27 points from three second and one third position finish stood second. Ashulsai from Bengaluru with a total of 22 points completed the podium. Arafath Sheikh from Pune and Nikhilesh Raju from Bengaluru with 20 and 18 points respectively stood fourth and fifth. Ishaan Madesh was the JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 47

KARTING

class again, as Ruhaan Alva swept the class for the fourth time in a row, with a total of 37 points from three top and one second position ﬁnish. Rohaan Madesh with 31 points was second; Akshat Misra accumulated 21 points to complete the podium. Shaurya Kapani from Mumbai and Abhay Kumar from Bengaluru with 17 points each were in fourth and ﬁfth position.

X30 NATIONAL

Suriya Varathan

winner of Race 1, Anshul Sai managed to finish second while Sai Shiva Makesh finished third. Finished in fourth and fifth position were Nikhilesh Raju and Arafath Sheikh. Ishaan won the second race of the day followed by Sai in second position as Arafath completed the podium. Nikhilesh finished in fourth and Aditya Suresh finished in fifth position. Race 3 belonged to Ishaan as he finished on top while Sai finished second Anshul managed to complete the podium. Arafath and Nikhilesh stood fourth and fifth. Ishaan won the final race of the day followed by Sai Shiva in second Anshul completed the podium. Arafath and Nikhilesh finished in fourth and fifth position respectively.

Coimbatore lone lady karter with 17 points finished fifth. Suriya won the Race 1 followed by Nirmal with a fastest lap time of 56.439 in second position; Raaj Bakhru finished third. Shravanthika secured fourth position and Sawan stood fifth. Nirmal dominated Race 2; Suriya and Bala finished in second and third position respectively. Raaj was fourth while Shravanthika stood fifth. Suriya once again regained his dominance in the third race followed by Bala in second while Nirmal finished third. Bakhru and Shravanthika settled for fourth and fifth position. Suriya won the final race of the day as Bala settled for second position and Nirmal finished third. Raaj and Shravanthika finished in fourth and fifth position.

Senior class Suriya Varathan from Coimbatore with a total of 37 points with three top ﬁnish and one second position was the topper. Nirmal Umashankar from Chennai with 29 points was second while Raaj Bakhru from Mumbai with 21 points settled for third. Bala Prasath from Coimbatore after Race 1 DNF and accumulating 20 points was forth and Shravanthika Lakshmi from

Round 4 Grand double for Ruhaan Alva, Ishaan Madesh Ruhaan Alva and Ishaan Madesh scored a grand double for Bangalore even as Suriya Varatan kept Coimbatore's ﬂag ﬂying in Round 4 too, in the MecoFMSCI National Karting Championship (X30 Classes).

48 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

Junior class Bengaloreans dominated the

Ruhaan with a best lap time of 56.071 was the winner of Race1 followed by Rohaan in second position with a difference of over two seconds; Akshat Misra with over ten seconds deﬁcit on the winner settled for third position. Shaurya Kapani and Abhay came in fourth and ﬁfth position. Rohaan

Cadet class winners

Junior class winners

Senior class winners

dominated Race 2 followed by Ruhaan in second position; Shaurya finished third. Nigel Abraham Thomas finished in fourth position followed by Akshat Misra in fifth. Ruhaan who began the race with a grid position penalty clocked a fastest lap time of 11:29.738 and win the Race 3; Rohaan followed him second position while Akshat came third. Shaurya and Abhay were fourth and fifth. The final race of the day belonged to Ruhaan while Rohaan finished second followed by Abhay in third. Akshat and Jaden finished in fourth and fifth position respectively. Cadet Class Bengaluru boy Ishaan Madesh with a total of 37

R3-R4, BENGALURU points was the winner followed by Sai Shiva makesh from Pune in second position with 31 points with one top position and three second position finishes. Anshul Sai from Bengaluru with 23 points stood third. Nikhilesh Raju and Aditya Suresh Kamat both from Bengaluru with 16 and 15 points res pecti vel y fini s hed i n fourth and fifth position, respectively. Sai Shiva was the topper with a lead of just over a second on Ishaan who in spite of clocking the fastest lap time of 1:01.817 finished in second position. Nikhilesh Raju was an distinct third with over 18 seconds difference. Anshul and Arafath settled for fourth and fifth position. Ishaan took the top position in Race 2 while Sai Shiva had to settle for second position and Anshul completed the podium. Nikhilesh and Aditya finished in fourth and fifth position. Ishaan continued his dominance with a win in Race 3 as Sai Shiva followed him in second and Anshul in third. Nikhilesh finished fourth and Aditya in fifth. The final race of the day also belonged to Ishaan, while Sai came in second and Anshul finished third. Arafath and Aditya were in fourth and fifth position, in that order. Senior Class Suriya Varathan from

Coimbatore with 31 points was the topper. Nirmal Umashankar from Chennai in spite of equal number of points had to settle for second position, as he fell short to get top finish by a whisker against Suriya who had two top-position finishes from the four races. Bala Prasath from Coimbatore with 22 points finished in third position. Rishon Rajeev from Bengaluru with 21 points was fourth followed by Ameya Bafna from Mumbai with 19 points in fifth position. Nirmal with a fastest lap time of 14:47.784 was the winner with Suriya just behind him in second position with a difference of three hundreths of a second; Bala with over seven seconds difference stood third. Rishon Rajeev and Ameya Bafna had to settle for fourth and fifth position respectively. Rishon with a fastest lap time of 56.177 was the winner followed by Nirmal in second; Bala finished third. Ameya and Suriya finished in fourth and fifth respectively. Suriya managed to finish on top in Race3 followed by Nirmal in second and Rishon in third. Ameya and Bala were in fourth and fifth position. Suriya finished on top for the second time in this round followed by Nirmal in second as Bala settled for third. Ameya finished in fourth and Sawan finished fifth.

Cadet class winners

Senior class winners

Junior class winners

Cadet class action

Junior class action JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 49

SPRINT

December.

NATIONALS

The 119 participants part of the event took part in 10 classes. In Round 1,Vishwas SD from Bengaluru riding a Suzuki clocked 4:40.82 to win the Group A up to 800cc class; Badal S Doshi from Mumbai riding a KTM500EXCF was eight seconds slower to settle for second position as Sinan Francis from Ernakula riding a KTMEXC450 with further four seconds deﬁcit stood third. Aakash Aithal from Puttur, the man behind organising 2w INRC round, riding a newly-purchased SuzukiRMZ 450Z and Dishank S Gowda from Bengaluru, astride a Suzuki were in fourth and ﬁfth position respectively.

Imran Pasha and Badal Doshi excel Ryhana Bee triumphs in Ladies Class PHOTO BY: GOWTHAM

mran Pasha from Mysuru riding a TVS Apache by clocking 4:28.36 was the fastest rider of the day. He also clocked the second best timing of the event in Star of Karnataka class in Round 1 of the Motorsport Inc FMSCI 5O autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

Indian National Rally Sprint Championship (INRSC) which began the season conducting the ﬁrst two rounds in the outskirts of Kanakapura and the ﬁnal round concluded at villages near Devanahalli, in

Mangalurian Ishan Chandra riding on a Hero Impulse clocked 4:47.96 to win the Group B 131 to 165cc class. Mohammed Zaheer from Bengaluru riding a Hero Impulse with ten seconds deficit finished second; Pavan BK also from Bengaluru and riding a Hero Impulse with a further one second difference finished third. Vinay Prasad and Salman Khan from Bengaluru and Chikkamagaluru stood fourth and fifth. Suhail Ahmed from Bengaluru riding a KTM-390 clocked 5:00.77 to win the Group B 261 to 400cc class; Sudeep Kottary from Mangaluru riding a Duke 390 was seven seconds slower and had to settle for second position; Vikram K from Coimbatore riding a KTM-90 with further ten seconds deficit finished third. Finished in fourth and fifth position were Sajeesh from Bengaluru and Uday Ganguli from Kolkata. Group B up to 130cc class was won by Noldin Thomas from Ernakulam by clocking

5:28.36; all the riders were on a Yamaha YBX; Varun Kumar A from Bengaluru with four seconds difference was second; Vikram Shekar from Coimbatore with a same time, after the tie he was declared third. Durgesh J from Mysuru and Pinkesh Thakkar from Pune settled for fourth and fifth position. All the top three riders were on a TVS Apache in the Group B 166 to 260cc class. The fastest rider of the day, Imran Pasha from Mysuru with a timing of 4:28.43 was the winner followed by Sachin D from Bengaluru who with over seven seconds deficit stood second; Samuel Jacob from Udupi completed the podium. Sanjay Somashekar from Bengaluru was forth and Sudeep Kottary from Mangaluru was fifth. All the top five riders were from Bengaluru riding a Himalayan in the Bullet class; Suhail Ahmed from Bengaluru by clocking 4:55.68 won the class followed by Mohammed Zaheer in second position with over 12 seconds difference; Vishwas SD with further 11 seconds difference stood third. Sharath Kumar S and Devaraj Venkatesh settled for fourth and fifth position. Ryhana Bee from Chennai riding a Hero Impusle clocked 5:36.74 to win the ladies class; Arpitha VM from Mangaluru riding a Honda Stunner finished second; the Satara Girl Tanika Shanbhag riding a Hero Impulse finished third. Mandhara K and Dimply A from Bengaluru finished fourth and fifth. Jyothishree S did not finish. Karthik Naidu from Bengaluru riding a TVS NTorq clocked 5:20.88 to win the Scooter class followed by Pinkesh Thakkar from Pune

R1-R2, BENGALURU

Ryhana Bee Ladies class winner

riding a Aprilla-SR125 in second position with a difference of nine seconds; Venkatesh Shetty from Mumbai riding a AprillaSR150 ﬁnished third. Imran Pasha from Mysuru riding a TVS Apache won the Star of Karnataka tag followed by Sachin D from Bengaluru also riding a TVS Apache in second position as Sanjay Somashekar from Bengaluru riding a Hero Xpulse ﬁnished in third. ROUND 2: Badal Doshi from Mumbai clocked the fastest timing of the event, with 4:10.19 in up to 800cc class in the Round 2 of the back to back Motorsport Inc FMSCI Indian National Rally Sprint Championship which was held at the same venue as Round 1, near Kanakapura. Badal S Doshi from Mumbai riding a KTM-500 EXCF improved a lot over his round one timing to clock 4:10.19 to be the winner of up to 800cc class; Sinan Francis from Ernakulam also riding on KTM-EXC450 fell short of

four seconds on the winner and had to settle for second position; the Round 1 winner Vishwas SD from Bengaluru riding a Suzuki with a further nine seconds deficit completed the podium. Aakash Aithal from Puttur finished fourth while Dishank Gowda from Bengaluru was fifth. In the Group B 131 to 165cc class Ishan Chandra from Mangaluru riding a Hero Impulse clocked 4:19.66 two win the class, Abrar Ahmed from Mysuru also riding a Hero Impulse with six seconds difference stood second, Bengaluru boy Pavan BK riding a Impulse with further four seconds difference stood third. Vinay Prasad and Mohammed Ansar both from Bengaluru finished fourth and fifth.

390 with a 30 seconds deﬁcit completed the podium. Sajeesh ﬁnished fourth and Udaya Ganguli from Kolkata

Yogesh P

stood ﬁfth. GroupB upto 130cc class was dominated by Rakesh Kumar V from Bengaluru riding a

Sachin D

Suhail Ahmed from Bengaluru riding a KTM-390 was the winner by clocking 4:15.55; Mangaluru boy Sudeep Kottary riding a Duke 390 with 300 milli-seconds difference settled for second position; Vikram K from Coimbatore riding a KTMJAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 51

SPRINT

Bengaluru ﬁnished fourth and ﬁfth respectively.

NATIONALS

All the top three riders were riding on TVS Apache. Imran Pasha from Mysuru continued to dominate and win the Group B 166 to 260cc class from Round 1 itself he clocked 4:14.83. Followed him in second position was Sachin D from Bengaluru with a mere one second difference; while Samuel Jacob from Udupi with further six seconds difference stood third. Sanjay Somashekar finished fourth followed by Vinay Prasad from Bengaluru in fifth. Himalayan bikes dominated the Bullet class; Suhail Ahmed continued his winning spree by clocking 4:30.12; Mohammed Zaheer from Bengaluru with two seconds difference was second; Vishwas SD from Bengaluru with a further 11 seconds difference was third. Sharath Kumar S and Devaraj Venkatesh also from Bengaluru were fourth and fifth.

Yuva Kumar

Ryhana riding clocked Ladies

Bee from Chennai a Hero Impulse 5:10.24 to win the class followed by

Tanika Shanbhag from Satara riding a Hero Impulse, who came in second; Tanika improved one position from Round 1; Arpitha VM from Mangaluru riding a HondaStunner was third. Dimpy A and Mandhara K from Mangaluru were in fourth and fifth respectively. Jyothishree did not take a start. Scooter class was bagged by Karthik Naidu from Bengaluru riding a TVS NTorq for the second time in a row by clocking 4:57.84; Goutham N from Bengaluru also riding a TVS N-Torq with a 12 second difference finished second; Amarendra Sathe from Pune riding a Aprilla-SR150 with further six seconds difference was third. Deepak Kumar was fourth while Badal S Doshi from Mumbai finished fifth. Anish Shetty won the Star of Karnataka class by clocking 4:20.16 followed by Samuel Jacob from Udupi riding a Apache with five hundred milli seconds difference was second as Ishan Chandra finished third. Yuva Kumar finished fourth while Vinay Prasad came in fifth.

Ishan Chandra winner 131 to 165cc class

Yamaha YBX clocked 4:51.19, Durgesh J from Mysuru riding a Honda Stunner with over seven hundred milli seconds difference stood second; Round 1 winner 52 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

Noldin Thomas from Ernakulam riding a Yamaha YBX with six seconds difference ﬁnished third. Ajin Abraham from Kottayam and Varun Kumar A from

Raghavendra Rao DB

Venkatesh Shetty

R1-R4, BENGALURU attain fifth position. In the Group B 131 to 165cc class, Pavan BK from Bengaluru riding a Hero Impulse secured the top position by clocking 8:07 and with a lead of over 16 seconds on Ishan Chandra from Mangaluru also on a Hero Impulse as he finished second. Vinay Prasad from Bengaluru riding a Hero Impulse had to settled for third with a thin margin of two seconds. Mohammed Zaheer from Bengaluru clocked 8:31 to finish fourth as Sudeep Kottary from Mangaluru was placed fifth with a further difference of 11 seconds.

Suhail Ahmed claims

ribbon event, fastest time Ryhana Bee bags Ladies gold; Tanika second PHOTO BY: GOWTHAM

uhail Ahmed from Bengaluru clocked the fastest timing in Round 3 of the Motorsport Inc FMSCI National Sprint Rally Championship 2020 held at the Tribal Village on the outskirts of Bengaluru recently. The 8-km, cent percent dirt surface route, was within the Eucalyptus plantations, and around the

foot hills of Nandi Hills which saw close to70 entries spread across in 9 classes. In the Group A up to 800cc class, Suhail Ahmed from Bengaluru riding a KTM 450EXC clocked 7:48.74 to win the class followed by Sinan Francis from Ernakulam riding a KTM 450EXC in second position,

with a difference of close to three seconds; Vishwas SD from Bengaluru riding on a Suzuki with a further difference of 18 seconds secured third place. Sharath Mohan from Kerala riding a Suzuki RMX 450X clocked 8:53 to ﬁnish fourth while Aakash Aithal from Puttur riding a Suzuki RMZ 450Z was seven seconds slower to

Mangalurian Sudeep Kottary riding a KTM-Duke won the Group B 261 to 400cc class with a timing of 8:38; he was followed by Sajeesh from Bengaluru riding a KTM Duke in second place with a difference of 48 seconds; Uday Ganguli from Kolkata riding a KTM 390 finished third with a further deficit of 1min 11sec. The fastest man of the day, Suhail Ahmed managed to finish fourth by clocking 10:45 and was eight seconds slower to catch up with podium. Noldin Thomas from Ernakulam riding a Yamaha YBX clinched the Group B upto 130cc class with a timing of 8:53, followed him in second position with a deficit of two seconds was the rider from Mysuru Durgesh J riding a Honda Stunner, Joseph Jinu from Ernakulam riding a Yamaha YBX managed to complete the podium with a further difference of five seconds. Rakesh Kumar V from Bengaluru and Pinkesh Thakkar from Pune with a further difference of thirteen seconds and nine seconds stood in fourth and fifth position. Sachin D from Bengaluru JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 53

SPRINT

time in the back-to-back Round 4 of the Motorsport INC FMSCI National Sprint Rally Championship 2020 held at the Tribal Village on the outskirts of Bengaluru in December.

NATIONALS

Suhail Ahmed from Bengaluru was fastest rider with 7:45 in the Group A upto 800cc class for the second time in a row; he also improved his own timing by three seconds from the previous round. Sinan Francis from Ernakulam was 13 seconds slower and had to settled for second position; Vishwas SD from Bengaluru was further seven seconds slower to finish third. Sharath Mohan from Kerala and Dishank S Gowda from Bengaluru were in fourth and fifth position respectively. riding on a TVS Apache clocked 7:49.43 to win the Group B 166 to 260cc class, Yuva Kumar from Bengaluru riding a Hero Xpulse clocked 7:58 to finish second, Sanjay Somashekar from Bengaluru also on a Hero Xpulse completed the podium with a difference of seven seconds. Vinay Prasad from Bengaluru riding a Hero Xpulse was four seconds slower and had to settled for fourth, Sudeep Kottary from Mangaluru was further ten seconds slower and had to settle for fifth position. Bengaluru riders on a Royal Enfield Himalayans dominate the Bullet class, Devaraj Venkatesh clocked 8;23 to win the class followed by Mohammed Zaheer in second position with a difference of six seconds, with a further difference of three seconds came in third was Vishwas SD. Naresh VS and Sharath Kumar managed to finish fourth and fifth respectively. Chennai rider Ryhana Bee riding a Hero Impulse 54 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

clocked 9:44 to win the ladies class; Tanika Shanbhag from Satara on a Hero Impulse was nine seconds slower to settle for second position; Dimpy A from Bengaluru ﬁnished third with thirty seven seconds difference. Arpitha VM from Mangaluru riding a Honda Stunner ﬁnished fourth.

difference of eleven seconds came second; Ishan Chandra from Bengaluru, was third riding a Hero Impulse, with a further difference of six seconds. Vinay Prasad from Bengaluru ﬁnished fourth while Sanjay Somashekar also from Bengaluru was ﬁfth.

Karthik Naidu from Bengaluru riding a TVS NTORQ clocked 9:10 to win the scooter class; Pinkesh Thakkar from Pune riding a Aprilia-SR125 was second with a difference of 17 seconds; Subramanya from Bengaluru riding a TVS Wega with a further sixteen seconds difference stood third. Goutham N from Bengaluru on a TVS N-TORQ and Amarendra Sathe from Pune riding a Aprilla-SR125 were fourth and ﬁfth respectively.

Round 4

Pavan BK dominated the Group B 131 to 165cc class by clocking 8:06; Ishan Chandra from Mangaluru finished second with six seconds deficit; Vinay Prasad from Bengaluru completed the podium with further eleven seconds difference. Mohammed Ansar and Mohammed Zaheer both from Bengaluru settled for fourth and fifth position.

Suhail Ahmed from Bengaluru clocks the fastest timing for a second straight

Suhail Ahmed had his second win of the day as he won the Group B 261 to 400cc class

Sachin D from Bengaluru had his second win of the event in the Star of Karnataka riding a TVS Apache by clocking 7:54; Yuva Kumar from Bengaluru riding a Hero Xpulse with a

R3-R4, BENGALURU

with a timing of 7:53; Sudeep Kottary from Mangaluru being 21 seconds slower settled for second position; Sajeesh from Bengaluru with further 22 seconds difference completed the podium. Uday Ganguli from Kolkata finished fourth. In the Group B up to 130cc class, Subramanya from Bengaluru by clocking 8:53 was the winner followed by Rakesh Kumar V from Bengaluru was second with a difference of three seconds; the third place was bagged by Noldin Thomas from Ernakulam with a difference of two seconds. Pinkesh Thakkar and Durgesh J finished in fourth and fifth position. Sachin D dominated the Group B 166 to 260cc class by clocking 7:57; Yuva Kumar finished behind him in second position with a difference of three seconds; Vinay Prasad completed the podium with a further difference of nine seconds. Sanjay Somashekar finished fourth while Sathyaraj finished fifth. It was the third win of the day for Suhail Ahmed as he clocked 8:13 to win the Bullet class; Devaraj Venkatesh

finished second with fifteen seconds difference; Vishwas SD clocked 8:40 to finish third. Sharath Kumar and Goutham Rao secured fourth and fifth position. The Satara Girl Tanika Shanbhag by clocking 9:24 was the winner of Ladies class; she had a lead of over eight seconds over the second place Ryhana Bee from Chennai; Arpitha VM from Mangaluru with further 12 seconds deficit stood third. Dimpy A finished fourth. Karthik Naidu won the Scooter class for the second time in a row by clocking 8:55 while Subrmanya finished second with 20 seconds difference; Pinkesh Thakkar with further ten seconds deficit finished third. Goutham N finished fourth and Joseph Jinu managed to stay at fifth position. Sachin was the Star of Karnataka for the second time in a row by clocking 8:01; Sanjay Somashekar finished second with ten seconds difference; Yuva Kumar was third with further two seconds deficit. Pavan BK and Vinay Prasad finished in order.

JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 55

RALLY

CHIKMAGALUR

finished at midnight. Leg 1 began from Siri Cafe and ended at Kandya Club on Chikkamagaluru to Balehonnur road. Leg 2 concluded at Siri Cafe. Day 2 was a 50-km rally with 11 TCs and four self TCs while the start and finish were at Siri Cafe. In the Pro-Expert class, the pair of Ganesh Murthy and Anand Shankar with a total penalty of 1:48 were the winners followed by Karthik Maruthi, ably navigated by T Nagarajan, as they accumulated over 1-minute penalty in Leg 1 and did well in Leg 3 but it was insufficient for a win and they had to settle for second position losing the gold by 13 seconds.

Ganesh-Anand clinch honours in Coffee land Karnataka Tourism chips in for a th successful 8 edition

The pair of D Keerthy Prassanth and C Shaktivel came third another 1 minute, 28 seconds behind. Pramod Vig and Prakash Muthuswamy were in the top-3 on Day 1 but slid down on the ﬁnal day with a huge penalty of over 3minutes and 49 seconds, and ﬁnished

he 8th edition of the two-day Rally of Chikmagalur, TSD Rally supported by Karnataka Tourism was ﬂagged off from Siri Cafe near Kiamara in Chikkamagaluru. The 230km tarmac rally consisted of three legs and split into two days with a few night stages on offer and about 30 competitors in fray. The Club, famous for its Coffee Day Rally, missed the National Championship this year, but more than made up with a wonderfully orgnaised TSD event. Day 1 had about 180 kms route with 14 Time Controls (TC) and four self TCs. The rally began at 2.30 pm and 56 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

Team Trophy winner

CHIKKAMAGALURU

Overall winners

Couple class winners

Suresh finished fourth while Isreal Francis and Sachin Nayak came in fifth. Kashi Prasad SR along with Nikitha Prasad won the Vetrans class with a total penalty of 1:46:5sec while Subramanya SV along with Ravi Kumar finished second with a difference of 1:7:27sec. Ladies class winners

fourth. The pair of Abhuday Pai and Chandrashekar M were 4th as they took another 3min, 40seconds to the ﬁnish.

18seconds. Amith J paired with Abhishek MC came third 31min and 5seconds behind the second. Prakash K and SV

Jasmeet Kaur navigated by Jyothi Iyengar with 38min, 45sec were the winners of Ladies Class followed by Aparna Pathak and Lalitha Gowda who clocked 36min 46sec more in second position. The Couple Class was bagged by Sharaddha

Kumari and Shankar Srinivasan with a total penalty of 1hour, 16min and 14seconds. Vignesh paired with Lenin J won by 3min 42sec to beat Darshan Gowda V and codriver Pradeep Nagaraj by 7minutes. The Chikkamagaluru Class for local drivers Prajwal HM navigated by Devkanth GM won hands down clocking 34min, 57sec penalty. The pair of Samrudh Pai and Prajwal Pai came second with a penalty time of 2min and 44sec. Nasir Hussain paired with Sandeep Kumar settled for third in 1:11:49.

In the Pro-stock Class, the pair of Mohd Rafi and S Arun with a total penalty of 16:21 were the winners of the class. Dr Prahsanth Marla, along with co-driver Sekar, stood second with a penalty difference of 9minutes 55seconds. Ananthasianam, along with co-driver Narasimhan Sugumaran came third clocking a penalty of 26:49. Vinodh A and N Murugan, a further 14minutes, 16seconds away, were fourth. Manju Jain and Velumurugan finished fifth. The pair of Srikanth M and Raghuram with a total penalty of 16:41 were the winners of the class as they beat Anoop S navigated by Chirinth by 23minutes and JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 57

RALLY

DUNE CROSS

Raj Singh Rathore,

co-driver Rihen Bhardwaj fastest R aj Singh Rathore with co-driver Rihen Bhardwaj from Jaipur driving a Polaris RZR 1000 Turbo were fastest in all four stages, to won the Dune Cross 2020 the three day offroad event held around Bikaner in Rajasthan recently.

With a total of eight stages from four legs, Leg 1 was held in Kavani Dunes with below three kilometres stage 58 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

each consisting of climbs on sand dunes, while the leg two was late in the evening. The Leg 3 and 4 were of two stages each in Mehrasar which were faster compared to day one.

The pair of Raj Singh Rathore co-driven by Rihen Bhardwaj with a total of 800 points was the overall leader, with 692 points the pair of Deepam Prajapati and Amrit Pal Singh

ďŹ nished second. Sam Chunawala co-driven by Daljit Singh, with a total points of 663 with Tecnical issues. Sadian Chunawala and Umesh Rane missed the privilege of being on podium with mere one point. Harsh Vardan Singh co-driven by Gaurav Saini secured ďŹ fth position with a total of 618 points. Sixth position went to the pair of Digvijay Singh Rathore and Mrigraj Singh

Bhati with 603 points.

C1 Polaris class With straight eight fastest timing and by increasing the lead with an average of over thirty seconds in every stage Raj Singh Rathore and Rihen Bhardwaj from Jaipur were the winners. Deepam Prajapati co-driven by Amrit Pal Singh with 892 points were second, Sam Chunawala along with Daljit

BIKANER Ladies class Suhaha along with Bijender Singh with 350 points were the winners, with a difference of 23 points the pair of Guneet Singh and Ridaa Singh ﬁnished second. Shefali Goel along with Vikram Singh with the same 23 points with the leader had to settled for third position. Shruti Kalra along with Aaryan Sharma with 282 points ﬁnished fourth. Pick-up class The pair of Anil Abbas and Shanoob with a total of 426 points topped the class followed by Abhishek Adlakha and Purnima Shamra with 256 points.

Singh with 663 points were third. Sadian Chunawala and Umesh Rane with 662 points finished fourth. Gypsy upto 1350cc class Harsh Vardan Singh codriven by Gaurav Saini with 618 points were the winner followed by Rajiv Yadav and Ravindra Beniwal with 510 points finishing second as the pari of Dheeraj Malik and Bhopendra Singh secured third position with 482 points. Eric Benny and Chow Ujjal Namshum with 424 points stood fourth as Vivek Gujral and Atul Chyal with 350 points settled for fifth position. Modified above1350cc class Digvijay Singh Rathore paired with Mrigraj Singh Bhati with a total of 603 points won the class followed by Yuvraj Singh and Harsh Singh in second position with 593 points.

Thar Stock class Ajay Baisla co-driven by Ajay Bansal with 581 points were the winners Rajesh Saini along with Rahul Singh secured second position with 527 points. Arpit Gupta along with Dhruvpal Singh with 480 points ﬁnished third. Sushant Saini paired with Hardeep Singh to secure fourth position with 425 points. The pair of Vikram Singh and Mohit Gahlot were ﬁfth with 397 points. Super SUV class Jaidev Ayachi along with Dhirendra Singh with 565 points won the class, with 477 points. The pair of Rajat Tyagi and Akash Gupta were second while Bijender Singh co-driven by Suhana with equal points of 477 settled for third. Rakesh Parihar and Pradeep Gahlot secured fourth position with 433 points.

Winners RajSingh Rathore and Rihen Bhardwaj

Sam Chunawala and Daljit Singh

Aaryan Sharma

JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 59

AUTOCROSS

FOUR WHEELER

Mohan Raj, fastest in Open Class Ismail Khan stuns stalwarts with best time in Support Esteem race PHOTO BY: GOWTHAM

utocross for four wheelers was held at Sarjapura, a suburb of Bengaluru organized by Motorsport Inc. The about one-km long track which was run twice, was dominated by Ismail Khan in a Maruti Esteem. He clocked 2 minutes 9.512 seconds in the supported Group.

Amateur class: Madhishri was the topper in Ladies Class clocking 2:49.787 while Rekha Niranjan was slower 6O autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

by six seconds and was second in the class. Ashwani Bogadi with three seconds deﬁcit completed the podium. Saima Begum did not ﬁnish the race. Rutvik clocked 2:20.251 to win the Open Class followed by Sagar Pradeep in second, who clocked a second or so slower than the winner. Third placed Abhin R Rai, too, was close to Sagar Pradeep as he took third position and missing the second by 300th of a second. Vinay SM came fourth while Arvind

Dheerendra finished fifth. INAC 3, Pro-Stock 2W Drive: In up to 850cc Class, Sahil clocked 2:23.088 to win followed by Prakash Raghava in second, a 400th of a second behind. Baban Khan took the chequered flag, a further one second later, to settle for third. Rajshekar Gowda, war fourth another 600 th of a second behind while Adarsh S clocked four seconds more to finish fifth. In 851 to 1099cc Class, Sahil clocked 2:14.236 to

dominate the class. Sumesh with a difference of four seconds stood in second position. Prakash Raghava a further four seconds behind completed the podium in third. Veteran Baban Khan and Owaiz Pasha were fourth and ﬁfth respectively. In 1100 upto 1400cc Class, Mohan Raj GP won the class with time of 2 minutes 16.318 seconds. Rutvik ﬁnished two seconds later to take the second place while Mohin Pasha was third, narrowly missing a higher position as

BENGALURU

managed to climb to fourth and ﬁfth positions respectively.

he finished within a second. While Ahin R Rai, missed his second third place in a photo finish to Pasha as he was short by just 0.034. Rakesh Shukla came fifth, away from all the drama, arriving six seconds later for a relaxed fifth position. In 1401 upto 1650cc Class, winner Jenu K Johnson was the fastest clocking 2:13.983. Sahil missed the gold in this class which would made it a double but took the second place with a time of 2:17.474. Pruthvik R was a distant third, a further 12 seconds away, to complete the podium. Karthik Raja Mohan was fourth. Ladies Class was bagged by Sufiya Khan who clocked 2:21.335. Another known rally driver, Harshitha Raj

Gowda, could only get seconds as she fell short by three seconds. Manisha Kelkar, a further 12 seconds behind stood third. Priyanka came 4th with difference another 13 seconds behind. INAC 2 Modified 2W Drive: In the 1100 to 1400cc Class, Ismail Khan won by clocking 2:12.551. Mohammed Ayub Khan came second in 2:14.366 and Mohan Raj GP was third losing 2nd by 200th of a second. Sahil and Rutvik finished in fourth and fifth respectively.

The Open Class belonged to Ismail Khan who clocked 2:10.930 to beat Sahil by two seconds while Jenu K Johnson took third with a further difference of 800th of a second to second place. Rutvik was fourth another two seconds behind the third and Sagar Pradeep finished fifth, a further four seconds behind. INAC 1 Unrestricted Class: Mohan Raj GP was the fastest in the Open Class winning in 2:13.881 as he beat favourite Dhruva C by two seconds. Sagar Pradeep was third as he came late by another three seconds. Mohin Pasha and Jeni K Johnson were fourth and fifth in that order.

INAC 2 Pro-Stock Diesel: Abhilash Gowda became the champion in the Open Class by clocking 2:24.876 while Phalguna took second taking another 10 seconds behind the first place. Suraj SS came another 1min 2sec behind to take the third. Supported Class: In the Esteem Class, Ismail Khan clocked the fastest time both in this class and also in the entire event that stood at 2min 09.512sec but his feat will not find a mention in the records, as the class is not part of the National Championship. Vinay SM clocked 2:16.902 for his second place while Ravi Kiran Gowda, a further one second behind stood third. Rakesh Shukla and Shaik Fazil Ahmed finished in fourth and fifth positions respectively.

Dhruva Chandrasekhar won the 1401 to 1650cc Class in 2:12.806. Ismail Khan with a difference of less than a second settled for second position. Sahil, a further 3seconds behind came third. Jeni K Johnson and Roopesh JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 61

NEW DELHI

ANNUAL AWARDS

RSDC Celebrates Annual Awards in Online Mode R

u b b e r S k i l l Development Council (RSDC) recently celebrated its 5th annual awards ceremony. The event witnessed large participation from industry captains, ofﬁcials from Ministry of Skill D e v e l o p m e n t & Entrepreneurship (MSDE), National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), trainers, assessors, academia and other stakeholders. Mr Anshuman Singhania, Vice Chairman, Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA) and Mr V T Chandhrasekharan, President, All India Rubber Industries Association (AIRIA) graced the occasion as Guests of Honour. "RSDC has trained over 2.5 lakh trainees across rubber plantations, rubber manufacturing and tyre repair & services verticals apart from creating 62 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

qualification packs (QPs) and National Occupation Standards (NOS) for different job roles in the rubber sector. RSDC is currently engaged in creating e-learning simulated content and different models of training. The Saamarth project being run under the mentorship of MSDE has been a trailblazer of sorts", said Mr Vinod Simon, Chairman, RSDC. "Besides training in p l a n t a t i o n s a n d manufacturing, a fleet of 40 well-equipped mobile skill vans are running the length & breadth of the country training tyre fitters and converting many of them into entrepreneurs" added Mr Simon. "During the pandemic, a large number of people have been equipped with skills which will be in good demand as the economy is gradually opening up. The Northeast of the country

holds a lot of potential for increasing output of Natural Rubber (NR) through skill development and skill training in rubber tapping and processing. Tyre industry is all for NR plantations in the country and will support every move that makes domestic NR competitive", said Mr Anshuman Singhania. Mr V T Chandhrasekharan, President AIRIA said, "The disruption due to Covid pandemic has caused widespread chaos. However during my several interactions with the Government ofﬁcials in recent months, it was evident that the Rubber industry has a large potential to grow. RSDC is doing a meaningful job along with the partners in skilling up the sector". Two veterans of industry, Mr Vijay Pahwa, NSDC's nominee director at RSDC and Mr Rajiv Budhraja, Director General,

ATMA announced the awards in their capacity as jury members.

COIMBATORE

RALLY

with a difference of 19 seconds. Britto along with Suresh, were third another 1min, 36sec behind in third. Deepak ﬁnished fourth while the pair of Karthik and Shankar came ﬁfth in the special stage.

COTTON CITY

In the Novice Class, the pair of Nithin and Saravana Kumar with a total time of 57:50 won by beating Karthik and Shankar to second place by a margin of 13:14min. The pair of Babu and Balan took third another 11:39 behind. Sundhar Gowtham missed the podium by mere 10 seconds and settled for fourth while Yuvaraj came 5th further adrift by a minute and 17sec.

Deepak-Velmurugan clinch Nithin-Saravana win Novice Class; Local lad Kumareshan excels

he fourth edition of Cotton City Rally held in Coimbatore recently, was fought on an 85-km dirt road, with about ten percent tarmac thrown in and offered challenges of 34 Time Controls (TC) including a P̀assage Control' and Self TC.

ﬁfth position was secured by the pair of Vikram and Arun, another 3:04min behind. Two special stages were part

of the rally. Vikram along with Arun with a total time of 7:25 were the winners followed by Thangaraj and Vignesh in second position

In the Novice Class for Locals, Kumareshan with a total penalty of 1:01.23 was the winner followed by Ashwin in second position with a difference of 18:28. Vishnu Prakash and Mani ﬁnished third another 28:26min behind the leader. Bharani and Pattan Prathip were fourth and ﬁfth respectively. Ladies Class was bagged by the pair of Fazeela and Swetha with a penalty time of 2:09.43.

In the Expert Class, the pair of Deepak and Velmurugan with a total penalty of 38minutes, 17seconds were the winners followed by Dhanpal and co-driver Shankar in second as they took 5:04min more time to the ﬁnish. The duo of Robert and Arun were 3rd, another 2:16min behind. Thangaraj and his co-driver Vignesh stood fourth, with a further difference of 7:43, while the JAN / FEB 2021 autotrack.ind.in 63

WESTERN GHATS

DRIVE

the ﬂora & fauna of Western Ghats, the drive to S̀yntheri Rocks' a monolithic granite structure with a height of 300-feet located inside Kali tiger reserve is one of the most scenic tourist attractions that offered a wonderful time for the visitors with its beautiful landscape. The last stretch of the day's drive ended along the calm and serene view of back waters of Supa Dam but the day continued to provide many surprises to Drivers.

EXPLORE

Day 3 was a 490-km return journey to Bengaluru from Dandeli, but not before an idyllic nature walk and bird watching. Enjoying the thrill of water sports in river Kali boating, kayaking and topping with a Jacuzzi, left memories that last a life time for all the drivers.

“ 1100-km drive helps explore interesting

he three-day Explore Western Ghats drive to and fro Bengaluru saw a travelling distance of 1100 km. Twenty members were part of the drive taking the 460-km route on Day 1 up to Sirsi, en route one of the tallest waterfalls in India. Passing Jog Falls and one of the oldest towns along the Western Ghats and places like Banavasi provided its 64 autotrack.ind.in JAN / FEB 2021

owns thrills apart from the driving. Day 2 was fun-ﬁlled at Dandeli, which was 155 kms of travel from Sirsi. Dandeli is known for adventure water sports. The drive passed through `S a h a s r a l i n g a ' w e r e thousand's of carved Shiva Lingas could be seen on the banks of the river Shalmala. Heading forward, enjoying

It’s unlike a personal family trip, you get to meet people from various elds. The journey is safe and well planned, you can visit some unexplored places with ease. We did some rafting and other water activities in the open waters with family which was fun. -Participant

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Explore Western Ghats drive provides thrills