Chennai: Twentyone-year-old Bengaluru driver Sohil
Shah qualified for pole position in the MRF Formula 2000 category
as the third and penultimate round of the MRF MMSC-FMSCI Indian
National Car Racing Championship 2022 commenced at the Madras
International Circuit, about 40 km here, on Friday.
In another qualifying session, for Volkswagen Polo Cup, Chennai’s
Sandeep Kumar, the defending champion, grabbed the pole position
to complete a fine day as he was also quickest in the free practice
session for the touring cars category (Indian Touring Cars), earlier
in the day.
Sohil, a former National Karting champion, who sat out the previous
five races over two rounds, carried his free practice form into the
qualifying session where he put in a lap of one minute, 31.910 secs,
to take P1 for tomorrow’s Race-1, ahead of Chennai’s Mohammed
Ryan (01:32.062).
Championship leader Sai Sanjay (01:32.404) from Salem qualified
for P3.
Sandeep Kumar, 30, shaved almost a second off his practice session
timing, with a lap of 01:55.729 in the qualifying run. Pune’s Pratik
Sonawane, the 2019 VW Ameo Cup vice-champion, filled the front
row clocking 01:56.376.
Earlier in the day during practice sessions, Chennai drivers hogged
the limelight in the touring cars categories.
Sandeep Kumar (Rayo Racing) was the quickest among the Indian
Touring Cars in a Volkswagen Virtus, clocking a best lap of 01:54.751.
Akkineni Anand Prasad (Performance Racing, 01:55.286) topped in
the Indian Junior Touring Cars class, while teammate Ritesh Rai
(02:04.254) was the best in the Super Stock.
Incidentally, championship leader in the ITC category, Arjun Balu
(Race Concepts) from Coimbatore sat out the practice session due
to engine issues.
In other practice sessions, Mamallapuram’s Raghul Rangasamy
(MSport, 01.51,696) headed the timesheet in the Formula LGB
1300 category, while Justin Singh from Gurugram (02:02.422)
topped the MRF Saloon Cars (Toyota Etios) field.
The results (qualifying – top 3):
MRF F2000:
1. Sohil Shah (Bengaluru) (1min, 31.910sec);
2. Mohamed Ryan (Chennai) (01:32.062);
3. Sai Sanjay T (Salem) (01:32.404);
Volkswagen Polo Cup:
1. Sandeep Kumar (Chennai) (1:55.729);
2. Pratik Sonawane (Mumbai) (1;56.376);
3. Jeet Jabakh (Hyderabad) (1:56.630).
