Maiden win for Chirag Ghorpade in MRF F1600, Arjun Balu chalks up commanding victory

Chennai: Teenagers, spearheaded by Bengaluru school
boy Chirag Ghorpade took the honours in the MRF-F1600 race in the
the second round of the MRF MMSC-FMSCI Indian National Car Racing
Championship at the MMRT, here on Saturday.

Ghorpade held off another 17-year old, Agra’s Shahan Ali Mohsin,
for his maiden win in this category, while Rishon Rajiv (16), also
from Bengaluru, finished third in the eight-lap race.

The trio was in a league of their own in a field that had quite a few
experienced drivers.

Meanwhile, 47-year-old Coimbatore veteran and defending champion
Arjun Balu (Race Concepts), in his 29th racing season, was in imperious form as he easily won the premier Indian Touring Cars race from pole position, while Rayo Racing drivers from Hyderabad, Anindith Reddy and Jeet Jhabakh, finished a distant second and third, respectively.

Mumbai’s Fahad Kutty (Red Line Racing) and Coimbatore’s A Balaprasath(Quest Motorsport) shared the top honours in the two MRF Saloon Cars(Toyota Etios) races.

The results (Provisional – all 8 laps unless mentioned):
MRF F1600 (Race-1):

1. Chirag Ghorpade (Bengaluru) (13mins, 32.919secs);
2. Shahan Ali Mohsin (Agra) (13:34.252);
3. Rishon Rajiv (Bengaluru) (13:35.164).
   Indian Touring Cars (Race-1):
4. Arjun Balu (Race Concepts, Coimbatore) (15:19.312);
5. Anindith Reddy (Rayo Racing, Hyderabad) (15:46.386);
6. Jeet Jhabakh (Rayo Racing, Hyderabad) (15:54.693).
   Super Stock (Race-1):
7. Deepak Ravikumar (Performance Racing, Chennai) (16:09.974);
8. Rithvik Thomas (Race Concepts, Bengaluru) (16:12.079);
9. RP Raja Rajan (Performance Racing, Chennai) (16:17.578).
   Indian Junior Touring Cars (Race-1):
10. Varun Anekar (Race Concepts, Bengaluru) (16:04.162);
11. Charen Chandran (Pvt, Coimbatore) (16:25.674);
12. Hatim Shabbir Jamnagarwala (Performance Racing, Chennai) (15:30.132, 7 laps)
    Formula LGB 1300 (Race-1, 5 laps):
13. Viswas Vijayaraj (DTS Racing, Nellore) (11:14.406);
14. Arya Singh (DTS Racing, Kolkata) (11:15.966);
15. Deepak Ravikumar (Momentum Motorsport, Chennai) (11:20.775).
    MRF Saloon Cars (Toyota Etios – Race 1):
16. Fahad Kutty (Red Line Racing, Mumbai) (17:08.849);
17. Jamie Shaw (Red Line Racing, Mumbai) (17:09.332);
18. Chandresh Tolia (Red Line Racing, Mumbai) (17:11.833).
    Race-2 (10 laps):
19. A Balaprasath (Quest Motorsport, Coimbatore) (21:17.190);
20. Justin Singh (Quest Motorsport, Haryana) (21:17.925);
21. Fahad Kutty (Red Line Racing, Mumbai) (21:20.784).