Teen brigade rules the F1600 race

Teenagers, spearheaded by Bengaluru schoolboy Chirag Ghorpade, took the honours in the MRF F1600 race in the second round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Car Racing Championship at the MMRT 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 its own in a field that had quite a few experienced drivers.

Defending champion Arjun Balu (Race Concepts), at 47, and in his 29th racing season, was in imperious form when easily winning the premier Indian Touring Cars race from pole position, while two Rayo Racing drivers from Hyderabad — Anindith Reddy and Jeet Jhabakh — finished a distant second and third.

The results (provisional, eight 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): 1. Arjun Balu (Race Concepts, Coimbatore) (15:19.312); 2. Anindith Reddy (Rayo Racing, Hyderabad) (15:46.386); 3. Jeet Jhabakh (Rayo Racing, Hyderabad) (15:54.693).

Super Stock (Race-1): 1. Deepak Ravikumar (Performance Racing, Chennai) (16:09.974); 2. Rithvik Thomas (Race Concepts, Bengaluru) (16:12.079); 3. R.P. Raja Rajan (Performance Racing, Chennai) (16:17.578).

Indian Junior Touring Cars (Race-1): 1. Varun Anekar (Race Concepts, Bengaluru) (16:04.162); 2. Charen Chandran (Pvt, Coimbatore) (16:25.674); 3. Hatim Shabbir Jamnagarwala (Performance Racing, Chennai) (15:30.132, 7 laps).

Formula LGB 1300 (Race-1, Five laps): 1. Viswas Vijayaraj (DTS Racing, Nellore) (11:14.406); 2. Arya Singh (DTS Racing, Kolkata) (11:15.966); 3. Deepak Ravikumar (Momentum Motorsport, Chennai) (11:20.775).

MRF Saloon Cars (Toyota Etios – Race 1): 1. Fahad Kutty (Red Line Racing, Mumbai) (17:08.849); 2. Jamie Shaw (Red Line Racing, Mumbai) (17:09.332); 3. Chandresh Tolia (Red Line Racing, Mumbai) (17:11.833).

Race-2 (10 laps): 1. A Balaprasath (Quest Motorsport, Coimbatore) (21:17.190); 2. Justin Singh (Quest Motorsport, Haryana) (21:17.925); 3. Fahad Kutty (Red Line Racing, Mumbai) (21:20.784).