Tijil Rao, Raghul Rangasamy top the Formula LGB 1300 races 

All smiles: Bengaluru’s Tijil Rao, winner of Race-2 in the Formula LGB 1300 category.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement.

Bengaluru’s Tijil Rao (Momentum Motorsports) came up with a stunning drive to win Race-2 in the Formula LGB 1300 category after starting from P14 in the first round on the opening day of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Car Racing Championship 2023 at the Madras International Circuit (MIC) here on Saturday.

Tijil (20), a Business Management student, made up for a retirement in Race-1 when he came into contact with another competitor. Starting from P14 on the reverse grid, Tijil scythed through the field for a tremendous victory.

“Unfortunately, I was involved in an incident in the first race and so, had to make up for that in the next race. It was fun as I managed to overtake all the 13 cars in front of me and win. I should have more such performances,” said Tijil.

The other winners of the day were Deepak Ravikumar (Performance Racing) in the Indian Junior Touring Cars category, Coimbatore veteran Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) in the Indian Touring Cars class, Thrissur’s T.S. Diljith (DTS Racing) in the Super Stock segment, and Angad Matharoo (Redline Racing) who authored a lights-to-flag win in the MRF Saloons (Toyota Etios) race.

The results (provisional, all 8 laps unless mentioned):

Indian Touring Cars (race-1): 1. Arjun Balu 15:45.687s; 2. Gurunath Meiyappan 16:03.174; 3. Diana Pundole 16:04.053.

Qualifying (best lap, top-3): 1. Arjun Balu 01:56.126; 2. Rithvik Thomas 01:56.154; 3. Gurunath Meiyappan 01:57.086.

Indian Junior Touring Cars (race-1): 1. Deepak Ravikumar 15:37.461; 2. Akkineni Anand Prasad 15:37.923; 3. Srinivas Teja 15:38.747.

Qualifying (best lap, top-3): 1. Deepak Ravikumar 01:55.197; 2. Srinivas Teja 01:55.341; 3. Akkineni Anand Prasad 01:56.670.

Super Stock (race-1): 1. T.S. Diljith (DTS Racing) 16:51.283; 2. Jarshan Anand (DB Motorsports) 17:03.385; 3. Justin Singh (Redline Racing) 17:08.050.

Qualifying (best lap, top-3): 1. T.S. Diljith 02:04.728; 2. Jarshan Anand 02:05.110; 3. Justin Singh 02:06.132.

Formula LGB 1300 (race-1): 1. Raghul Rangasamy (MSport) 16:36.969; 2. Viswas Vijayaraj (DTS Racing) 16:39.114; 3. Chetan Surineni (MSport) 16:40.603.

Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Tijil Rao (Momentum Motorsports) 19:18.886; 2. Deepak Ravikumar (Ahura Racing) 19:31.153; 3. Viswas Vijayaraj 19:31.557.

Qualifying (best lap, top-3): 1. Viswas Vijayaraj 01:52.719; 2. Deepak Ravikumar (Ahura Racing) 01:52.809; 3. Raghul Rangasamy 01:53.060.

MRF Saloons (Toyota Etios) (race-1): 1. Angad Matharoo 16:38.754; 2. Zahan Commissariat 16:39.058; 3. Jaiprashant Venkat 16:47.584.

Qualifying (best lap, top-3): 1. Angad Matharoo 02:03.052; 2. Diana Pundole (Redline Racing) 02:03.076; 3. Zahan Commissariat 02:03.458.