Indian National Auto Racing Championship: Sai Sanjay wins MRF F2000 crown
Indian National Auto Racing Championship Salem’s Sai Sanjay bagged the title in the premier MRF Formula 2000 category as 2022 came to a close at the Madras International Circuit on Sunday.
While Sai Sanjay collected enough points in all three races this weekend to win the championship, Bengaluru’s Sohil Shah, who won Race-1 on Saturday, completed the triple crown by winning both races on Sunday. The 21-year-old Sohil, who missed two of the four rounds, finished fourth in the championship behind Sai Sanjay, Ryan Mohammed (Chennai) and Div Nandan (Gurugram).
Also bagging the titles in their respective categories were: Viswas Vijayraj (Nellore, DTS Racing) in Formula LGB 1300; Ritesh Rai (Chennai, Performance Racing) in Super Stock; Akkineni Anand Prasad (Chennai, Performance Racing) in Indian Junior Touring Cars; Justin Singh (Gurugram) in MRF Saloon Cars (Toyota Etios) and Pratik Sonawane (Mumbai) in Volkswagen Polo Cup.
Meanwhile, the popular Indian Touring Cars category has seen as many as three disqualifications for technical violations. Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) and Arjun Narendran (Arca Motorsports), both from Coimbatore, were disqualified from yesterday’s race -1. Narendran suffered a similar fate in Race-2 on Sunday, but later won Race-3. However, his improved performance has earned him a national ranking ahead of Narendran in the interim championship standings.
Viswas Vijayraj won the race in the Formula LGB 1300 category and finished second to Bengaluru’s Tijil Rao (Momentum Motorsports) in the final race. Another championship leader, Raghul Rangasamy (MSport), ignored the black flag and was out of the race.
“I don’t know what to say. It’s a very emotional time for me. After missing out on the championship the last few times, it’s good to finally win it in my fifth season. I owe everything to my parents and MRF Tires, who I know are watching the live stream, for their support,” said Viswas.
Mumbai-based Zahan Komisariat, who hails from a family of competitors, scored an impressive victory in the MRF Saloons (Toyota Etios) category from P10 and the win helped him finish fifth in the championship. Gurugram’s Justin Singh failed to finish after one event, but had enough of a cushion to extend his lead by five points from Angad Matro (Chandigarh). Mathru finished second behind Commissariat and ahead of Pune’s Diana Pundol to finish third in the championship.
Results (provisional – all 10 rounds unless otherwise stated)
MRF F2000 (Gen-2): 1. Sohil Shah (Bengaluru) (15 minutes, 36.462 seconds); 2. Mohammad Rayan (Chennai) (15:40.983); 3. Dillon Thomas Zacharias (Chennai) (15:42.064). Race-3 (8 Rounds) 1. Sohil Shah (Bengaluru) (12:28.545); 2. Sai Sanjay T (Salem) (12:33.894); 3. Chetan Korada (Chennai) (12:52.777).
Indian Touring Cars (Race-2, 12 Rounds) 1. Arjun Balu (Coimbatore, Race Concepts) (25:00.290); 2. Sandeep Kumar (Chennai, Rayo Racing) (25:08.270); 3. Jet Jaback (Hyderabad, Rayo Racing) (25:11.802). Race-3: 1. Arjun Narendran (Coimbatore, Arka Motorsports) (18:58.937); 2. Arjun Balu (Coimbatore, Race Concepts) (19: 12.399); 3. Sandeep Kumar (Chennai, Rayo Racing) (19:14.297).
Indian Junior Touring Cars (Race-1, 12 laps) 1. Raja Rajan (Chennai, Performance Racing) (25:27.541); 2. Akkineni Anand Prasad (Chennai, Performance Racing) (25:27.700); 3. Deepak Ravikumar (Chennai, Performance Racing) (25:27.997). Race-3: 1. Raja Rajan (Chennai, Performance Racing) (19:36.876); 2. Gurunath Meiyappan (Chennai, Concepts of Race) (19.38.441); 3. Akkineni Anand Prasad (Chennai, Performance Racing) (19:40.541).
Super Stock (Race-2, Round 12) 1. Narendran S (Chennai, Redline Racing) (26:19.871); 2. Ritesh Rai (Chennai, Performance Racing) (26:23.033); 3. Jason Deepak Saldanha (Mangaluru, DB Motorsports) (26: 28.874). Race-3: (9 laps): 1. Ritesh Rai (Chennai, Performance Racing) (19:01.675); 2. Narendran S (Chennai, Redline Racing) (19:07.807); 3. Diljit TS (Thrissur, DTS Racing) (19: 12.675).
Formula LGB 1300 (Race-2, 10 laps) 1. Tijil Rao (Bengaluru, Momentum Motorsports) (20:10.154); 2. Viswas Vijayraj (Nellore, DTS Racing) (20:10.291); 3. Dhruv A Goswami (Bengaluru, MS) (20:10.865).
Volkswagen Polo Cup (Race-3, Round 8) 1. Ritesh Rai (Chennai) (15:50.470); 2. Pratik Sonawane (Mumbai) (15:54.571); 3. Raj Bakhru (Mumbai) (15:57.079). Race-4: 1. Ojas Serve (Mumbai) (19:42.853); 2. Avik Anwar (Dhaka) (19:49.034); 3. Pratik Sonawane (Mumbai) (19:52.460).
MRF Saloons (Toyota Etios – Race-2) 1. Zehan Komisariat (Mumbai) 20:49.191; 2. Angad Matro (Chandigarh) 20:53.991; 3. Diana Pundol (Pune) 20:54.112.