Chennai: Several gifted teenagers who have dared to take on their peers with pace and panache, are set to take a step up in their quest for glory in the fourth and penultimate round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2024 – Powered by STORM commencing at the Madras International Circuit here on Friday.
The three-day event with 18 races (besides official practice and qualifying sessions) and over 100 entries, promises to be a humdinger given that the leading title contenders across all categories are closely bunched and can ill afford to drop any championship points. It has been the kind of championship that has witnessed more than its share of heart-stopping moments and tight finishes.
The ongoing season has heralded the emergence of two 17-year-old protagonists in TVS Racing team-mates, Sarthak Chavan (Pune) and Bengaluru’s Chiranth Vishwanath. Their fierce, no-holds-barred rivalry in the two premier classes, the Pro-Stock 301-400cc Open and Pro-Stock 165cc Open, has lit up the championship, having also greatly benefitted from their exposure at the Asian level with Sarthak even scoring a couple of podium finishes.
The Pune youngster has enjoyed tremendous success in the PS 301-400cc Open class with five wins from six head the leaderboard. In the popular PS 165cc Open category, the pair has denied each other precious points, courtesy a couple of crashes after making contact when racing wheel-to-wheel, but are very much in the title hunt. Sarthak is placed third behind team-mates, the multiple National champion Jagan Kumar and KY Ahamed while Chiranth is fifth behind Deepak Ravikumar, the other TVS Racing rider. Just 40 points separate the five.
Another 17-year-old local talent Abdul Basim (Rockers Racing) leads in the Novice (Stock 165cc) class on the back of six consecutive wins while in the Girls (Stock 165cc) category, schoolgirl Rakshitha Dave (RACR Castrol Power1 Ultimate) is ahead of fellow-Chennai racer Jagathishree Kumaresan (One Racing) only by one point. Incidentally, Rakshitha had two fifth place finishes last weekend in the FIM Asia Women Cup of Circuit Racing in Thailand.
Three riders, Raj Kumar (RDX Torque Racing), RACR Castrol Power1 Ultimate team-mates Kaushik Subbaiah Ganesan and Aldrin Babu are only 20 points apart in the Stock 301-400cc Novice class which was accorded National Championship status at the start of the current season and has consistently boasted grid of over 20 riders.
Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup
Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup is made up of the super-quick NSF 250R bikes and hand-picked young riders. Mohsin Paramban, the 22-year-old from Malappuram, leads the championship with three wins and two second place finishes in six outings after surviving a few close races.
TVS India One-Make Championship
Leading in the various categories of the Championship that is designed to identify and nurture talent by providing them a National-level platform to showcase their skills, are Senthil Kumar C (Coimbatore, RR310 Open) with four wins, Harshith Bogar (Bengaluru, Rookie – RTR 200) with five wins and Saimah Ali Baig (Pune, Girls – RTR 200) with two wins.