National Motorcycle Racing: Sarthak Chavan Leads A 1-2 Finish For TVS Racing

MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National: Two sets of siblings from Chennai hogged the limelight by winning four of the nine races on Saturday at the Madras International Circuit to light up the first round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2024.

The 15-year-old Dave twins, Rakshith and Rakshitha took the honours in the India Talent Cup (NSF 250R) and the National Championship Girls (Stock 165cc) races. It was a maiden win for both of them, in their respective categories.

Two other siblings, 28-year-old K.Y. Ahamed (Pro-Stock 165cc Open) and his 17-year-old brother Abdul Basim (Novice 165cc), also won a race apiece to set off celebrations in both families.

Elsewhere, Sarthak Chavan, the 17-year-old from Pune, led a 1-2 finish for TVS Racing along with Bengaluru’s Chiranth Vishwanath, also 17, in the premier Pro-Stock 301-400cc category. The race was cut to four laps from the scheduled six after a red flag stoppage following a Turn-3 crash (riders ok) and Sarthak, starting from the pole, virtually destroyed the field on the restart. Chiranth came in second, ahead of Hyderabad’s Sairahil Pillarisetty (Gusto Racing).

Sarthak, however, had a disastrous outing in the Pro-Stock 165cc Open race as he crashed when in the lead.

On his exit, Sathak’s two TVS Racing team-mates, KY Ahamed and multiple National champion Jagan Kumar, were involved in a tight finish. Ahamed pipped his mentor Jagan in a photo-finish with another TVS Racing ace, Deepak Ravikumar, who had started the race from the pit lane, completing the podium. Chiranth, who was running second, also crashed but resumed to finish fourth.

Also finishing on the top step of the podium was Chennai’s Kaushik Subbiah Ganesan (RACR Castrol Power1 Ultimate) who won as he pleased in the Novice 301-400cc class that gained National championship status from this season.

Earlier, pole-sitter Abdul Basim held off a strong challenge from Mysuru’s Tasmai Cariappa (Motul Sparks Racing) who led briefly in the penultimate lap but conceded the advantage. Basim went on to win with Tasmai and Coimbatore’s Abhinav G (Chandra LGE Racing) finishing second and third, respectively.

Rakshitha Dave, starting from P2, moved in front by Turn-2, deftly avoiding any jostling that was happening behind her, and enjoyed a trouble-free run for a commanding win.

Another Chennai rider, Jagathishee Kumaresan (One Racing) and Ryhana Bee (Motul Sparks Racing) settled for second and third spots, respectively, while pole-sitter Ann Jennifer (Alpha Racing) came in a disappointing fourth.

“I am very happy to score my first-ever win in the National championship. I had a good start today and a trouble-free run after going into the lead early in the first lap. The bike too performed very well,” said a delighted Rakshitha.

Rakshith Dave reigned supreme in the NSF 250R race after the initial battle with the more experienced Mohsin Paramban (Mallapuram) with Bengaluru’s AS James finishing third. It was Rakshith’s first-ever win in this class. Incidentally, Rakshith’s twin sister, Rakshitha made her debut in this class and finished 13th.

Coimbatore’s Senthilkumar C. took the honours in the truncated Open (Apache RR 310) race that was reduced to three laps from six due to a red flag stoppage following an on-track incident. Jayanth Pratipathi (Chennai) came in second, ahead of Nagercoil’s Ajai Xavier M.

Harshith V. Bogar from Bengaluru notched a dominating win in the Rookie category with second-placed Saranjith KM (Thrissur) finishing some 10 seconds behind. Vijayawada’s Akarsh Jangam was a distant third.

Mumbai’s Sarah Khan won the Girls (RTR 200) race untroubled by Pune’s Saimah Ajaz Baig and Aisvarya V (Coimbatore).