Seshadri, Ann Jennifer top in Novice, Girls categories

KY Ahamed leads TVS Racing to double 1-2 finish

Seshadri, Ann Jennifer top in Novice, Girls categories
Ann Jennifer, winner of the Girls race (Stock 165cc) (Dec 18).

KY Ahamed started his campaign in the second and final round of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2020 with two brilliant performances as he led his team, TVS Racing, to 1-2 finishes in both the Pro-Stock categories (301-400cc and 165cc) at the MMRT, here on Friday.

Also notching up victories in the National championship were 23-year old Engineering graduate from Bengaluru Seshadri Suresh (Sparks Racing), in the Novice (Stock 165cc) and Ann Jennifer (Sparks Racing) who completed a hat-trick of wins in the Girls (Stock 165cc) category.

Ahamed, the 23-year old rising star from Chennai, first won the premier 301-400cc class race ahead of team-mate and last year’s champion Deepak Ravikumar and veteran Rajini Krishnan (RACR Castrol Power Racing). Ahamed, thus, moved ahead of championship leader Anish Damodar Shetty (Race Concepts) who retired with a mechanical problem at the start itself.

Soon after, Ahamed, timing his charge to perfection, took the top spot in the Pro-Stock 165cc category race, this time, leading his team-mate and multiple National champion Jagan Kumar over the finish line. Rajiv Sethu (Eneos Honda Erula Racing) came in third.

Earlier, in the Novice (Stock 165cc) race, Seshadri, starting from P7, languished in midfield for much of the six-lap race. At the front, Nithin S (Sparks Racing) and Ullas Santrupt (RACR Castrol Power Racing) were locked in a tight fight until the former crashed on the penultimate lap, exiting the last corner. Further down the grid, Seshadri made a tremendous move, getting past three front-runners and eased his way to a fine win ahead of Mohan Babu and Ullas Santrupt who was subsequently docked a 10-second penalty for overtaking under yellow flag and was pushed to sixth with Alwin Sundar (AS Motorsports) elevated to third spot.

Meanwhile, all three races in the TVS One-Make Championship organized by MMSC (Open, Novice and Girls) were reduced to three laps following crashes.

The results (Provisional – all 6 laps unless mentioned):

Pro-Stock 301-400cc (Race-1): 1. KY Ahamed (TVS Racing) (11mins, 47.303secs); 2. Deepak Ravikumar (TVS Racing) (11:47.410); 3. Rajini Krishnan (RACR Castrol Power Racing) (11:48.454).

Pro-Stock 165cc (Race-1): 1. KY Ahamed (TVS Racing) (12:09.878); 2. Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) (12:11.496); 3. Rajiv Sethu (Eneos Honda Erula Racing) (12:11.776).

Novice (Stock 165cc, Race-1): 1. Seshadri Suresh (Sparks Racing) (13:06.906); 2. Mohan Babu (Pvt, Chennai) (13:07.297); 3. Alwin Sundar (AS Motorsports) (13:07.670).

Girls (Stock 165cc, Race-1, 5 laps): 1. Ann Jennifer (Sparks Racing) (11:05.942); 2. Lani Zena Fernandez (Gusto Racing) (11:06.164); 3. Arpitha Bhat (Gusto Racing) (11:22.278).

TVS One-Make Championship – Open (RTR 310, Race-1, 3 laps): 1. Karthik Mateti (Hyderabad) (05:56.032); 2. Abhishek Vasudev (Bengaluru) (05:56.154); 3. Anand R (Chennai) (05:56.409). Novice (RTR 200, Race-1, 3 laps): 1. Sudheer Sudhakar (Delhi) (06:46.843); 2. Mohan Babu (Chennai) (06:46.919); 3. Abhishek Narayan (Kerala) (06:47.672). Girls (RTR 200, Race-1, 3 laps): 1. Jagruthi Kiran Penkar (Kalyan) (06:55.106); 2. Arpitha Bhat (Mangaluru) (06:55.743); 3. Jagathishree K (Chennai) (06:56.000).