National Motorcycle Racing C'ship: Sarthak Chavan Notches Major Win, Double For Sethu, Goud

TVS Racing’s Sarthak Chavan, the 16-year-old from Pune, emerged triumphant at the Madras International Circuit here on Sunday as he scored the biggest win of his blossoming racing career by trumping the Pro-Stock 165cc Open field in the second round of the MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2023 here on Sunday.

Sarthak’s landmark win saw him lead a 1-2 for his team with KY Ahamed.

Earlier, seasoned rider Rajiv Sethu (RACR Castrol Power1 Ultimate) completed a double in the Pro-Stock 301-400cc Open category. Hyderabad’s Vignesh Goud (Race’ists Motorcycle Club) completed a second double of the season in the Novice (Stock 165cc) category, and 2020 champion Ann Jennifer (Alpha Racing), who notched her first win of the season in the Girls (Stock 165cc) class.

The day belonged to Sarthak, who is doing a diploma course in Mechanical Engineering. The Race-2 of the Pro-Stock 165cc Open category, which witnessed as many as four riders taking turns to lead, Sarthak, winner of the Honda India Talent Cup championship last year, kept his wits as he bravely fought wheel to wheel with a clutch of highly experienced riders, including Sethu, winner of Race-1 yesterday, Ahamed and Jagan Kumar (Petronas TVS Racing).

The race turned decisively in his favour when Jagan crashed in the last lap allowing Sarthak, running second at that point, to take the lead which he kept to the finish. Ahamed followed him home in second ahead of pole-sitter Sethu who opted to go for points than win.

“Of course, I am thrilled to win the race, my first at this level in the Pro-Stock category. It was a tough outing with so many of us exchanging the lead. But after Jagan’s crash, I stepped up the pace a bit and started to brake late which helped me to keep the lead to the finish,” said Sarthak.

Earlier, in the Pro-Stock 301-400cc Open race, Rajiv Sethu shrugged off an error-filled opening lap to ease past front-runner Deepak Ravikumar (Petronas TVS Racing) for the lead. Thereafter, it was literally a procession even as Ravikumar crashed leaving Petronas TVS Racing pair of Sarthak Chavan and Jagan Kumar to take up the chase that faded with each lap and Sethu won comfortably to complete a clean sweep of four races over two rounds in his debut season in this category.

Likewise, pole-sitter Vignesh Goud, after an initial scramble, got away from the field for his second win of the weekend and fourth of the season. Finishing behind the winner were two Bengalureans, Manvith Reddy (RACR Castrol Power1 Ultimate) and Savion Babu (Axor Sparks Racing)

In contrast, Ann Jennifer, the 2020 champion who lost the title by a point last year, was involved in a three-way battle in the Girls' race with Ryhana Bee (Axor Sparks Racing) and Lani Fernandez (RACR Castrol Power1 Ultimate). The trio exchanged lead, before Jennifer managed to get ahead of the duo for a deserving win, her first of the season. Ryhana finished second and Lani, winner of the first round in Coimbatore last month, came in third.

Disqualified: Pacer Yamaha riders, Mathana Kumar and Prabhu Arunagiri, who had finished second and third in the Pro-Stock 165cc Open Race-1 on Saturday, were both disqualified for technical infringements following mandatory post-race scrutiny. Consequently, all the riders who finished behind the Pacer Yamaha pair gained two spots.

Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup (NSF 250): Local youngster Shyam Sundar K fought off Bengaluru’s AS James for his maiden win in this category. Finishing third was Mumbai’s Raheesh Khatri after the championship leader in this category, Kavin Samaar Quintal (Chennai) crashed in the very first lap.

Petronas TVS One-Make Championship: Bengaluru’s Chiranath Vishwanath eked out a slender win in the first race of the Open (RR 310) category, holding off two Chennai lads, Romario John and G Balaji with very little separating the trio. In Race-2, it was an all-Chennai affair as Manoj Yesuadiyan emerged winner with Alwin Sundar A and Romario John completing the podium.

Shreyas Hareesh from Bengaluru extended his win-spree by completing a double this weekend in the Rookie category (RTR 200). He was stretched to the limit in today’s Race-2 by fellow-Bengalurean Savion Sabu while Chennai’s Nandanan came in third.

The results (Provisional – 6 laps unless mentioned):

National Championship – Pro-Stock 301-400cc Open (Race-2, 8 laps): 1. Rajiv Sethu (Chennai, RACR Castrol Power1 Ultimate) (15mins, 17.576secs); 2. Sarthak Chavan (Pune, Petronas TVS Racing) (15:21.418); 3. Jagan Kumar (Chennai, Petronas TVS Racing) (15:24.845).

Pro-Stock 165cc Open (Race-2, 8 laps): 1. Sarthak Chavan (Pune, Petronas TVS Racing) (15:48.536); 2. KY Ahamed (Chennai, Petronas TVS Racing) (15:49.371); 3. Rajiv Sethu (Chennai, RACR Castrol Power1 Ultimate) (15:49.620);

Race-1 Revised result (held on Saturday): 1. Rajiv Sethu (11:49.749); 2. Sarthak Chavan (11:50.287); 3. Jagan Kumar (Chennai, Petronas TVS Racing) (11:54.150).

Novice (Stock 165cc) (Race-2): 1. Vignesh Goud (Hyderabad, Race’ists Motorcycle Club) (13:03.852); 2. Manvith Reddy K (Bengaluru, RACR Castrol Power1 Ultimate) (13:13.061); 3. Savion Sabu (Bengaluru, Axor Sparks Racing) (13:13.085).

Girls' (Stock 165cc): 1. Ann Jennifer (Chennai, Alpha Racing) (11:02.333); 2. Ryhana Bee (Chennai, Axor Sparks Racing) (11:02.564); 3. Lani Fernandez (Puducherry, RACR Castrol Power1 Ultimate) (11:03.172)

Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup (NSF 250, Race-2, 8 laps): 1. Shyam Sundar K (Chennai) (15:21.396); 2. AS James (Bengaluru) (15:21.779); 3. Raheesh Khatri (Mumbai) (15:22.353).

Petronas TVS One-Make Championship – Open (RR 310): Race-1: 1. Chiranth Vishwanath (Bengaluru) (11:45.731); 2. Romario John (Chennai) (11:45.812); 3. G Balaji (Chennai) (11:45.981). Race-2: 1. Manoj Yesuadiyan (Chennai) (11:45.273); 2. Alwin Sundar A (Chennai) (11:45.329); 3. Romario John (Chennai) (11:45.563).

Rookie (Apache RTR 200, Race-2): 1. Shreyas Hareesh (Bengaluru) (12:38.043); 2. Savion Sabu (Bengaluru) (12:38.222); 3. Nandanan (Chennai) (12:45.605).