Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship: Pune’s Sarthak Chavan (TVS Racing) was the fastest rider in the official practice session which kick-started the first round of the fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship at the Madras International Circuit, here on Thursday, which saw the competitors getting a feel of the conditions.The ever-improving teenager Sarthak put in a hot lap of one minute, 50.802 seconds in the Pro-Stock 301-400cc Open category sparing over 1.5 seconds to teammate Chiranth Vishwanath (01:52.332) from Bengaluru while the seasoned Chennai ace K.Y. Ahamed, also from TVS Racing, was third quickest in 01:53.596 around the 3.7-Km circuit. Chiranth, however, got the better of Sarthak in the Pro-Stock 165cc Open category practice session. He put together a best lap of 01:58.642, which was better than Sarthak’s 01:58.985 while multiple National champion Jagan Kumar (02:01.244) rounded off the top three for TVS Racing.
In the Girls’ (Stock 165cc) category, less than one second covered the top three. Former National champion, Chennai’s Ann Jennifer (Alpha Racing), warmed up for the battles ahead by putting in the best lap of 02:10.631 edging out Ryhana Bee (Motul Sparks Racing, 02:10.749) and 15-year-old Rakshitha Dave (RACR Castrol Power1 Ultimate, 02:10.910).
Chennai’s Abdul Basim (Rockers Racing) led the way clocking 02:8.947, followed by Mysuru rider Tasmai Cariappa (Motul Sparks Racing, 02:10.584) and local racer Kamal Navas (One Racing, 02:11.723) in the Novice (Stock 165cc) class.
SpeedUp Racing’s Vyshak Sobhan emerged the quickest in the 301-400cc Novice category, which has attracted 31 entries, with a top lap of 02:01.625, well clear of Kaushik Subbaiah Ganesan (RACR Castrol Power1 Ultimate, 02:02.874) and Bengaluru’s Rohit Lad (Mad Rabbit Racing, 02:02.983).
Chennai’s 15-year-old Rakshith Dave (01:53.150) set the pace astride the NSF 250R machine in the Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup, followed by Bengaluru’s Savion Sabu (01:58.933) and Steve Waugh Sugi (Trichy, 02:01.306).
Earlier in the afternoon, Sarthak Chavan topped the time sheets in the TVS Electric RTE class, clocking a best lap of 01:50.451, ahead of the experienced duo of Deepak Ravikumar (01:50.561) and KY Ahamed (01:51.040).
