Team TVS riders corner glory

THE second round of the MRF National Motocross Championship was held in Jaipur (June 14 and 15) in sweltering heat. It was run on a 660-metre track with 10 single and double jumps, three table tops of about 100 feet each, bumps and a section of whoop-de-doos.

Both the bike giants, Team Yamaha Racing and Team TVS Racing were all set to take the battle to the tracks. Pre-event scrutiny that was planned for Friday evening was postponed to Saturday morning, reportedly due to non-availability of scrutiny cards. On Saturday morning, scrutiny at 7.30, briefing at 9.30 and practice at 11.00 was the schedule. Scrutiny was done at around 12 noon, and briefing followed and the practice session started as late as 1 p.m. It was pathetic to see all the riders and `mechs' and even journalists hang around the track, just for the practice session for almost four hours.

On June 15, all the riders in the Foreign Open Class, the opening race of the day, were at the start grid at 8.55 hours, about 5 minutes before the scheduled time. After 20 minutes of wait there were two warm-up laps and all of them were sent off to the pits, for their grid positions. Finally they were recalled and the first moto took off at 9.30 a.m.

The day started with the 12 lap race for the Group `A' Foreign Open Class 2 & 4 bikes upto 250 cc. As the 10,000 strong crowd waited with bated breath, it was T.K. Vishwanath of Team Yamaha Racing who took the hole-shot. Leading by about four laps, he had an unfortunate fall and the four stroke bike went off. But teammate Yogesh Barguje, who was in second place, took it from there and won the moto for Yamaha. C. Vijayakumar of Team TVS Racing (which has changed riding colours to red) finished second and his teammate G. Prasad finished third.

In fact, in the second moto for the class, which was also the final race of the day, it was once again T. K. Vishwanath of Team Yamaha Racing at the helm, but a similar fall as in the first moto saw him finish way behind. C. Vijayakumar of TVS who was behind him took off and there was no looking back for the Bangalore lad, who is the reigning National Moto Champion. Sayed Eathasham, of Team Yamaha Racing, who won the class in Bangalore one-off event, finished second in the final moto. Sayed Rehman of TVS finished third. In the overall placings in the class combining both the motos, C. Vijayakumar finished with 37 points, followed by Yogesh Barguje from Pune with 30 points, and Sayed Rehman with 26.

Sayed Rehman in addition to the third overall placing in the Foreign Class, won the Indian Experts Class Group `D' FS 3-4 stroke 110-180 cc astride a Fiero. He shone in this event, taking both teams into consideration. Sayed, who has been in the sport for sometime now, seems to have improved his skills and speed.

Sayed Eathasham of Team Yamaha Racing astride a RX135, took part in the Indian Experts Group `B' (M2 &M3) 2-stroke 80-150 cc bikes class and won the race leading from gate to flag. Worthy of mention is the tremendous show put up by the local Team Saahas promoted by Anil Gautam. They took the leather out of Team TVS Racing and Team Yamaha Racing winning the Novice Class and of course the Local Class. Taking the first and third position in the Novice Class and first and second in the Local Class, there was revelry in the Team Saahas camp. "We are trying to prove ourselves," said Anil Gautam.

There are only two major competitive Teams in Motocross, namely, Yamaha Racing and TVS Racing. It is alleged that the Team TVS trainer Glenn was seen on the track early in the morning on the day of the event, training his boys how to take the jumps, etc. Team Yamaha Racing handed over a protest to this effect to the Stewards of the meet who in turn spoke to the organisers. The organisers apologised for it.

Team TVS Racing had a good day and the team-mates went into raptures as Vijay won the final moto of the day. "Today was a bad day for us. We had falls and punctures. But we are happy with what we have done and with four more rounds to go will work hard towards the Championship," said a sportive Team Yamaha Racing Director Shekhar Bhojanna. "We are happy that we were leading in almost all the races, before punctures and the fall in loose sand, troubled us. We only hope that our competitors will not use unfair means to win races like practicing during non-practice time," said a visibly upset Yamaha Racing Team Manager Sujith Kumar.

The results:

Class I: Indian Experts-Foreign Motorcyles Class group `A' (A1 & A2) stroke 2/4 upto 250 cc: (Combined results of two motos): 1. Team TVS Racing — C. Vijayakumar (37 points), 2. Team Yamaha Racing — Yogesh Barguje (30), 3. Team TVS Racing — Sayed Rehman (26).

Class II: Indian Experts-Indian Motorcyles Class group `B' (M2 &M3) stroke 2 80-150 cc: 1. Team Yamaha Racing — Sayed Eathasham, 2. Team TVS Racing — Sayed Rehman, 3. Team Yamaha Racing — Yogesh Barguje.

Class III: Indian Experts-Indian Motorcyles Class group `B'(FS2 & FS3) stroke 4 110-250 cc: 1.Team TVS Racing — C. Vijayakumar, 2. Team TVS Racing— Rustom Patel, 3. Team TVS Racing — G. Prasad.

Class IV: Indian Novice-Indian Motorcycles Class group `D' (M2 & M3 and FS2 & FS3) stroke 2/4 80-150 cc : 1. Team Saahas — M. Sayeed, 2. Sunil Mohite, 3. Team Saahas — Ravikant Sharma.

Class V: Indian Experts-Indian Motorcycles Class group `D' FS 2 stroke 4 80-110 cc: 1. Team TVS Racing — C.D. Jinan, 2. Team Yamaha Racing — Shivkumar, 3. Team Yamaha Racing — Suresh Kurangiri.

Class VI: Indian Experts-Indian Motorcycles Class group `D' FS 3 stroke 4 110-180 cc: 1. Team TVS Racing — Sayed Rehman, 2. Team Yamaha Racing — Shivkumar, 3. Team TVS Racing — B.V. Suresh.

Class VII: Local Class-Indian Motorcycles Class group `C' stroke 2/4 110-180 cc: 1. Team Saahas — Ravikant Sharma, 2. Team Saahas — M. Saeed, 3. Kuldeep Singh.

Class VIII: Demonstration Class group `D' stroke 2/4 upto 250 cc: 1. Hitesh Sharma, 2. Vishal Rochiramani.

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