Stage set for 3rd round of National Motorcycle Racing Championship

The 20-race card will begin on Friday with free practice and qualifying sessions ahead of the races over the following two days.

The third round of the MRF-MMSC FMSCI National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2022 will be held at the Madras International Circuit. | Photo Credit: The Hindu

CHENNAI

The third round of the MRF-MMSC FMSCI National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2022 will be held at the Madras International Circuit at Sriperumbudur near here with keen contests expected in the Pro-Stock 301-400cc and Pro-Stock 165 cc classes.

The 20-race card will begin on Friday with free practice and qualifying sessions ahead of the races over the following two days which could see some exciting competition as was the case in the previous round last month.

“The two rounds so far have witnessed some thrilling action and extremely close races, and this weekend, we are sure, it will be no different,” MMSC vice-president Vicky Chandhok was quoted as saying in a press release here.

On the track, the National Championship will see double-headers in the two premier Pro-stock categories – 301-400cc Open and 165cc Open – besides the Novice (Stock 165cc) class, while one race is slated for the Girls (Stock 165cc) and the Stock 301-400cc, introduced as a support event this season.

The Petronas TVS One-Make Championship organised by MMSC – Open (Apache 310RR), and Rookie, Girls and Media (all Apache RTR200) – and the Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup – NSF 250R, Novice (CBR 150) and Hornet 2.0 (Support race) – make up rest of the weekend programme.

While veteran Rajini Krishnan (RACR Castrol Power1), bidding for his 11th National title, has dominated the premier Pro-Stock 301-400cc category with four wins from as many starts, in the popular Pro-Stock 165cc class Pacer Yamaha’s Mathana Kumar enjoys a 35-point advantage.

Mathana Kumar’s rivals, Rajiv Sethu (Idemitsu Honda SK69 Racing), and the Petronas TVS Racing pair of Deepak Ravikumar and KY Ahamed, showed signs of resurgence in the second round- last month after a washout in the season-opener at Coimbatore in June. Thus, the expectations are high of close battles this weekend.

The Petronas TVS One-Make Championship has seen some hectic action. In the Open category, there have been four different winners, while Bengaluru schoolboy Chiranth Vishwanath has won all four races in the Rookie class and Aditi Krishnan remains unbeaten after two outings in the Girls category.

Pune teenager Sarthak Shrikant Chavan, with a clean sweep of all four races, heads the NSF 250R class in the Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup as also Mumbai’s Raheesh Mudassar Khatri in the Novice (CBR 150) category.