Rajiv Sethu leads Honda charge

The other highlight of the day was the grand double by Prabhu Arunagiri (Team Alisha Abdullah) in the Pro-Stock 301-400cc category, which is set for a grandstand finish in the final round in December.

Rajiv Sethu (c), winner of the Super Sport Indian 165cc, flanked by second-placed Jagan Kumar (l), and Mathana Kumar.

Rajiv Sethu successfully led a Honda assault on TVS Racing’s supremacy to score a brilliant victory over defending champion Jagan Kumar in the premier Super Sport Indian 165cc class as the fourth round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship (INMRC) concluded at the MMRT, here, on Sunday.

“At Turn-3 in the first lap, the gears tended to slip and I had to firmly put my foot down on the pedal to avoid any more slippage. Jagan went past me, but later, I managed to pass him on the straight. Thereafter, it was a close fight and I had a scary moment in the penultimate lap when I almost lost balance in the Bridge Complex, but managed to hold it together for the win,” said Sethu.

The victory notwithstanding, Jagan, the TVS Racing team’s spearhead, garnered a crucial 18 points for his second-place finish on Sunday that consolidated his position at the top of the championship table with a tally of 148 ahead of teammate K.Y. Ahamed (128), winner of the first race on Saturday and who finished fourth behind Honda Ten10 Racing’s Mathana Kumar in the second outing on Sunday.

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The other highlight of the day was the grand double by Prabhu Arunagiri (Team Alisha Abdullah) in the Pro-Stock 301-400cc category, which is set for a grandstand finish in the final round in December. Only five points separate the top three – Satyanarayana Raju of Gusto Racing (119), teammate Amarnath Menon (118), and Arunagiri (114).

Hyderabad’s 19-year-old college student Karthik Mateti (Sparks Racing) chalked up a dominating win in the Novice (Stock 165cc) race to take a 16-point lead in the championship. Another rider from Hyderabad, the 20-year-old Rahil Pillari Shetty, also from Sparks Racing, followed suit with the season’s maiden win in the highly competitive Pro-Stock 165cc category where Bengaluru-based techie Anish Shetty (Honda Ten10 Racing), who finished second today, continues to head the leaderboard with 131 points to Kevin Kannan’s (Rockers Racing) 115.

The results (Provisional): Super Sport Indian 165cc (Race 2, 8 laps): 1. Rajiv Sethu (Honda Ten10 Racing) 15:32.320s; 2. Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) 15:32.450; 3. S. Mathana Kumar (Honda Ten10 Racing) 15:37.725.

Pro-Stock 301-400cc (Race-2, 8 laps): 1. Prabhu Arunagiri (Team Alisha Abdulla) 15:24.129; 2. Satyanarayana Raju (Gusto Racing) 15:24.706; 3. Rahil Pillari Shetty (Sparks Racing) 15:34.637.

Pro-Stock 165cc (Race-2, 8 laps): 1. Rahil Pillari Shetty (Sparks Racing) 16:09.127; 2. Anish Shetty (Honda Ten10 Racing) 16:14.615; 3. Senthil Kumar (Honda Ten10 Racing) 16:14.851.

Novice (Stock 165cc, 6 laps): 1. Karthik Mateti (Sparks Racing) 13:00.950; 2. Varun Sobhan (Speed Up Racing) 13:03.720; 3. I. Venkatesan I (Chennai) 13:05.622.