Sizzling West scorches tracks in Chennai

Australia's Anthony West made it to the victory stands unchallenged, recording his fourth win this season.

Anthony West celebrates his victory on the podium.

Red-hot Anthony West sizzled on a hot Chennai afternoon when he scored a lights-to-flag victory -- his second of the weekend -- while asserting his supremacy in the SuperSport 600cc field in the fourth round of the FIM Asia Road Racing Championship (ARRC) which concluded at the Madras Motor Race Track, near here, on Sunday.

West won by over seven seconds, a testimony to his authority, while recording his fourth win of the season which put him in line for his maiden ARRC title.

While West cruised to victory untroubled and unchallenged on his Yamaha, behind him Tomoyoshi Koyoma (MUSASHi Boon Siew Honda), a former MotoGP rider, won a thrilling scrap with fellow-Japanese, the 19-year old Taiga Hada (Idemitsu Honda Racing India), to grab the second spot. For Hada, who became an instant favourite with the large crowd, it was his second podium of the weekend.

Anthony West in action at the MMRT on Sunday.

 

Rafid Topan Sucipto (Yamaha) and Andy Muhammad Fadly (Kawasaki) delivered a 1-2 for Indonesia in the Asia Production 250cc race ahead of Thailand’s Anupab Sarmoon (Yamaha) in a near photo-finish with barely three-tenth of a second separating the trio.

It was a horrible day for the two Indian riders, Rajiv Sethu and Anish Damodara Shetty, as they finished 16th and 19th, thus out of points.

Earlier, 14-year old Australian boy Travis Hall grabbed eyeballs when he fought his way to third place in the highly competitive Underbone 150cc class race. It was Hall’s first podium of the season.

Bengaluru’s Abhishek Vasudev and Aravind Balasubramaniam (Chennai) shared the honours in the two Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup races. However, in the championship stakes, Coimbatore’s Senthil Kumar, with two second-place finishes, moved to the top of the leaderboard with 99 points, ahead of Vasudev (88) and Anish Shetty (86) who sat out both the races due to injury.

The TVS One-Make Championship (Apache RR310) double-header dished out close races as Vivek Pillai and PM Soorya, both from Chennai, won one apiece. The victory helped Pillai (94 points) close in on championship leader Deepak Ravikumar (98), who finished second and fifth in the two races, Soorya managed to move up to mid-table with a tally of 33.