Raghul named ‘Upcoming Motorsports Person of Year’

Mumbai: Chennai driver Raghul Rangasamy’s double national championship titles across two championships—Euro JK18 and MRF FF1600—deservedly won him the ‘Upcoming Motorsports Person of the Year Award’ at the FMSCI Annual Awards ceremony that saw the FIA President, Jean Todt, in attendance at the Taj Mahal Hotel here on Monday.

Raghul’s success in 2018 certainly placed him in the league of drivers who could be nurtured for international events in the coming years and the Raymonds-sponsored Gautam Singhania Rolling Trophy was the right notification for his efforts on track in two different types of cars.

Todt, who rose from being race driver to rally driver before donning the top post at Ferrari and oversaw legendary Michael Schumacher’s five world championship titles before moving to motorsports administration, hoped more talent to come up from “a vast country as India”.

Expressing his delight at the way Indian motorsport has progressed, Todt said he believed that India was on its way to bigger things on the world stage.

“But you need to set goals and get after them. India had Formula One for three years but the sport evolves and so country also need to evolve as the technology changes,” Todt told the Indian motorsports glitterati who came in numbers for the annual ceremony.

LIFETIME AWARD FOR KARTHIKEYAN
The annual function saw as many as 61 winners receiving the trophies. The former president of FMSCI (1981-82 & 1985-87), GR Karthikeyan, was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to Indian motorsport.

“We are entering the golden period of Indian motorsports. We have events in virtually all the disciplines possible and our boys and girls are competing and winning at the world level, like never before,” he said. “We are going to introduce many other exciting verticals very soon. We welcome Champions Yacht Club, the new promoters of INRC,” said FMSCI president J Prithiviraj.

The FMSCI handed out Special Awards to all those made the country proud at the international level too while making a special mention of multiple winner Gaurav Gill, for taking part in the World Rally Championship.

Leading female drivers of the country, including Mira Erda, Sneha Sharma and Shriya Lohia, were also bestowed with the ‘Outstanding Women in Motorsport’ trophies.

THE AWARDEES:
Lifetime achievement award: GR Karthikeyan; Motorsport Person of the Year: Raghul Rangasamy
JK Tyre FMSCI National Racing Championship:
Euro JK 18: Karthik Tharani; LGB Formula 4: Raghul Rangasamy; Champion Team (LGB Formula 4): Msport; Rookie Driver (LGB Formula 4): Sohil Shah
MRF FMSCI Indian Natl Racing Championship:
MRF FF 1600: Raghul Rangasamy; FLGB 1300: Sohil Shah; Champion Team (FLGB 1300): Msport; Super Stock K Srinivas Teja; Champion Team (Super Stock ):Performance Racing; Indian Junior Touring Cars: AS Prabhu; Champion Team( Indian Junior Touring Cars): Arka Motorsports; Indian Touring Cars: Ashish Ramaswamy; Champion Team (Indian Touring Cars): Arka Motorsports
FMSCI Indian National Autocross Championship:
(Stock 2WD upto 1400 cc ):Sahil Khanna; (Stock 2WD Over 1400 cc upto 1650 cc): Samrat Yadav; (Stock 2WD Over 1650 cc): Arjun Rao; (Open 2WD upto 1400 cc): Abhishek Mishra; (Open 2WD over 1400 cc upto 1650 cc): Dean Mascarenhas; (Open 2WD Over 1650 cc): Arjun Rao; (Open, Unrestricted): Abhishek Mishra; (Ladies): Bani Yadav.
MMSC FMSCI Natl Drag Racing Championship:
(Open Stock): Vivek Ramachander; (Open Altered): Jayant V; (Touring Cars): Kasha Sai; (Unrestricted Class): Vivek Ramachander.
MRF FMSCI Indian National Rally Championship:
Overall INRC: Gaurav Gill and Musa Sherif; Team: Mahindra Adventure; (INRC1): Gaurav Gill and Musa Sherif; Team: Mahindra Adventure; (INRC 2):Karna Kadur and Nikhil Pai; Team: Arka Motorsports; (INRC3): Aroor Vikram Rao and Somayya AG; Team: Falkon Motorsports.
Meco Motorsports FMSCI Natil Karting:
Micro Max: Ishaan Madesh; Team (Micro Max ): Peregrine Racing; Junior Max: Shahan Ali Mohsin; Team: Msport; Senior Max: Debarun Banerjee; Team: MSport          
MRF FMSCI Natl Motorcycle Championship:
(Pro Stock 301-400 cc): Satyanarayana Raju; Team: Gusto Racing India; Manufacturer: KTM; Super Sport Indian upto 165 cc: Jagan Kumar; Team: TVS Racing; Manufacturer: TVS; (Pro Stock upto 165 cc): Anish D Shetty; Team: Honda Ten10 Racing; Manufacturer: Honda; (Stock upto 165cc Girls): Ann Jenifer; Team: Sparks Racing; Manufacturer: Yamaha; (Stock upto 165 cc): Karthik Mateti; Team: Sparks Racing; Manufacturer: Yamaha.
MMSC FMSCI Natl Drag Racing Championship:
2 Stroke upto 130 cc: Hussain Khan; (2 Stroke 131 to 165cc): Hussain Khan; (4 Stroke upto 165 cc): Aravind Ganesh; (4 Stroke 166 to 225 cc): Harshil Thakur; (4 Stroke 226 to 360 cc): Shankar Guru; (4 Stroke 361 to 550 cc): R Ashwin Kumar; (4 Stroke 851 to 1050 cc): Hemant Mudappa; (4 Stroke 1051 & above): Hemant Mudappa; (4 Stroke Unrestricted): Hemant Mudappa; Team: Mantra Racing.
MRF FMSCI Natl Supercross Championship:
SX1 2 Stroke 250 cc & 4 Stroke 500 cc: Harith Noah; (Group C 2/4 Stroke: 260 cc Novice) Imran Pasha; (Group C 2/4 Stroke:260cc Indian Expert): Imran Pasha; (Group C 2/4 Stroke 260 cc Expert): Jagdeesh Kumar; (Group A SX2 2 Stroke 250 cc & 4 Stroke 500 cc): Saijith ES; (Junior SX 1 2/4 Stroke 250 cc): Yuvraj Kondedeshmukh; (Junior SX 2 2/4 Stroke 250 cc )Sarthak Chavan.
MRF FMSCI Natl Rally Championship:
Overall: R Nataraj; (Super Bike Pro Expert): R Nataraj; (Super Bike Expert): Jatin Jain; (Super Sport 130 cc): Rakesh Kumar V; (Super Sport 165 cc): Imran Pasha; (Super Sport 260 cc) Rajendra RE; (Super Sport 400 cc): Venu Ramesh Kumar; (Super Sport 550 cc): Vinit Sharma; (Scooters): Pinkesh Thakkar; (Ladies Class): Aishwarya PM.
Outstanding Achievement In World Motorsport:
Abhilash PG: Winner APRC 2 Cup for Drivers; Abdul Wahid: 2nd Overall in category of Rally of Morocco; Armaan Ebrahim and Anindith Reddy: Podium in Lamborgini Super Trofeo Asia; Podium ERC Acropolis Rally ERC2: Amittrajit Ghosh and Ashwin Naik; Jehan Daruvala: Several Podiums in FIA Euro F3 Championship; Karthik Matei: 2nd in Asia Cup of Road Racing (Indonesia Round); Musa Sherif: Winner APRC2 Cup for Co-Drivers; Malsawndawngliana: 2nd in Asia Cup of Road Racing India Round.
Outstanding Women in Motorsports: Mira Erda; Sneha Sharma; Shriya Lohia.