Mamallapuram’s Raghul Rangasamy retained the title in the MRF F1600 category as did Kolhapur’s Dhruv Shivaji Mohite in the Indian Touring Cars class on the concluding day of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Car Racing Championship at the MMRT here on Sunday.
Also winning the National titles in their respective categories were Rithvik Thomas, the 26-year old from Bengaluru (Super Stock), Chennai’s Ashwin Datta (Formula LGB 1300) who had sealed the title on Saturday itself, Hyderabad’s Jeet Jhabakh (Ameo Class) and Aiman Sadat (Bangladesh, Ameo Class Junior).
Raghul, 26, thus, earned a sponsored drive from MRF Tyres in one round of the Civic Cup Racing Championship in the United Kingdom. Although he finished fifth in the last race, he picked up sufficient points to clinch the title for the second year in a row while finishing a highly productive weekend when he earned as many as 138 points.
“I am thrilled at this opportunity to race abroad and thank MRF for this opportunity which came as a pleasant surprise for me,” said Raghul, who had started the weekend in seventh position on the leaderboard.
Mohite, winner of three National karting titles and the Volkswagen Ameo Cup last year, said: “It feels great to win the Touring Cars championship. It has been a great experience to race with some of the legends of Indian racing.”
The results (provisional, all eight laps unless mentioned):
MRF F1600: Race-3: 1. Raghul Rangasamy (Mamallapuram) (13:27.614); 2. Yash Aradhya (Bengaluru) (13:32.277); 3. Sohil Shah (Bengaluru) (13:33.707).
Race-4: 1. Nayan Chatterjee (Mumbai) (13:43.620); 2. Nirmal Umashankar (Chennai) (13:43.763); 3. Manav Sharma (Faridabad) (13:45.136).
Indian Touring Cars: Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Arjun Narendran (Arka Motorsports) (18:56.842); 2. Dhruv Shivaji Mohite (Rayo Racing) (19:16.864); 3. Karthik Tharani (Rayo Racing) (19:17.401).
Super Stock: Race-1 (7 laps): 1. Rithvik Thomas (Race Concepts) (14:10.391); 2. Sudanand Daniel (Race Concepts) (14:16.329); 3. Archit Mylanda (Race Concepts) (14:44.876).
Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Rithvik (20:18.368); 2. Sudanand (20:30.084); 3. R. Raja Shekar (Race Concepts) (20:51.372).
Formula LGB 1300: Race-2: 1. Deepak Ravikumar (Momentum Motorsports) (15:34.910); 2. Tijil Rao (Momentum Motorsports) (15:37.407); 3. Arya Singh (DTS Racing) (15:40.848).
Volkswagen Ameo Class: Race-2: 1. Anmol Singh Sahil (Delhi) (15:43.297); 2.Jeeth Jhabakh (Hyderabad) (15:44.294); 3. Tasmin Pepper (South Africa) (15:44.692).
Race-3: 1. Pepper (15:30.299); 2. Jeffrey Kruger (South Africa) (15:30.612); 3. Jeet (15:46.550).
National Championship winners: MRF F1600: Raghul.
Indian Touring Cars: Dhruv. Team: Race Concepts (Bengaluru).
Super Stock: Rithvik. Team: Race Concepts (Bengaluru).
Formula LGB 1300: Ashwin Datta (Chennai, Momentum Motorsports). Team: Momentum Motorsports (Chennai).
Volkswagen Ameo Class: Jeet Jhabakh (Hyderabad) and Aiman Sadat (Bangladesh, Junior).