Sandeep Kumar cruises to victory in MRF F2000 race

Chennai: Chennai’s Sandeep Kumar, an advocate by profession, snatched a close win in the premier MRF Formula 2000 race, while another local ace Angad Matharoo scripted his fourth win in a row in the MRF Saloon Cars category in the second round of the MRF MMSC-FMSCI Indian National Car Racing Championship 2023 at the Madras International Circuit, at Irungattukottai, about 40 km from here, on Saturday.

While Sandeep Kumar, starting from P3, had to work hard for his success, holding off Bengaluru’s Anand Swaminathan and pole-sitter Arya Singh (Kolkata), the experienced Matharoo scored a lights-to-flag win from pole position. Another Bengalurean, Chetan Surineni topped in the MRF Formula 1600 category almost unchallenged.

Among the other big winners of the day was Mumbai’s Biren Pithawalla (Team N1 Racing) who took the honours in the Race-1 of Indian Touring Cars category after pole-sitter and defending champion Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) retired when leading due to an electrical malfunction. Further, Pithawalla gained a spot after race winner Ritesh Rai slipped to second as he was docked 15-second penalty following an incident involving Gurunath Meiyappan (Race Concepts) who came in third. Balu decided to pack up for the weekend, skipping the remaining two races.

Later, Meiyappan scored a facile win, his second of the season, in Race-2 ahead of Ritesh Rai and Biren Pithawalla to move to the top of the points table in the ITC category.

Akkineni Anand Prasad (Team Performance Racing) from Chennai and Thrissur’s Diljith TS (DTS Racing) notched a double apiece in the Indian Junior Touring Cars and Super Stock categories, respectively. While Prasad moved to the top of the championship table, Diljith remains unbeaten in all five starts over two rounds so far.

Meanwhile, Nellore’s Viswas Vijayaraj (DTS Racing) and team-mate, veteran Diljith TS won a race each in the Formula LGB 1300 category. Viswas took Race-1 easily from pole position start while Diljith surged to victory in the next race from the reverse grid.(UNI)<>