As the curtains come down on the 2014/15 MRF Challenge, the National Racing Championship has gotten underway at the Madras Motor Racing Track.
The Indian circuit racing season is underway in its traditional home in south India as the revamped Madras Motor Race Track was put through its paces with the MRF Challenge concluding and the National Racing Championship kicking off as well. While there remains doubt as to whether the best talent possible is being found and filtered through the categories in both the MRF and JK Tyre supported series, those pulling the strings in both camps can’t, at least, be faulted in keeping racers active with whatever facilities are at their disposal.
Talking about circuit racing infrastructure in the country is a touchy subject, but Indian motorsport fans have learnt to temper their expectations over time.
KICKING THINGS OFF
By the time you read this, the first second round of the National Racing Championship would have been concluded at the MMRT. The racers would, however, have gotten a good warm up after the 2014/15 MRF F2000 Challenge concluded with the NRC roster playing a supporting role as it did with its opening round last year.
Eighteen-year-old Toby Sowery was crowned MRF Challenge 2014 Champion after finishing on the podium in Race 3 at the finale here in Chennai. Sowery is the third and youngest champion of the MRF Challenge in its short history. Ryan Cullen won his first race of the weekend ahead of Sowery and Oscar King in Race 3 while King took his first win of the series ahead of Matthew Solomon and Gustava Myasava.
Sowery finished on top of the standings with 221 points with Cullen in 2nd place with 174 points. Raj Bharath finished in 3rd place, making him the highest Indian finisher in the MRF Challenge. Kyle Mitchell, who missed the final round, had 112 points with Tarun Reddy finishing 5th in the Championship with 87 points.
The supporting MRF Formula Ford 1600 championship saw Goutham Parekh and Arjun Narendran crowned as winner. With last year’s champion Reddy rubbing wheels with the F2000 grid, it was left to other racers to challenge the likes of Advait Deodhar, who had settled into something of a comfort zone due to limited competition in last year’s field.
NARENDRAN AND PAREKH WIN
Parekh, who started on pole, managed to hold on to the lead ahead of Deodhar and Karthik Tharani Singh, while finished Narendran fourth. Tharani Singh made a bold move to pass Deodhar and go after Parekh. It was a four-way battle and there was almost nothing to choose from with Parekh leading Tharani Singh, Deodhar and Narendran. It finished in the same order with Tharani Singh unable to find a way past the leader, finishing 0.652 seconds behind Parekh At the end of the race the top four were separated by mere 1.864 seconds.
Narendran started on reverse grid pole in the second FF1600 race of the weekend. He led into the first corner ahead of fast starting British driver Hamish Robinson, who jumped into second place from fifth on the grid. Race 1 winner slotted in into third place and quickly passed Robinson and set off after the leader. Deodhar also passed Robinson and joined Parekh in catching the leader. As in Race 1, there was nothing to choose from the top three. Narendran crossed the line to take his first win with Parekh finishing in second place and Deodhar in third. Tharani Singh survived a first lap crash which damaged his front wing to finish in fourth position, ahead of Robinson and Anshul Shah.
WHAT LIES AHEAD
The inclusion of experienced racers like Parekh and Narendran is a good step in providing a benchmark for the next group of aspiring racers who enter the FF1600 category. Ideally one would also like to see drivers from the JK Tyre camp try their hand in MRF supported events but as always in Indian motorsport one should not expect too much to happen too soon.
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