National Motorcycle Racing Championships | Rahil stuns favourite Sarthak, claims honours 

Rahul Pillarisetty won the Pro-Stock 301-400cc category race.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Hyderabad’s Rahil Pillarisetty (RACR Castrol Power1) pulled off his first win in four years as he pipped favourite Sarthak Chavan, the Pune teenager, to claim the honours in the premier Pro-Stock 301-400cc Open race even as the first round of the MRF-MMSC-FMSCI National Motorcycle Racing Championships came to an abrupt end due to a thunderstorm at the Madras International Circuit here on Sunday.

The heavy rains accompanied by strong winds early afternoon caused considerable damage to the facility while it also forced cancellation of day’s remaining two races which will be run in the second round in August.

Earlier, Ann Jennifer (RACR Castrol Power1) from Chennai and Bengaluru’s Varun Patil (Mad Rabbit Racing) completed a double apiece in the Girls (Stock 165cc) and Stock 301-400cc (Novice) categories, respectively, while young Kedarnadh (Motul KTM Gusto Racing) from Tirupati topped the Stock 165cc (Novice) race.

The results (Provisional, all six laps unless mentioned): Pro-Stock 301-400cc Open (Race-2): 1. Rahil Pillarishetty (Hyderabad, RACR Castrol Power 1) (11mins, 03.229secs); 2. Sarthak Chavan (Pune, Petronas TVS Racing) (11:03.501); 3. Chiranth Vishwanath (Bengaluru, Petronas TVS Racing) (11:03.543).

Stock 301-400cc (Novice) Race-2: 1. Varun Patil (Bengaluru, Mad Rabbit Racing) (12:22.078); 2. Kamal Navas (Chennai, Rockers Racing) (12:22.412); 3. Jagadeesh Nagaraj (Bengaluru, 12:23.382).

Stock 165cc (Novice) Race-2: 1. Kedarnath (Tirupati, Motul KTM Gusto Racing) (13:09.435); 2. Rajender Beedani (Hyderabad, MAI Racing) (13:15.456); 3. Yashwant Varma (Visakhapatnam, Motul Sparks Racing) (13:25.449).

Girls (Stock 165cc) Race-2 (5 laps): 1. A.S. Ann Jennifer (Chennai, Motul Sparks Racing) (10:55.279); 2. Jagathishree Kumaresan (Chennai, One Racing) (10:57.190); 3. Rakshitha Dave (Chennai, RACR Castrol Power 1) (10:58.280).

Petronas TVS One-Make Championship: Rookie (Apache RTR 200) Race-2 (4 laps): 1. R. Hari Haran (Coimbatore) (09:11.487); 2. Poojitha Anil Kumar (Bengaluru) (09:19.950); 3. Hesali Nehansa Peiris (Sri Lanka) (09:20.010).

Electric RTE (4 laps): 1. Sarthak Chavan (Pune, Petronas TVS Racing) (07:21.348); 2. Chiranth Vishwanath (Bengaluru, Petronas TVS Racing) (07:27.075); 3. C. Senthilkumar (Coimbatore, Petronas TVS Racing) (07:35.232).

Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup: Honda CB 300F (Race-2, 8 laps): 1. R. Solomon (Bengaluru) (17:03.481); 2. Deepak Kumar (Chennai) (17:13.576); 3. Swaroop Krishna (Chennai) (17:24.441).