New Talent Sizzles at IDEMITSU Honda India Talent Cup

CHENNAI:
With the racing action limited to only two weekends, the 2020 Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship and IDEMITSU Honda India Talent Cup has been a challenging, fun and reckoning experience for Honda riders across categories of championship.

Exemplifying Honda’s racing DNA, Honda’s 24 youthful riders of IDEMITSU Honda India Talent Cup across NSF250R Open class and CBR150R Novice class left no stone unturned with their fireball performances. Topping the leadership board is the Pune’s Sarthak Chavan. The 14 year old has taken over the championship title for IDEMITSU Honda India Talent Cup NSF20R Open class with his dazzling performance followed by Chennai boys Kavin Quintal at second position and Varoon S at third position.

Throttling fearlessly with the confidence is the Chennai’s Shyam Sundar who became the champion of the 2020 IDEMITSU Honda India Talent Cup CBR150R Novice class followed by Vivek Rohit Kapadia from Belgaum at second position and the youngest of all, the 12 year old Rakshith S Dave from Chennai securing the third position.

ENEOS Honda Erula Racing team riders grabbed 10 podiums in the 2020 season of Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship PS165cc including 3 victories. Sunday was the day of hope and courage for the ace rider Mathana Kumar. In the morning race we saw his battling skills and completing the round at the third position with the best lap time of 2:00.711. The afternoon finale race of the season, saw Mathana conquering fearlessly and finally grabbing his 1 st win of the season. With this, Mathana scored 4 podiums in this season and secured third position in the 2020 championship.

Expressing his feelings, Prabhu Nagaraj, Senior Vice President, Brand & Communication, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. Said, “Sunday was filled with mixed feelings, while Rajiv Sethu continued to face technical issues with his machines, Mathana Kumar rose to the occasion and achieved double podium for the team Honda.Despite many limitations and time constraints, I am overwhelmed with the performances of our young guns in the IDEMITSU Honda India Talent Cup. Both Sarthak and Shayam have shown outstanding performances in their respective categories. Our debut riders have also got great exposure and are all prepped up for the next season. I congratulate all the riders for putting up their best efforts and now we look forward to the 2021 season.”

Mathana Kumar leads with the best lap time in race 4 of Pro-Stock 165cc
Leading the intense battle for the podium win, Honda’s Mathana Kumar was fully boosted for the victory. In the morning round, who fought neck to neck for the podium and completed the race at third position with only difference of 0.077 seconds from his nearest competitor and 4.238 seconds from the podium win. Showing his confidence, Mathana who started from the third position in the afternoon took over his competition comfortably won the podium with the difference of 4.185 seconds with the best lap time of 2:01.498. While, it was a hard luck for Rajiv Sethu who couldn’t compete in the races due to the technical issues in his machines on the PS 165 class.

IDEMITSU Honda India Talent Cup – NSF 250R & CBR 150R categories
The NSF 250R saw the exciting race by the youngest lad Sarthak Chavan who despite starting from the last grid showed his racing DNA and crossed the finish line claiming the podium win. This made him the winner of 2020 season of IDEMITSU Honda India Talent Cup NSF20R Open class. Following him was Bengaluru boy Samuel Martin who finished at 2 nd place followed by Mohsin P from Valanchery at the 3 rd place. Fighting for the podium win, Sarthak completed with the lap time of 14:59.511 with the large difference of 0.52.128 seconds ahead of Samuel. This Race was with twists with top riders off the race, gave opportunity for some new riders on the podium.

The action packed race of CBR150R Novice class saw the nail biting performances the Honda’s millennial riders, where the class champion Shyam Sundar gave claimed the podium win with the lap time 13:30.923 and become the champion of 2020 IDEMITSU Honda India Talent Cup CBR150R Novice class. Giving him the tough competition on the track was Ikshan Shanbhag from Satara who in his debut season claimed 1 st podium in the final race and crossed the finish line at 2 nd position with the only difference 0.415 seconds. Following him was Vivek Rohit Kapadia who was competing for the 1 st position in the beginning of the race but turned to 3 rd position by the time of 6 th lap. The other best performance was seen by Pune’s boy Shubankar Joshi who completed the race with the best lap time of 2:12.918 and finished at 4 th position.