CHENNAI:
It was a record Sunday for IDEMITSU Honda Ten10 Racing team as curtains came down on Round 4 of MMSC FMSCI Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2019.
IDEMITSU Honda Ten10 Racing extended its brand leadership even further in both PS165cc class and PS201-300cc classes. The IDEMITSU Honda Ten10 Racing team made a clean sweep in PS 165cc class with Rajiv winning his 6th straight race, Sarath Kumar closely trailing him and Kannan completing the Honda podium finish. The trio of IDEMITSU Honda Ten10 Racing riders – Anish Shetty (1st), Abhisehk V. (2nd) and Aravind B. (3rd) rounded off the podium finish in ProStock 201-300 category.
With this Honda is now leading both PS165cc and PS201-300cc class championships across all Manufacturer, Team and Rider. Rajiv with his glorious run has amassed 150 points with 56 point lead over the 2nd position Sarath. The IDEMITSU Honda Ten10 Racing team with 304 points has a solid 99 points lead in team category and Honda leads the championship in manufacturer class too.
Speaking on Honda’s performance in Round 4, Prabhu Nagaraj, Vice President – Brand and Communications, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India Pvt. Ltd. said, “Round 4 has added 10 more podiums including 4 wins to Honda’s championship kitty. Both Rajiv and Anish are leading with their right race-craft. Whats most promising is that our riders are now not challenging competition, but themselves. While Rajiv broke his best ever lap time record in this round with 1:56:894 in the qualifying, our young blood Mikail broke the fastest lap time record of 250cc on the MMRT track with 1:47:823. Both our 19 Talent Hunt riders and 17 boys riding Honda machines in national classes are the face of next-generation of motorsport. While the round ends today, the challenge continues as IDEMITSU Honda Racing India now gets ready to battle with asia’s best riders in Malaysia in next fortnight.”
Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship
Pro-Stock 165cc: Race2 saw IDEMITSU Honda India Ten10 racing team’s Rajiv Sethu, Sarath Kumar & K. Kannan haul in the 1-2-3 podium finish in PS165cc category. Today the battle for glory stretched upto the chequered flag. While it was Sarath who led lap 1 to 3, Rajiv turned the tables in lap4 only to see Sarath reverse his gains in the next lap. The status quo continued till the last lap when Rajiv’s quick overtake made him the first to cross the chequered line with total lap time of 16:04:365; just 0.343 seconds ahead of Sarath at 16:04.708 seconds. Making the joy triple was K. Kannan who ensured IDEMITSU Honda Ten10 dominance on the podium with his 3rd finish at 16:17.731 seconds.
PS201-300: Scoring impressive win in today’s race again was Bengaluru boy Anish Shetty who led a podium sweep for IDEMITSU Honda Ten10 racing team along with the team mates Abhishek V (2nd) & Aravind B. (3rd) in PS201-300cc category. Anish’s aggressive performance on the track today helped him to achieve his 5th consecutive win with total time of 16:08.27.
19 young guns lead the charge with IDEMITSU Honda India Talent Cup
NSF250R: Meanwhile, the weekend’s 3rd race of NSF250R saw yet another record breaking performance by 15 year old Chennai boy Md. Mikail who grabbed his 6th NSF class win and also broke the fastest best lap record of 250cc on MMRT with his trailblazing 1:47.823. While Mikhail led the race with 11.62 second gap, the battle raged on for 2nd spot between 14 year old Geoffrey & 19 year old Kritik who finally finished 2nd & 3rd respectively. After today’s race, mikhail leads the NSF250R championship with 150 points, followed by Kavin Quintal (102 points), Kritik Habib (94 points), Varoon (85 points), Geoffrey (79 points) in top 5.
CBR150R: Today’s race saw a repeated show by top 3 riders of yesterday’s race. Starting the race from 4th, Aizawl boy Lal Nunsanga made his way to first position in first lap itself and continued to maintain his lead till the finish line. Crossing the chequered line in 13:13.907 seconds, Lal Nunsanga marks his 5th victory of the season in CBR150R class. With just 1.652 seconds behind Lal Nunsanga, 19 year old Samuel Martin finished 2nd followed by S Rajdaswanth who completed the podium at 3rd position. After this round, Lal Nunsanga leads the CBR150R class with 161 points while Samuel Martin (138 points) jumps to 2nd position and Lalrinuala Tlau (123points) is now at 3rd position followed by S Rajdaswanth (86 points) at 4th and S Deepak kumar (71 points) at 5th.
