Jagan wins sixth straight National Motorcycle Racing Championship

Chennai Oct 1 (IANS) TVS Racings mascot Jagan Kumar notched his sixth straight title in the premier Super Sport Indian (165cc) class on a rain-affected day to bring down the curtain on the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Motorcycle Racing Championship 2017 at the MMRT track here on Sunday.

The day s original programme of seven races looked to be in jeopardy following a massive downpour in the early hours of today.

However the Madras Motor Sports Club officials came up with a herculean effort to get the club circuit (short loop 2.1 km) ready for racing with the full circuit (3.7 km) not available due to water-logging.

Thus three of the seven races were cancelled since the championships in those categories were already decided.

The changes had little impact on Jagan. Going into Sunday s race he enjoyed a six-point lead over Honda Ten10 Racing s Rajiv Sethu but the expected challenge did not materialize as the latter crashed at Turn-2 in the very first lap.

Thereafter Jagan was on a cruise mode and seemed content to finish second behind Sethu s team-mate Mathana Kumar who eased past in the last lap. Harry Sylvester (TVS Racing) came in third.

It was a splendid comeback by Jagan who at one point in the season trailed Sethu by 33 points but three back-to-back wins including one yesterday put the TVS Racing rider s campaign back on track as he clinched the title in this class previously known as "Group B" for the sixth year in a row by a comfortable 24-point margin.

Aravind Balakrishnan (Honda Ten10 Racing) took the title in the Pro-Stock class though he finished a distant eighth in the race won by his team-mate Anish Shetty. Balakrishnan thus finished with 138 points 13 ahead of Aravind Ganesh (Moto-Rev).

The National champions: Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing Super Sport Indian 165cc) Aravind Balakrishnan (Honda Ten10 Racing Pro-Stock) Amarnath Menon (Gusto Racing Super Sport Indian 300-400cc) Sai Rahil Pillarishetty (Sparks Racing Novice 165cc) Aishwarya Pissay (Apex Racing Girls 165cc).

Team championship: Gusto Racing (Super Sport Indian 300-400cc); TVS Racing (Super Sport Indian 165cc); Honda Ten10 Racing (Pro-Stock); Sparks Racing (Novice 165cc); Apex Racing (Girls 165cc).

MMSC One-Make Championship winners: Rajiv Sethu (Honda CBR 250) Satyanarayana Raju (Sparks Racing Honda CBR 150) S Sivanesan (TVS Apache RTR 200 Open) Anup Kumar (TVS Novice) and Nitish Kumar (Yamaha R15 Novice).

--IANS
sam/dg