Aryan, Kutty win top honours in racing championship

Mohit Aryan of Anish Racing team comfortably won the opening race in the Formula LGB 1300 class with ease to start his weekend in the third round of the Indian National Racing Championship on a rousing note here on Saturday.

In Indian Junior Touring Cars race, experienced 29-year old Fahad Kutty from Mumbai's Team Game Over, took the honours after starting third on the grid while Abhinay Bikkani from Bengaluru, representing Team Race Concepts, topped in the Super Stock class.

Earlier, in the MRF FF1600 class, Goutham Parekh stunned his rivals to claim a dominating pole position. Parekh started in a perfect manner with his title rivals Arjun Narendran and Karthik Tharani Singh qualifying in third and fifth positions, respectively, while Chetan Korada had his best qualifying session of the series and will start in second place.

In the Indian Touring Cars class qualifying, championship leader Arjun Narendran of Red Rooster Racing gained pole position with a timing of 01:09.120 and looked good enough to increase his gap on the leaderboard.

Earlier, starting from pole position, 24-year old Aryan from Chennai, was off the blocks quickly and built up a good lead which he gradually increased over 12 laps for an untroubled victory.

Equally facile was Kutty's victory as he slipped into second position at Turn-1 of the first lap and then went past pole-sitter Sudanand Rajan into the lead. Thereafter, Kutty stepped up the pace to widen the gap while the rest scrapped behind him and chalked up a fluent win.

In the MRF FF1600 qualifying session, Parekh was fastest all through and just got faster as the session went on. On his last lap, he crossed the line in 1minute, 03.848 seconds to confirm his pole position and become the only driver to dip under the 01:04 barrier.

Korada clocked 1:04.397, almost half a second off Parekh. Narendran also left it late and just missed out on a front row start after timing a 1:04.408.

Tejas Ram, only 18, was the surprise of the day after qualifying in fourth position in only his third race weekend. His lap was quick enough to bump Championship leader Tharani Singh to the third row on the grid and in fifth position. Behind him was newcomer Anindith Reddy and actor Jai.

Parekh said: "I am very happy to be on pole position and would like to thank entire MRF team for making this possible. In the morning grip levels were low, but it improved dramatically for qualifying and the car felt great. The start will be important so will make sure I get off the line quickly and take it after that."

Tharani leads the Championship with 80 points with Parekh in second on 76 followed by 2014 Indian Touring Car Champion Narendran (70).

The results (provisional):

Formula LGB 1300 (Race 1 - 12 laps): Mohit Arya (Anish Racing) 1 (14mins, 08.646secs); Prashanth (Wallace Sports) 2 (14:16.248); Chetan Korada (Wallace Sports) 3 (14:21.027).

Indian Junior Touring Cars (Race 1 - 12 laps): Fahad Kutty (Team Game Over) 1 (15:21.076); Siddharth B (Red Rooster Racing) 2 (15:25.437); Anant Pithawala (Team N1) 3 (15:27.015).

Super Stock (Race 1 - 12 laps): Abhinay Bikkani (Race Concepts) 1 (15:37.084); Varun Anekar (Race Concepts) 2 (15:45.922); Kashif Kapadia (Team Game Over) 3 (16:22.758).

Qualifying - MRF F1600: Goutham Parekh (Chennai) 1 (01min, 3.827secs); Chetan Korada (Chennai) 2 (01:04:397); Arjun Narendran (Coimbatore) 3 (01:04.408).

Indian Touring Cars: Arjun Narendran (Red Rooster Racing) 1 (01:09.120); Deepak Paul Chinnappa (Race Concepts) 2 (01:09.727); C Rajaram (Prime Racing) 3 (01:09.961).