Chinnappa dominates national racing tourney

Bengaluru racer Deepak Paul Chinnappa broke his Kari Motor Speedway jinx with a grand double in the premier Indian Touring Cars class on the concluding day of the MRF MMSC fmsci Indian National Racing Championship here on Sunday.

Sandeep Kumar (Chennai) and Karminder Singh (Delhi) shared the top spots in the two Volkswagen Ameo Cup races which produced a lot of fireworks and action.

Driving with panache and confidence, 30-year-old Chinnappa had the measure of his two main rivals from Red Rooster Performance team, Ashish Ramaswamy, winner of the first race on Saturday, and defending champion Arjun Narendran, with a dominating performance.

"I have never won at this track since making my debut in this class three seasons ago. I have had issues with my car in the past, and this weekend was only slightly better, though problematic.

"I had to deal with the loss of power steering, two gears and brakes, but fortunately, everything came together for me and helped me break the Coimbatore jinx as I had never won here before," said Chinnappa, son of two-wheeler legend Chandra Kumar Chinnappa.

In the first race, Chinnappa, who started from third, had a great start and by the end of first lap, he moved up two spots to the front and established a comfortable lead which he kept to the flag.

Behind him, Narendran who had moved from eighth to second by end of first lap and Ramaswamy, winner of Race-1 on Saturday, were involved in a tight battle. Exiting the last turn into the start-finish straight, Narendran spun viciously which dropped him to the back of the field. He fought his way back to third where he finished, behind Chinnappa and Ramaswamy.

In the next outing, Narendran, starting from pole, kept his position until the end of second lap when he ran wide exiting the last corner, and Chinnappa eased into lead to take command of the race. Narendran, who incidentally clocked the fastest laps in both the races today, then survived close attention from veteran Vidya Prakash (Prime Racing) to finish second.

--IANS

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