Chinnappa shines at national racing tourney

Bengaluru's Deepak Paul Chinnappa denied favourite Arjun Narendran from Coimbatore a clean sweep in the Indian Touring Cars class by winning the third outing at the Indian National Racing Championship at the MMRT track here on Sunday.

Equally impressive performances came from Chennai competitor Vikash Anand who scored a double in the MRF F1600 class as also Raghul Rangasamy who won both the races in the F1300 Rookie Championship. Mumbai's Ananth Pithawalla won the Indian Junior Touring Cars race and private entrant Deepak Ravikumar took the honours in the Super Stock category.

Starting second, Chinnappa eased past pole position holder Ashish Ramaswamy when the lights went off and built up a commanding lead. Meanwhile, Narendran, who had won both the previous races, did well to move to third after starting last on the grid and then went past Ramaswamy to slot in behind Chinnappa, but could not gain another place. Ramaswamy finished third.

"I had a good start and managed to build a big lead. I was concerned about preserving the tyres which were wearing out fast, and over the last few laps, I had to brake at least 150 metres earlier than normal, but the early lead helped me to maintain my track position to win," said the 29-year old Chinnappa, who thus chalked up his second win in eight starts this season.

For Vikash Anand, it was a roller coaster day. After having won the first race on Saturday, Anand struggled in the second on Sunday and finished a distant sixth after a couple of off-track excursions while Hyderabad's Anindith Reddy took the honours. However, Anand managed to gather himself and win the third race for a double.

The Indian Junior Touring Cars race saw a straight battle between the two championship contenders Ananth Pithawalla from Mumbai and Keith D'souza with the former coming through while Deepak Ravikumar, a private entrant, topped in the Super Stock category that was run concurrently with the IJTC grid.

Raghul Rangasamy expectedly won the F1300 Rookie Championship race to complete a double despite going off the track when leading midway through the eight-lapper.

Meanwhile, Ishaan Dodhiwala and Niranjan Todkari emerged winners in the two Volkswagen Vento Cup races in contrasting styles. Dodhiwala came up with a fine move to get past front-runner and guest driver from China Li Li Huiwei on the last lap while Todkari enjoyed a lights-to-flag win.

--IANS

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