Close battles on cards in National Racing Championship

Battles and rivalries will be renewed this weekend when the fourth round of the Indian National Racing Championship along with the high profile MRF F1600 series is held here.

The motorpsorts event will be held at the Madras Motor Race Track (MMRT) track, which is celebrating its Silver Jubilee year.

The two-day event commencing on Saturday will witness a total of eight races marked by the popular saloon car (Super Stock, Indian Touring Cars and Indian Junior Touring Cars) and the Formula LGB1300 categories while the MRF F1600 will also be a double-header as in the previous rounds.

Arjun Narendran of Red Rooster Racing has dominated the high-end Indian Touring Cars class with four wins in five starts, while Mumbai's Fahad Kutty of Team Game Over enjoys a 20-point lead over B. Siddharth in the IJTC class.

In the Super Stock class, Varun Anekar of Race Concepts (86 points) has an excellent chance to move ahead of leader and team-mate Abhinay Bikani (93) who is skipping this round due to prior commitments.

Likewise, Mohit Aryan (Anish Racing), who has four wins in six starts, heads the Formula LGB 1300 class with 76 points, just six ahead of Chetan Korada (Wallace Sports), and the pair is expected to extend their domination.

Meanwhile, Chennai racers Karthik Tharanisingh and Gautham Parekh are locked in a fierce battle in the MRF F1600 category with only one point separating the two.

Tharanisingh has 120 points after winning three of the six races thus far while Parekh took the top spot in two outings and Arjun Narendran, who is on 97, won one race.

The two front-runners showcased their skills in the previous round in Coimbatore where the conditions were tricky due to heavy rains.

Competition in all the categories have been close and thrilling, and the trend is likely to continue over the coming weekend as the Championship heads into the home stretch with the respective leaders having to closely monitor their challengers.