Jagan, Sofyyan shine at national racing tourney

Jagan Kumar of TVS Racing and local Sofyyan Ahamed of Quick Shift Racing achieved a double each in the first round of the Indian National Drag Racing Championship at the Taneja Aerospace facility near here on Saturday.

Jagan, who hails from Chennai, was riding the TVS RTR Apache. He got into his stride by clocking 14.250 seconds for the 400 metre sprint in the 165cc class.

Later, he took the honours in the Indian Open class with a time of 13.484 seconds which was the quickest in the national championship category.

"I could have probably clocked a better timing had I reacted to the start lights faster. I am not used to having lights so low. So, my reaction time was a bit slow, and I also did a wheelie unintentionally, but it was a good run nevertheless," Jagan, the reigning national track racing champion, said later.

Emulating the double was Sofyyan Ahamed who topped in the 360cc and 225cc classes.

"I was much quicker in a recent drag race here, but today, I had some issues with the clutch and hence was a bit slower. But I am happy to have won a double as the competition was stiff," Sofyyan said.

Kalim Pasha (Indian Open), Attaullah Baiq (350cc), Md Touheed (165cc) and Khalid Pasha (130cc) won in their respective classes in the the MMSC Drag Race series which doubled up as the support event.

The championship will conclude on Sunday when the superbikes and cars get into action.

--IANS

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