Japan's Hirota wins MRF 1600 Race 1

Japanese driver Kizuki Hirota won on debut in the MRF 1600 at Round 2 of the MMSC-FMSCI National Racing Championship at the Kari Motor Speedway here Saturday.

Tarun Reddy, 15, in only his second race weekend finished behind the Japanese driver after claiming his first ever pole position earlier in the day.

Mihir Dharkar took his first ever Indian Junior Touring Cars (IJTC) win in the second race of the day.

The day ended early after a big crash in the Formula LGB4 and Formula Swift race which resulted in three people getting injured on the pit wall. The on-site doctors were quick to confirm that all three were recovering well.

Round 2 kicked off with qualifying for MRF 1600 where former national karting champion Reddy surprised everyone by putting his car on pole in his second ever outing in a single-seater car, ahead of Hirota and Sudarshan Rao.

Reddy had a good start and managed to keep Hirota and Rao behind him. Championship leader Ashwin Sundar, who qualified fifth, drove brilliantly to pass four cars in front of him and take the lead on the 11th lap. On the next lap Ashwin and Reddy touched, putting the former out of the race and bringing out the red flag.

At the restart Hirota passed Reddy into the first corner and went on to win the race. Rao finished third. Reddy will score maximum points as Hirota is an international driver.

The second race of the day was the IJTC with Mihir on pole position ahead of Gokul Krishna and Sreeram. Mihir had a great start and managed to hold on to the lead ahead of Gokul. The race finished with Mihir winning ahead of Gokul with Charen Chandran taking the final podium spot ahead of championship leader Feroze Khan.

The final race of the day was the Formula LGB4 and Swift.

S. Narendran qualified on pole ahead of Deepak Chinnapa and Kartik Krishna. The race was red flagged on Lap 2 after an incident at the end of Lap 1. The leaders slowed down on the start-finish straight but with the pack bunched up, many drivers could not stop in time, causing a crash. All drivers walked away from their cars.

The Indian Touring Car will have both races Sunday. Arjun Narendran took his first pole of the season ahead of championship leader Arjun Balu and Ramnarayan.