National Racing: Double for Narendran

S. Narendran of Wallace Sports achieved a grand double by winning both the races in the Formula LGB4 and Swift categories in the second round of the MMSC-FMSCI National Racing Championship here Sunday.

Starting on pole position, Narendran made it a start-to-finish affair to win comfortably from Jigar Muni and Sudanand Rajan in the first race and the trio finished in the same order in the second outing later in the day.

Japanese driver Yudai Jinkawa won the Race 2 of the MRF Formula 1600 category ahead of Sudarshan Rao and championship leader Ashwin Sundar who fought his way to the podium after starting last on the grid while Saturday's Race 1 runner-up, the 15-year old Tarun Reddy came in fifth behind Vikash Anand. Race 1 winner, Kizuku Hirota of Japan, did not start the second race.

The two races in the Indian Touring Car category were closely contested. While N. Leelakrishnan took the honours in the first race, Arjun Balu, the 2012 champion, won the second outing.

Race 1 of the ITC saw Arjun Narendran and Balu starting on the front row. Both got off the line really well and had a great battle in the first half of the race with Leelakrishnan right behind them.

The leaders then collided costing both track positions and Leelakrishnan slipped past the battling duo to win the race with Ramnarayan in second and Balu fighting back to finish in third place.

In the second race, Arjun Balu had a great start and went into the lead with Arjun Narendran passing Ramnarayan on lap 3. From there on, it was a close battle between the two Arjuns. It was as close as it could get on the last lap with Balu just winning by 0.048secs in one of the closest ever finishes in the ITC history.

The results:

MRF Formula 1600 (Race 1, 12 laps): Kizuku Hirota (JPN) 1 (13mins, 13.748secs); Tarun Reddy 2 (13:15.729); Sudarshan Rao 3 (13:16.542). Race 2 (15 laps): Yudai Jinkawa (JPN) 1 (16:17.175); Sudarshan Rao 2 (16:21.557); Ashwin Sundar 3 (16:34.644).

Indian Touring Cars (Race 1, 10 laps): N Leelakrishnan 1 (17:29.851); V Ramnarayan 2 (17:38.206); Arjun Balu 3 (17:38.385). Race 2 (12 laps): Arjun Balu 1 (14:36.673); Arjun Narendran 2 (14:36.721); V Ramnarayan 3 (14:46.955).

Indian Junior Touring Cars (Race 1, 10 laps): Mihir Dharkar 1 (13:02.015); Gokul Krishna 2 (13:04.029); Charen Chandran 3 (13:11.161). Race 2 (10 laps): Gokul Krishna 1 (13:52.451); Charen Chandran 2 14:53.857); Mihir Dharkar 3 (13:55.152).

Formula LGB4/Swift (Race 1, 10 laps): S Narendran 1 (16:53.756); Jigar Muni 2 (16:58.229); Sudanand Rajan 3 (16:59.262). Race 2 (10 laps): S Narendran 1 (12:20.853); Jigar Muni 2 (12:27.853); Sudanand Rajan 3 (12:28.413).