Bengaluru schoolboy shines in national racing meet

Bengaluru schoolboy Yash Aradhya stole the show, winning his maiden race in the MRF F1600 class in the fourth round of the MRF-MMSC FMSCI National Racing Championship near here today.

Aradhya, who celebrated his 17th birthday recently, started the third race from third position on the grid, but within two laps, hit the front, getting past pole-sitter Goutham Parekh and Sandeep Kumar before defending his position to score a memorable win.

Earlier, Parekh comfortably won second race of the class.

After the weekend's triple-header, Raghul Rangasamy with a win in the first race yesterday leads the MRF F1600 championship with 134 points, ahead of Parekh (129), Ashwin Datta (110) and Sandeep Kumar (109).

The winner of the championship will earn a ticket to the Mazda Road To Indy Shootout in the United States later this year.

The second race of the Indian Touring Cars class saw another tight battle between last year's champion Arjun Narendran (Arka Motorsports) and Arjun Balu (Race Concepts).

The two Coimbatore drivers were locked in a close fight with Narendran, who had finished second behind Balu in yesterday's first race, managing to exact revenge, but not before the two came together twice in the eight-lap race.

Balu, who led initially after starting from pole position, ran wide after a contact with Narendran who then survived another brush towards the end of the race.

With two more races remaining in the final round of the championship next month, Bengaluru's Ashish Ramaswamy (Arka Motorsports) continues to lead with 131 points following two podium finishes this weekend while Balu is placed second on 111.

Bengaluru's 27-year old Varun Anekar completed a double in the Super Stock category of saloon cars to lead the championship in this category with five wins in six starts.

Results (Provisional, all 8 laps unless mentioned):
MRF F1600 (Race-2, 7 laps):
1. Goutham Parekh (Chennai) (11mins, 55.958secs);
2.Sandeep Kumar (Chennai) (11:59.036);
Race-3:
1. Yash Aradhya (Bengaluru) (13:38.672);
2. Goutham Parekh (13:39.045);
Indian Touring Cars (Race-2):
1. Arjun Narendran (15:18.697);
2. Arjun Balu (15:18.972);
Turbo (Race-2):
1. Karthik Tharani (VW Motorsport)(15:26.584);
2. Rayomand Banajee (VW Motorsport)(15:40.368);
Super Stock (Race-2):
1. Varun Anekar (Race Concepts) (15:47.827);
2.Srinivas Teja (Performance Racing) (16:25.497);
Indian Junior Touring Cars (Race-2):
2. Chris Desouza (Unimek Racing ) (16:59.674);
Esteem Cup (Race-2):
1. Biren Pithawala (Team N1) (16:45.958);
2. Raghul Rangasamy (Performance Racing) (16:56.231);
Volkswagen Ameo Cup (Race-2):
1. Shubhomoy Ball (Bengaluru) (15:40.496);
2. Affan Sadat Safwan Islam (Chittagong)(15:41.536);
Race-3:
1. Dhruv Mohite (15:38.206);
2. Saurav Bandyopadhyay (Mumbai) (15:45.963);