Honda's Rajiv Sethu, Prabhu Arunagiri steal the show

Rajiv Sethu successfully led a Honda assault on TVS Racing's supremacy to score a brilliant victory over defending champion Jagan Kumar in the premier Super Sport Indian 165cc class in the fourth round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI National Motorcycle Racing Championship near here Sunday.

The victory notwithstanding, Jagan, the TVS Racing team's spearhead, garnered crucial 18 points for his second-place finish that consolidated his position at the top of the championship table with a tally of 148.

He is ahead of team-mate KY Ahamed (128), winner of the first race yesterday and who finished fourth behind Honda Ten10 Racing's Mathana Kumar in the second outing today.

In the Pro Stock 165 cc category, Rahil Pillari Shetty took the top spot ahead of Honda Ten10 Racing's Anish Shetty.

Anish was followed by Honda teammate Senthil Kumar.

Mithun Kumar, who crashed Saturday, completed the race in fifth place Sunday.

The other highlight of the day was the grand double by Prabhu Arunagiri (Team Alisha Abdullah) in the Pro-Stock 301-400cc category which is set for a grandstand finish in the final round in December.

Only five points separate the top three Satyanarayana Raju of Gusto Racing (119), team-mate Amarnath Menon (118) and Arunagiri (114).

The focus today was on the Super Sport race which turned out to be Hitchcockian thriller with pole-sitter Sethu and Jagan playing the lead roles.

Sethu lost track position early in the first lap with gearing problem which allowed Jagan to move into the front.

However, Sethu, who had finished fifth in yesterday's Race 1 after a crash, fought back to regain the lead midway through the eight-lap race and then hung on grimly to score his third win of the season.

Jagan was just one-tenth of a second adrift at the finish, but well ahead of Mathana Kumar who held off Ahamed.

"At Turn-3 in the first lap, the gears tended to slip and I had to firmly put my foot down on the pedal to avoid any more slippage. Jagan went past me, but later, I managed to pass him on the straight.

Thereafter, it was a close fight and I had a scary moment in the penultimate lap when I almost lost balance in the Bridge Complex, but managed to hold it together for the win," said Sethu.

The results (Provisional): Super Sport Indian 165cc (Race-2, 8 laps):