Keen contests likely in final round of national racing meet

: Keen battles are expected in the fifth and final round of MRF MMSC FMSCI National Racing Championship 2018 at the MMRT track at nearby Sriperumbudur from September 7 to 9, with titles up for grabs in all categories.

The busy weekend will also see races in Formula 4 South-East Asia Championship and the Caterham 7 Asian Zonal Championship with drivers from Europe and Asia on the grid.

"It has been a long season, starting in February this year. We are pleased that the number of entries has shown a significant upward trend, especially in MRF Formula 1600, Super Stock and the Formula LGB 1300," Chairman of the Meet Vicky Chandhok said in a release.

The focus would be the triple-header in the MRF Formula 1600 class where four drivers Raghul Rangasamy (134 points), Goutham Parekh (123), Sandeep Kumar (115) and Ashwin Datta (110) are in contention for for the championship with a maximum of 75 points on offer.

The championship winner will earn the right to contest in the Mazda Road To Indy shootout as part of MMSC's initiative to provide Indians an international platform to further their racing careers.

The shootout, whose winner is eligible for a scholarship of USD 200,000, will be held in the United States later this year.

The race for title is as tight in the premier Indian Touring Cars class where a maximum of 50 points are up for grabs over two races. Bengaluru's Ashish Ramaswamy of Arka Motorsports (131 points) and veteran Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) from Coimbatore (111) are the front-runners.

Not far behind them are two others from Coimbatore and Arka Motorsports team-mates Nikanth Ram (98) and defending champion Arjun Narendran (93) who missed the first two rounds, but covered a lot of ground by winning three races from four starts, besides a second-place finish.

The three other saloon car categories which have two races apiece with 50 points at stake, are also poised for a close finish. Chennai's Srinivas Teja (Performance Racing) heads the Super Stock class with 97 points, ahead of Varun Anekar (75) of Race Concepts, Bengaluru.

Raghul Rangasamy (93 points) and Erode's Vinod Subramaniam (82.5, Team N1) top the Esteem Cup standings while it is a straight fight between Namakkal's Prabhu AS (82, Arka Motorsports) and Goa's Chrys DSouza (75.5, Unimek Racing) lead in the Indian Junior Touring Cars class.

Only nine points separate the top three of Sohil Shah (126, MSport) from Bengaluru, and Chennai lads Ashwin Datta (123, Momentum Motorsports) and Nabil Hussain (117, MSport) in the popular Formula LGB 1300 category that has attracted most number of entries this season.