Sandeep Kumar, Arjun Narendran notch up impressive wins

: Sandeep Kumar and Arjun Narendran chalked up impressive wins in the MRF F1600 and Indian Touring Cars categories respectively in the third round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI National Racing Championship at Sriperumbudur near here today.

Starting from pole position, Chennai's Sandeep Kumar, was largely untroubled though he trailed Nirmal Umashankar briefly before moving into the lead midway through the first of the eight-lap race.

Championship leader Ashwin Datta, 19, who had scored a triple in the previous round at Coimbatore, got stuck in the mid-grid bunch and finished a distant seventh in his maiden race at the MMRT while Raghul Rangasamy and Goutham Parekh came in second and third.

Arjun Narendran of Arka Motorsports, the defending champion in the Indian Touring Cars, notched up a win ahead of the seasoned Arjun Balu (Race Concepts).

Finishing behind Narendran and Balu was Bengalurus Ashish Ramaswamy (Arka Motorsports) who continues to lead the table with of 83 points.

Meanwhile, the Formula LGB 1300 double-header saw MSport team-mates Sohil Shah, 17, a schoolboy from Bengaluru and Chennai's Nabil Hussain, 19, winning a race apiece after coming through tight contests.

Hussain, thus, consolidated his top position on the leaderboard with 95 points, followed by Shah and Ashwin Datta (Momentum Motorsports), both tied on 83.

Results (Provisional - all 8 laps unless mentioned): MRF F1600 (Race 1): 1. Sandeep Kumar (13mins, 37.418sec), 2. Raghul Rangasamy (Kancheepuram) (13:40.097), 3. Goutham Parekh (Chennai) (13:40.739).

Formula LGB 1300 (Race 1): 1. Sohil Shah (15:03.149), 2. Ashwin Datta (Momentum Motorsports) (15:06.013), 3. Deepak Ravikumar (DTS Racing) (15:06.469). Race 2 (7 laps): 1. Nabil Hussain (MSport) (13:20.115), 2. Sohil Shah (13:20.567), 3. Deepak Ravikumar (DTS Racing) (13:22.308).

Indian Touring Cars (Race 1): 1. Arjun Narendran (15:12.873), 2. Arjun Balu (15:13.669), 3. Ashish Ramasamy (Arka Motorsports) (15:21.950).

Indian Junior Touring Cars (Race 1): 1. Chrys D'Souza (Unimek Racing) (17:08.455); 2. Prabhu AS (Arka Motors) (17:42.363).

Super Stock (Race 1): 1. Varun Anekar (Race Concepts) (15:59.936), 2. Abhinay Bikkani (Race Concepts)(16:06.246), 3. K Srinivas Teja (Performance Racing)(16:20.505).

Esteem Cup (Race 1): 1. Vinod Subramaniam (Team N1) (16:43.970), 2. Raghul Rangasamy (Performance Racing) (17:03.467), 3. Alisha Abdullah (Infinite Piston) (17:34.220).

Turbo (Support Race 1): 1. Karthik Tharani (Chennai) (15:26.086), 2. Rayomand Banajee (Mumbai) (15:41.006), 3. Ishaan Dodhiwala (Hyderabad) (15:42.859).

Volkswagen Ameo Cup (Race 1): 1. Saurav Bandyopadhyay (Thane) (15:49.436), 2. Anmol Singh Sahil (Ghaziabad) (15:54.147), 3. Dhruv Mohite (Kohlapur) (15:54.203).