TVS Racing's Jagan holds off Team Honda racer Sarath in a

Riders of IDEMITSU Honda Ten10 Racing team picked up five podium finishes in both SuperSport 165 and Pro-stock165 categories in the third round of the MRF FMSCI National Racing Championship at the MMRT track at nearby Sriperumbudur Sunday.

Pole-sitter Sarath Kumar of Honda Ten10 Racing finished second behind Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) after an interesting battle in the premium SuperSport 165cc class.

Last year's champion Jagan, without a win in the first two rounds this season, closed out a very successful weekend with another dominating performance.

He, however, had to overcome a stiff fight from arch-rival Sarath, who denied TVS Racing a repeat of yesterday's 1-2 finish by pipping KY Ahamed to second place in a thrilling race.

Sarath conceded his track position soon after start with Jagan and later Ahamed moving past him.

However, Sarath fought his way back to overtake Ahamed and then hung on grimly for a well-deserved second spot while Jagan put in consistent laps to emerge a clear winner.

At the end of Round 3, Jagan leads the championship with 112 points, followed by Ahamed (91) while TVS Racing's Deepak Ravikumar who has been consistently picking up points, is in third with 74, just ahead of Sarath Kumar and his Honda team-mate Rajiv Sethu, both tied on 70.

Earlier, Prabhu Arunagiri of Team Alisha Abdullah scored his second win of the weekend in the Pro-Stock (301-400cc) category, again holding off Gusto Racing India team's Satyanarayana Raju and Amarnath Menon.

The victory took Arunagiri's tally to 89 points which placed him third in the championship behind Menon (105) and Raju (94) after three of the scheduled five rounds.

Meanwhile, 21-year old Kevin Kannan (Rockers), a mechanic from Chennai, recorded his first win of the season in the Pro-Stock 165cc class with a last lap move against leader Mithun Kumar (Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing).

It was an importnat win for Kannan as he held on to his second place on the leaderboard with 85 points behind leader Anish Shetty (101) of Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing.

Another local lad, Anand Rajendran pulled off a fine win in the Novice (Stock 165cc) race after a tough fight with championship leader Karthik Mateti (Sparks Racing) who, however, maintained his top slot on the leaderboard with 61 points, just three ahead of team-mate Aditya Rao who finished third in today's race.

Results (Provisional): Pro-Stock (301-400cc) Race-2 (8 laps): 1. Prabhu Arunagiri (Team Alisha Abdullah) (15:34.119); 2. Satyanarayana Raju (Gusto Racing India) (15:38.041); 3. Amarnath Menon (Gusto Racing India) (15:42.045).

Super Sport Indian (165cc) Race-2 (8 laps): 1.Jagan Kumar (TVS Racing) (15:39.486); 2. Sarath Kumar (Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing) (15:41.227); 3. KY Ahamed (TVS Racing) (15:41.533).

Pro-Stock (165cc) Race-2 (8 laps): 1. Kevin Kannan (Rockers Racing) (16:15.144); 2. Mithun Kumar (Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing) (16:15.222); 3. Senthil Kumar (Idemitsu Honda Ten10 Racing) (16:17.454).

Stock 165cc (Novice, 6 laps): 1. Anand Rajendran (Pvt, Chennai) (13:12.693); 2. Karthik Mateti (Sparks Racing) (13:12.855); 3. Aditya Rao (Sparks Racing) (13:14.453).

MMSC One-Make Championship (Novice) TVS (Apache RTR 200) Race-2 (5 laps): 1.Karthik Mateti (Hyderabad) (11:24.619); 2.Anand Rajendran (Chennai) (11:24.799); 3. Venkatesan I (Chennai) (11:33.121).

Idemitsu Honda India Talent Cup (CBR 250) Race-2 (6 laps): 1. Mohamed Mikail (Chennai) (13:07.613); 2. Anandhu KK (Chennai) (13:18.859); 3. Charan T (Chennai) (13:24.097).