MRF National Racing Championship 2019 – Volkswagen aces second round
MRF National Car Racing Championship 2019 – Round two
The second round of the highly competitive MRF MMSC FMSCI National Racing Championship 2019 made for a very exciting and heated race weekend on a cloud covered Kari Motor Speedway, Coimbatore. The series is made up of three categories, the Formula LGB1300, Super Stock touring cars and the prestigious Indian Touring Cars. Volkswagen entered the ITC class with three Volkswagen turbocharged Vento touring cars driven by 2018 Ameo Cup champion Dhruv Mohite, 2015 Polo R Cup champion, Karthik Tharani and 2016 Vento Cup champ Ishaan Dodhiwala. Multiple National Racing Champion, Arjun Balu was piloting the Team Race Concepts Honda City which now sports a turbocharged motor.
Indian Touring Cars:
This race weekend was Dhruv’s debut in the ITC class driving alongside legends such as Arjun Balu. Dhruv had a spectacular qualifying session, grabbing the pole position with Arjun setting a time only milliseconds slower to start in P2. Dhruv managed to put down the power quite clean, getting a good start. Arjun lost two spots right at the start due to a miss-shift on launch. However, he then managed to charge past three racers to slot into third place behind Karthik. Ishaan was unable to make his move past Balu and stayed put to fourth. Dhruv finished in first place with teammate Karthik in a close second. Despite experiencing a host of technical issues, Arjun Balu managed to cross the line in third place.
“This is my first season in the ITC and I am happy to win my debut race. I had a good start and after opening up a good lead, I held my position as I had a team-mate (Tharani) behind me rather than a competitor,” said Dhruv Mohite.
The two races on Sunday showcased close competitions and few minor collisions in the third race. Chennai’s Karthik Tharani led the 1-2-3 finish for the Volkswagen Motorsport in the second race followed by a win in the third race beating teammate Dhruv and Race Concept’s Arjun Balu.
Formula LGB1300:
The races for the LGB 1300 category were postponed to Sunday due to heavy showers. Sohil Shah of Team M-Sport got off to a quick start and went on to finish the first race in top spot. Momentum Motor Sport’s Ashwin Data was almost seven seconds slower to the finish. Faridabad youngster, Kunal Maini finished third. Viswas Vijayaraj of DTS Racing won the second race with Ashwin right on his tail for the second spot. Sohil completed the podium. Sohil was faster this time in the last race taking the win yet again.
Super Stock:
Bengaluru-based team Race Concepts made a clean sweep in the Super Stock race with Rithvik Thomas, Prateek Benya and R Rajashekar finishing in that order. RP Rajarajan of Performance Racing won a close Super Stock race two battling R Rajashekar of Race Concepts for first place.
