Chennai, Feb 13 (Inditop.com) Young David Jones yet again destroyed the Superbikes (600cc) field to clinch the championship in his class at the MRF Challenge races here Saturday.
Astride a Triumph, the 20-year old Jones rocketed to a fine start and by the end of first of the 15 laps, had taken a massive lead that he stretched before easing off towards the end for his fifth win in as many races.
Meanwhile, the Touring Car race produced some dramatic action in the Race Star Cup class with several vehicles making contact on the tricky turn-2 and 3 sections, even as Vizag’s Sailesh Bolisetti, driving a Radha Selvaraj-tuned Esteem, scored another emphatic win in the cc-to-weight class.
Biker-turned four-wheeler racer B. Balavijay took the honours in the Race Star Cup after surviving an action-packed seven laps that was an Indian version of Demolition Derby.
Earlier, the Indian riders got into the act with veteran Sriskandarajah (Group B) and P. Deva Kumar (Group D) taking the honours in the 165cc class.
Competition in the Underbones was pretty tight with Sarath Kumar (135cc) and S. Padmanabhan (115cc) just about surviving to take the honours.
The day began with qualifying rounds and the focus was on the Formula 1600 class where Parthiva Sureshwaren (one minute, 41.854 seconds) returning to the track where he first hit the headlines as a teenager over a decade ago, topped the time charts ahead of championship leader Ashwin Sundar (1:41.972), Aussie Chris Wootton (1:42.331) and National Rally champion Gaurav Gill (1:42.447).
The results:
Superbikes (600cc, 15 laps): Foreign – 1. David Jones (17:35.366); 2. Gavin Hunt (18:00.919); 3. Jules Croft (18:28.506). Indian – 1. A Satish Kumar (18:34.163); 2. M Gautham (18:54.543); 3. Alok Shashidhar (18:55.121).
Bikes (165cc) – Group D (7 laps): 1. Sriskandarajah (15:30.572); 2. Shyam Shankar (15:31.178); 3. S Sarath Kumar (15:31.294). Group B: 1. P Deva Kumar (15:00.621); 2. K Umesh Babu (15:09.434).
Underbones (135cc, 7 laps): 1. Sarath Kumar (16mins, 40.557secs); 2. M Sudhakar (16:40.749); 3. Sumit Lucas Toppo (16:53.177). 115cc: 1. S Padmanabhan (17:35.483); 2. Naveen Raj (17:41.610); 3. SK Prakash (17:41.882).
Touring cars (8 laps): Super Saloons (cc to weight) – 1. Sailesh Bolisetti (16:53.706); 2. Nithvin S Ravindran (17:05.031); 3. M Sivaramakrishnan (17:09.543). Race Star Cup: 1. B Balavijay (18:38.629); 2. Mohd Fahad S Kutty (18:39.552); 3. Deepak Paul Chinnappa (18:40.595).
rounak