Sandeep Kumar, winner of the championship in the MRF Formula 2000 category
Sandeep Kumar and Chetan Surnineni won the MRF Formula 2000 and 1600 titles as the curtains came down on the fourth and final round of the MRF MMSC FMSCI Indian National Car Racing Championship 2023 at the Madras International Circuit on Sunday.
Also picking up the National titles in their respective categories were Gurunath Meiyappan (Race Concepts, Indian Touring Cars), Deepak Ravikumar (Performance Racing, Indian Junior Touring Cars) and T.S. Diljith (DTS Racing, Super Stock and Formula LGB 1300).
The championship battle in the MRF Formula 2000 went down to the wire. Sandeep did just enough to pick up crucial points and pip Arya Singh by three points to claim the crown. Incidentally, both the MRF F2000 races were won by Aditya Swaminathan.
Chetan Surineni, championship winner in the MRF Formula 1600 category
Likewise, Chetan won Race-1 and finished second in Race-2 behind Viswas Vijayaraj to claim the championship in the MRF F1600 category. The 48-year-old Gurunath needed just five points going into the fourth round, where he finished fourth in Race-1 and third in Race-2 to seal the ITC crown with a tally of 171 points.
The results (provisional, 8 laps unless mentioned):
MRF F2000 (Race-2, 10 laps): 1. Aditya Swaminathan (15:59.086); 2. Arya Singh (15:59.657); 3. Jaden Rahman Pariat (16:09.957). Race-3: 1. Aditya (15:54.237); 2. Jaden (15:54.507); 3. Arya (16:00.352).
MRF Formula 1600 (Race-2, 10 laps): 1. Chetan Sureneni (17:12.071); 2. Viswas Vijayaraj (17:16.562); 3. Aman Nagdev (17:19.278). Race-3: 1. Viswas (16:39.489); 2. Chetan (16:39.738); 3. Veer Sheth (16:47.179).
Indian Touring Cars (Race-1): 1. Ritesh Rai (Arka Motorsports) (15:01.439); 2. Biren Pithawalla (Team N1) (15:08.362); 3. Arjun Balu (Race Concepts) (15:08.858). Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Ritesh (22:08.620); 2. Biren (22:12.222); 3. Gurunath Meiyappan (Race Concepts) (22:23.804).
Gurunath Meiyappan, who won the title in the Indian Touring Cars category
Indian Junior Touring Cars (Race-1): 1. Deepak Ravikumar (Team Performance Racing) (15:27.357); 2. Akkineni Anand Prasad (Team Performance Racing) (15:31.118); 3. Haktim Shabbir Jamnagarwala (Team Performance Racing) (15:37.365). Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Deepak (22:34.641); 2. Akkineni Anand (22:37.484); 3. Haktim (22:37.919).
Super Stock (Race-1): 1. Zahan Commissariat (16:37.212); 2. T.S. Dilijith (DTS Racing) (16:37.615); 3. Justin Singh (Redline Racing) (16: 40.756). Race-2 (10 laps): 1. Dilijith (23:40.218); 2. Zahan (23.41.591); 3. Jarshan Anand (DB Motorsport) (23:54.807).
Formula LGB 1300 (Race-1): 1. Viswas Vijayaraj (DTS Racing) (14:53.894); 2. T.S. Diljith (DTS Racing) (14:54.251); 3. Bala Prasath (DTS Racing) (15:10.025). Race-2: 1. Dhruvh Goswami (MSport) (25:18.849); 2. M. Abhay (MSport) (25:19.081); 3. Diljith (25:23.650).
Diljith TS, winner of titles in the Super Stock and Formula LGB 1300 categories