Jinkawa wins as Sundar seals MRF Formula Ford 1600 title

Japan's Yuudai Jinkawa (car number 8) and Ashwin Sundar (car nuber 7) won a race apiece in the MRF Formula Ford 1600 series in the fourth round of the MMSC National Racing Championship (NRC) at the Irungattukotai circuit near Chennai on Sunday.

The win for Sundar in race two along with a fourth place in the first race gave the 24-year-old an unassailable lead in the points standings for the NRC's flagship single-seater series.

Fifteen-year-old Tarun Reddy, a winner at the previous round, endured a difficult weekend as Jinkawa passed him for the lead on the very last lap of the first race after Reddy had lead every previous lap of the 12 lap race.

Reddy then spun off the track on the opening lap of the second race while battling with Sundar, bringing out the safety car as his damaged car was taken back to the pits for retirement.

The incident packed second race was then red flagged after Kizuki Hirota failed to see the safety car board and crashed into the back of Arjun Narendran on the start-finish straight.

Hirota received a verbal assault from his father, followed by a blow on his (fortunately) helmeted head before the two were separated.

In the Indian Touring Cars category, N Leelakrishnan scored a clean sweep of all three races over the course of Saturday and Sunday.

Unlike round three, where former Indian National Rally Championship winner Gaurav Gill had agreed to race, there was no real opposition for Leelakrishnan, a former INRC champion himself.

The weekend was rounded out by a dominant performance by S Narendran who won both races in the Formula LGB4 category, as well as the overall win in the combined FLGB4 and Formula Swift grid.

Deepak Chinappa won both races in the Formula Swift category.