National Racing: Reddy wins as Naredran wraps up touring car crown

Reported by: Rachit Thukral

MRF FORMULA FORD 1600: REDDY CLOSES IN ON TITLE WITH RACE ONE WIN

Chennai-born Tarun Reddy looks sets to clinch the MRF Formula 1600 category of National Racing Championship with a lights to flag victory during the first race of the weekend at Greater Noida's Buddh International Circuit.

An untimely bout of dengue fever led to Mumbai-based Advait Deodhar - Reddy's closest challenger for the title - to miss the trip to the National Racing finale. Reddy is expected to wrap up the title soon

The 16 year old has already been acknowledged as one of India’s rising motorsport talent, with a Formula Renault drive under his belt.

Meanwhile, Lee Kashav Gupta in the #42 car finished a distant second, five seconds down on race winner Reddy, but less than a second ahead of third place finisher Kartik Tarani Singh.

Siddharth Truvellore and Niranjan Todkari were indulged in their own battles, away from the top three, with the former eventually coming out on top around the 5.1km circuit.

Competing as a guest driver autoX magazine’s Dhurv Behl (red #3 car) finished in sixth place with a strong drive from 10th on the grid.

Hamish Robinson will have the reverse grid pole for the second race tomorrow after taking eighth at the chequered flag. Abhinay Bhikani will accompany him on the front row of the grid.

TOURING CARS: BIG FOOT RACING MILES AHEAD IN ITC

Arjun Narendran took his first ever title when he sealed the Indian Touring Car Championship with 2 wins at the National Racing Championship. The battle for supremacy in the Indian Junior Touring Car (IJTC) will come down to the last race after reigning champion Feroze Khan won ahead of Siddharth B and VJ Senthil to keep lead by 3 points.

Big foot racing dominated the senior category of Indian Touring Car championship with a one-two finish during the first round and a podium lockout during the other rounds held today at BIC. At each of the two rounds, Arjun Narendran was the first to take the chequered flag with Ashish Ramaswamy taking the runners up position. Sivaramakrishan made up for his DNF during the first race with a podium finish in the second.

In the junior touring car category, Bala Vijay led the way during both the races for Chennai Performance Racing, beating Gas Monkey Motorsports’ Joel Joseph in the first race and his very own teammate to Raja Rajan in the the second race to complete a Saturday sweepover.

TOYOTA ETIOS MOTOR RACING: ANEKAR AHEAD IN TOYOTA ETIOS RACE BY SLIGHTEST OF MARGINS

The third racing series on the National Racing card saw some close racing. The second Toyota Etios race provided us with of the closest finishes with Varun V Anekar beating Dean Mascarenhas by 0.011 in a race long battle for supremacy. The two went side-by-side for the entire sixth lap with Anekar in the #3 Toyota eventually emerging victorious.

In the first race, Anekar enjoyed a slightly bigger winning margin of half a second over Hisham in the #16 Etios. The aforementioned Dean Mascarenhas was third in the first of the four races scheduled at the Buddh International Circuit.