National bike racing: Super Sarath makes memorable return

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Sarath Kumar enjoyed a memorable return to domestic circuit as he won a thrilling race in the third round of the Sidvin-FMSCI national bike racing championship here at the Irungattukottai track on Saturday.

TheChennai rider, representing MP Ten10 Racing, pipped Moto-Rev duo of A. Prabhu and D. Dinesh Kumar to come home on top in the Honda CBR 250 class.

The top three were separated by one-tenth of a second after completing 10 laps on a 2.1km circuit. The last time Sarath stood on top of the podium was two years back in the Group B (165cc) category.

Sarath had his task cut out after qualifying fifth on a wet and slippery track – result of a heavy overnight downpour.

But Sarath slowly-yet-steadily clawed his way up to take the lead in the seventh lap as he showed his experience of competing in international races.

Sarath said the disappointing qualifying session — 3.5 seconds off the pace — was a result of a wrong suspension set-up. “While the track was still wet after overnight rain, I went in with a dry suspension set-up in the morning.

Owing to that mistake, I was sliding in all corners and had to settle for fifth,” said Sarath, the first Indian to compete at MotoGP (125cc), the pinnacle of two-wheeler racing.

Pole-sitter Sumit Lucas Toppo led Performance Racing’s 1-2 finish in the Group C 165cc (restricted modifications) with his teammate S. Rajkumar moving up the order impressively from fifth to finish on podium.

Championship leader Shyam Shankar of Moto-Rev India had to be content with third place after starting alongside Sumit in the front row.

The fiercely-contested class, with as many as 16 bikes on the grid, produced a lot of entertainment and it had to be red-flagged after Moto-Rev rider A. Prabhu, who started third, suffered a crash during the third lap.

As usual, K. Rajini made it a no contest in the Superbike 600cc race with an authoritative win. The seasoned rider was so dominant that he overlapped a couple of his hapless rivals before taking the chequered flag.

Rajini looked relaxed on track as he was spotted posing for photographers in corners waving hands and lifting legs. Rajini’s teammate M. Gautham, who finished third in all the four previous races, finally managed to edge past R. Deepak for second spot.

Results

Superbikes (600cc): 1. K. Rajini (Moto-Rev); 2. M. Gautham (Moto-Rev); 3. R. Deepak (Preethi). Group C 165cc: 1. Sumit Lucas Toppo (Performance); 2. S. Rajkumar (Performance); 3. Shyam Shankar (Moto-Rev). CBR 250R Open: 1. Sarath Kumar (Ten10); 2. A. Prabhu (Moto-Rev); 3. D. Dinesh Kumar (Moto-Rev). TVS Apache RTR 180 open: 1. Ananth Raj (Chennai); 2. Thamarai Kannan (Chennai); 3. Rajesh Rathina Kumar (Chennai). TVS Apache RTR 180 novice: 1. Abdul Wahab (Chennai); 2. Prasanth Kumar (AP); 3. Arun Muthukrishnan (Chennai). CB Twister novice: 1. Md. Intekhab Alam (Jharkhand); 2. E. Saravanan (Chennai); 3. Settu Babu (Vellore). Yamaha R15 novice: 1. Arun Muthukrishnan (Chennai); 2. P. Sandesh (Bangalore); 3. Meka Vidhuraj (AP).